Mathayom 6 students struggle in O-Net test

[webfact]

Mathayom 6 students struggle in O-Net test
By The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- The Mathayom 6 students nationwide only managed to pass one of five subjects on average – Thai – for the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net).

 

Over 378,000 students took the exam for the 2016 academic year, which is used to assess their knowledge in five core subjects.

According to the results released by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (Niets) on Monday, the lowest average score of 24.88 was in mathematics followed by English (27.76). 

 

The average score for social studies, religion and culture was 35.89, while the average score for general science was 31.62. For Thai it was 52.29.

 

Niets director Samphan Phanphruek said the average scores for Thai and English were an improvement on the previous year.

That year the average scores were 49.36 (Thai), 39.70 (social studies), 24.98 (English), 26.59 (maths) and 33.40 (general science).

 

Samphan said the 2016 test results showed that students from schools located in the city areas got higher scores than students in rural schools in all subjects, while students from Bangkok schools scored higher than their peers in other regions in all subjects. 

 

He said Niets had produced the test result reports for individual students, schools, educational area offices and educational regions in a bid to improve the quality of teaching and students’ ability to learn.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30309764

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-21

[canopus1969]

social studies, religion and culture are 'core' subjects ?  No wonder the poor kids did so badly           

[Fleafreethree]

Quote

students from schools located in the city areas got higher scores than students in rural schools in all subjects, while students from Bangkok schools scored higher than their peers in other regions in all subjects. 

Mission accomplished then. I think everyone at NIETS can look forward to a little something extra at the end of the year.

Actually, I've just being some work on the English O-NET. It's not surprising that virtually no students pass (the average is very misleading as the distribution is very right skewed so the stats are worse that they appear) - the exam is at a level of difficulty which is way beyond the already very optimistic goals which the Ministry of Education have for the English ability of high-school leavers. In fact, the average English graduate from a mid-range Thai university would be extremely unlikely to pass.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Fleafreethree

[jollyhangmon]

Same old, same old ... can't be much of a surprise to anyone who ever sat half an hr in a local classroom.

Okay, higher than Kindergarten ... 

[biggles45]

 The really disturbing part is that only around 50% passed in Thai Language tests !!

[Fleafreethree]

9 minutes ago, biggles45 said:

 The really disturbing part is that only around 50% passed in Thai Language tests !!

Whilst Thai high-school students typically finish their schooling a good two years (or more) behind where they should be, the O-NET exams are criminally bad; it's not the students one should blame here. 

[timewilltell]

Considering Thailand invests a huge amount if money per head in their education budget compared to most ASEAN countries these results are nothing short of scandalous. Dump the Thai directors and ministry officials and hire some top level Singaporean educators to take over for a few years. Thais are obviously far too corrupt and ignorant to bring about the change Thsi childten sorely need. Or maybe all that money is being used to make sure Thai children stay ignorant and incapable of using their brains so the elite can manipulate them and sustain their corrupt and treasonous lifestyle 

[bkkgriz]

1 hour ago, Fleafreethree said:

Mission accomplished then. I think everyone at NIETS can look forward to a little something extra at the end of the year.

Actually, I've just being some work on the English O-NET. It's not surprising that virtually no students pass (the average is very misleading as the distribution is very right skewed so the stats are worse that they appear) - the exam is at a level of difficulty which is way beyond the already very optimistic goals which the Ministry of Education have for the English ability of high-school leavers. In fact, the average English graduate from a mid-range Thai university would be extremely unlikely to pass.

 

Agreed. Not only is the test too difficult, but many of the questions are poorly written and confusing. It's been a few years since I have seen the test, but I'm sure it hasn't changed much. 

[Fleafreethree]

10 minutes ago, bkkgriz said:

Agreed. Not only is the test too difficult, but many of the questions are poorly written and confusing. It's been a few years since I have seen the test, but I'm sure it hasn't changed much. 

Quite. Questions might have two or more correct answers (or none at all) or they might test on areas which are nothing to do with the subject being examined. One of the Thai papers I saw had a question on eating behaviours (eating with your mouth open, chopping your food up into small pieces, etc.) and then asked which was the most hygienic. On one of the English papers, there was a question along the lines of, "Your car does 12 kilometres to the litre. You are going to drive 550 kilometres. How much petrol do you need?" The exam writers don't seem to understand the difference between a question which tests in English and a question which tests English.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Fleafreethree

[dinsdale]

Looked at last yrs for Matayom 3. Most students wouldn't understand the question let alone answer it correctly. My P6 and M3 students were pulled out of all classes for one month to study for this. Absolutely f*******k*****n ridiculous. Schools pay money to get tutors in just for this. I would like to give the M6 test to the leaders of this country. See what the pass rate is. Is there a subject that teaches corruption? Pass that with flying colours I bet. 

[rebo]

One more in the list of hubs ...
Hub of thickheads ...

[SteveB2]

If it's any consolation, I sat the Thai national curriculum Pratum exams on the 18th March. Damn - the questions were also very confusing with several possible correct answers for many questions... I'm sure it wasn't all caused by my crap Thai read/write skills. I'll get my results in a couple of weeks time. 

 

If my suspicions are anything to go by, I reckon on being stuck in 'Junior High' for another year... at the tender age of 56 

 

[DavisH]

The english test aside, thee is a mismatch between regular issue government textbooks and the level of questions in the exams. I've been going over the the M3 and M6 mathematics exams recently. There's nothing really all that wrong with the questions. The problem is that most of the questions are generally quite difficult and are only a challenge for the top 20% of students in a class. The rest of the students are just guessing and ticking a box. The tests are not well balanced in that regard. They should be testing a range of skills and knowledge, with some easier, mid, and harder problems. I'm extracting most of these questions and integrating them into my lessons (especially for M3) - This is an EP, though. My best english student finished the english M3 in 30 mins (90 min test) and had already checked the answers three times. This test was very difficult for the students in the regular program though.