Education chief blames disparity in system for students’ poor show

Thailand remained below average in both international academic surveys for 2015, the results of which were announced yesterday by the ministry.
While Singapore secured top ranking in both PISA and TIMSS, students in Vietnam – still regarded as an emerging country – fared better than their Thai counterparts.
Acting Education Minister Dr Teerakiat Jareonsettasin admitted that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the ministry were unhappy with the latest PISA score.
“The PISA test result does not reflect that our teaching or curriculum is bad. Considering the very high scores among students from top schools such as Mahidol Wittayanusorn and Triamudom Suksa, we did very well in the test,” Teerakiat said. “But other schools, especially in rural areas, did not have such a good performance and caused the country’s average score to be low.
“Both test results show that disparity is our major concern because there is a very wide gap between the talented students in top schools and the rest in other schools around the country. If we do not solve this problem, the next PISA and TIMSS test result will remain the same.”
According to the latest PISA result for 2015, Thailand scored 421 in science, 415 in mathematics, and 409 in reading.
Thailand’s overall education outcome was lower than the previous test in 2012 and was below the average of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
Scores among talented Thai students in science and reading were 567 and 537, higher than Singapore, but schools under the responsibility of the Office of the Basic Education Commission scored only 397 and 375 in science and reading respectively.
Teerakiat said that the root of the problem was that while excellent students tended to receive support, the rest were left behind.
He noted that the top schools received a budget of up to Bt84,000 per student, while other schools got only about Bt3,500 per student. This caused many schools, especially in rural areas, to suffer from a lack of resources and left them unable to carry out quality teaching.
“In order to tackle the disparity problem, we will reform the resource management for education to let resources pour into schools and students who need it most to improve their education,” he said.
PISA is an international academic survey, conducted by the OECD, which aims to evaluate education systems around the world by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students.
They were assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem-solving and financial literacy.
In 2015, more than half a million students in 72 countries and economies participated in the test. In Thailand, 8,249 students from 273 schools were surveyed.
Regarding the TIMSS result, Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST) president Pornpun Waitayangkoon said that although the mean score in maths and science education had improved, the scores in both subjects were still below average.
The TIMSS 2015 score for Thailand in mathematics was 431 compared to 427 in 2011, ranking 26 out of 39 countries. The score in science was 456, compared to 451 in the last assessment, which also ranked 26. The mean score for both subjects was 500.
TIMSS is an international assessment of grade 8 students carried out by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement every four years. In Thailand 6,482 grade 8 students from 204 schools were tested.