High schools generally accept 50 per cent of their intake from children living in their area while 40 per cent are chosen from entrance exams and 10 per cent come from special-ability programmes or a "sponsors' quota".

Some prestigious schools take 60 per cent of their recruits from entrance exams and 30 per cent from children living in their area.

Admitting that it is too late to change the criteria for next year, Wijit said he posed a question for BEC consideration: "Secondary-level schooling is within the 12 years of mandatory education and it's the government's duty to take in all students in this age group. How, then, do we explain to society why there are still Mathayom 1 entrance exams?"

He said the entrance exams are actually a solution for many parents trying to get their kids into certain "prestigious and excellent" schools. The method was thus useful for a specific period, but the time would come when they would be scrapped.

According to the principles of mandatory education, student recruitment should be an open system, Wijit said. Therefore the best solution was to improve the quality of all schools so they achieve the same standards. "The BEC should think about this," he said.