Move to boost ranks of vocational students
IN A BID to boost the number of students who do vocational training courses, education chiefs will demand from next year that classes for general education are limited to 40 seats.
Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary-general Apichart Jeerawuth yesterday announced the plan to change the enrolment rule for Obec schools in the 2014 academic year.
“The change is in response to Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang’s policy to have the ratio of general-education students to vocational students at 51:49,” he said.
The current ratio is at 36:64. Obec has also allowed its schools – which offer general education programmes – to have up to 50 students per room where necessary.
“To adjust the ratio, the Obec schools will have to reduce the number of students going to the secondary educational level,” Apichart said, explaining why the 40-seat ceiling will be seriously enforced from next year on.
He added that Obec might also consider requiring students to have a grade point average of at least 2.50 or 2.30 to move from junior secondary to senior secondary level, if they wished to stay in general-education programmes.
Presently, the minimum GPA for Mathayom 3 graduates who wish to further their education at general schools, not vocational schools, is 2.00 only.
