Students oppose Onet plan
State education examiners want pupils stopped from having more than one attempt at passing university entrance exams. They will seek a ministerial regulation to that effect.
Some students won court approval to have another go at sitting the Onet, or Ordinary National Education Test. The National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) will today ask the Education Ministry to pass a regulation that Grade-12 graduates can take the Onet only once. The move attracted outcry from Parent-Youth Network for Educational Reform president Kamolpan Cheewapansri. "It will breach students' rights. In countries with good education services, students can move to other faculties when they want to with accumulated credits. Sometimes, the students have the need to reapply," Kamolpan said. According to the University Presidents' Council, the Onet was a measure of student academic knowledge upon completion of Grade 12. Only results from the exam taken in that year should count, it said. The students took a presidents' council, Higher Education Commission and NIETS announcement they would recognise original exam results only to the Khon Kaen Administrative Court. It ruled the six plaintiffs could submit the results of their second sittings. The injunction remains in effect until it is overturned. Education officials have appealed the order, saying a change in the university-admission criteria now would affect hundreds of thousands of students. Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn asked for both original and resat tests to be processed, pending the appeal outcome. "By doing this, admissions will not need to be postponed," he said. Education officials expressed concern that university admissions would be thrown into disarray if the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the Khon Kaen court order. Kamonpan said such suggestions put unnecessary pressure on the students who won the injunction.
|
