International schools do well

Association of International Schools president Usa Somboon said the Private School Act of 2007 required international schools under the Educational Ministry's Private Education Promotion Office to pass international organisations' educational quality assurance requirements within six years of obtaining a school licence.

The law requires the ONESQA to join international organisations in the assessments, she said, thus the 80-member Association believed that if international schools were assessed by both the ONESQA and international organisations, standards would be even higher.

Such a requirement would boost the quality of academic competition, she said.

Since ONESQA could help by assessing the "Principles of the Thai Language" course, she said that from now on, international schools could give more importance to Thai language and culture.

She said that 26 schools had so far passed the international organisations' assessments. She also believed the ONESQA assessment would be as credible as that of the international organisations.

ONESQA director Somwang Pitiyanuwat said his office had assessed schools using a model from both the Thai and international standards. ONESQA would look into the Thai language and culture requirement and merge the Thai standard into the international model.

So far, assessments had found that primary and secondary schools were of good quality. He said that most schools were ready in all aspects, including budget, curriculum and standard of teaching.

The Nation