Obec orders strict disciplinary probes against seven education officials
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The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) has ordered severe disciplinary probe against Khon Kaen Primary Education Zone 3 Office director, deputy human resource director and five other civil servants after a fact-finding committee on March 7 sugges
Exam records in Khon Kaen showed that some test takers’ names were the same as those who took tests at Si Sa Ket’s Primary Education Zone 2.
Chinnapat Bhumirat, Obec's secretary-general, said yesterday that the civil servants manning the exam did not check that the identity marked on the desks matched the ID carried by the examinees. In one case, it found that the photograph of the examinee on a desk had been replaced and re-stamped, he said.
Also, he said, the seating plan did not follow Obec guidelines, so a disciplinary probe was necessary to check who ordered the change.
Chinnapat said he had apprised Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanich of the action, and the minister had said he would hand the case over to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) soon. He said the decision on whether to cancel the assistant teacher exam or not would be tabled at the Teacher Civil Service and Educational Personnel Commission’s meeting on March 22.
Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana said on March 22, the commission should hopefully make a clear decision as to whether the exams should be scrapped, re-scheduled or revoke the scores.
Meanwhile, assistant teachers who had been recruited after this round of exams warned yesterday that they would file a complaint with the Administrative Court if the Education Ministry and related agencies cancelled the exam’s results nationwide.
Lamenting that many decent and hard-working test-takers were already being viewed wrongfully as “cheaters”, assistant teacher Thanakrit Khanthawat said if the entire test is scrapped he and many others would be out of work and would hence sue. He also urged the authority to cancel the test results on a case-by case basis.
