O-Net results disputed
Educational officials have denied a claim by a popular admissions tutor that this year's O-Net had at least five mistakes, but the controversy continues.
Educational officials have denied a claim by a popular admissions tutor that this year's O-Net had at least five mistakes, but the controversy continues.
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O-Net results disputed
(Story includes information from Bangkok Post reporter Dumrongkiat Mala)
Students throughout the country learned their university admission results last weekend, prompting scenes of great joy and great disappointment.
Soon afterwards, the questions and answers of one of the main components of the admission process, the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net), were made public. This sparked an outcry on the social media as both students and academics disputed several of the answers, particularly in the social studies section of the examination.
The controversy became heated when Ping Charoensiriwat, better known as Ajarn Ping, who runs the popular Da'vance tutoring school, claimed to have found at least five mistakes in that section of the exam.
Ajarn Ping claimed questions 58, 63, 72, 80 and 85 had answers that did not correspond with what was taught in Ministry of Education authorised textbooks. She, supported by numerous students, backed up the claim by posting relevant sections from the textbooks.
Question No 63 received particular attention. The question asked what was the first commercial agreement Thailand made with a foreign country. The answer key says the Bowring Treaty, but a Thai history text for Mathayom 4 to Mathayom 6, certified by the Education Ministry, gives a different answer, saying it was the Burney Treaty.
Ajarn Ping's explanation through Facebook and Line received widespread attention and one related post to a website popular with students was shared over 35,000 times.
The issue has received intense interest on a forum popular with students with more than 350,000 views and 35 shares. http://www.dek-d.com/board/view/3653673/
The National Institute of Education Testing Service (Niets) quickly issued a denial. Niets director Sampan Panpruk said the claims were untrue, insisting that only question No.88 had a wrong answer.
"I ordered all test designers involved in this subject to revise all the answers again, and they still found only one mistake for which Niets has already amended the scores for every student," he said.
According to the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec), about 240,000 students were affected by the error.
Half the students were deducted one point, while the others were given an additional point.
About 150,000 students were not affected at all.
Ajarn Ping refused to back down and made several television appearances in which she received support from academics and students.
During one appearance on Amarin Television, Manat Aungsan, an editor at the popular dek-d.com website, said the issue is particularly sensitive since university placements have already been announced and because the O-Net is significant factor in that placement. Thousands of students of students whose grades were within five points of the cutoff point could potentially be affected. It might also affect their university choice, he said.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Gen Dapong Ratanasuwan has urged Niets to improve its exam marking system.
"Errors in the O-Net exam have become a running problem as this year is not the first time this kind of problem has caused a stir on social media. I don't want to see any more problems like this. If the problem persists, somebody must be held responsible for it," Gen Dapong said.
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