Regions must decide punishments for exam cheating: Pongthep
Education Minister Pongthep Thepkanjchana denied on Monday that the decision to have 129 educational zones probe the teacher assistant examination was an attempt to shift responsibility for the issue from central government.
He said subcommittees of the Office of the Teacher Civil Service and Educational Personnel Commission (OTEPC) in each educational zone had the authority to decide on punishments for wrongdoers, including whether they should be dismissed from the civil service.
Pointing out that his ministry had set up a fact-finding committee led by Education Ministry inspector-general Phisanu Tulsuk, while the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) had concluded that 514 test-takers had scored unusually high, Pongthep said any probe undertaken by a central agency would cause undue delay, hence the OTEPC subcommittee of each educational zone had been asked to help investigate.
“It’s a division of workload, a decentralised approach that is needed to prevent the probe taking too long,” said Pongthep. “The educational zones have been sent the information indicating exam cheating, such as the list of the high scorers’ names, information about pre-exam tutoring for cheating purposes, and information from those who have confessed to cheating,” he said, adding that a centralised committee would be launched to follow up on the local findings and provide advice. He said that the educational zones could proceed with punishments right away, and that he would discuss with his deputy, Sermsak Pongpanich, about what to do with the educational zones that ignored instructions to conduct a probe, possibly setting up a committee to investigate them further.
