Foreign experts to help analyse NIETS tests
THAILAND will recruit foreign experts to analyse tests prepared by the National Institute of Educational Testing Services (NIETS) in the wake of a loud outcry from students.
Earlier this week, students took to the Internet to criticise both national tests and tests for university admission that the NIETS had organised for them.
Deputy Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin yesterday disclosed he had already instructed the Office of the Education Council to invite internationally recognised experts, from respectable testing service organisations, to evaluate the NIETS tests.
“The evaluation is expected to pave the way for the development of standardised tests,” he said.
Teerakiat said problems related to the tests had dragged on for a long time and it was high time that all parties tackled them once and for all.
“We will solve the problems by overhauling all related systems. We are going to revamp the curriculum, teaching and evaluation systems,” he said.
The deputy education minister said that given the current curriculum was so vast in scope, test |questions had become too varied.
“Curriculum writers will have to provide upstream solutions,” he said.
Teerakiat said other relevant parties would then work out midstream and downstream solutions.
He insisted that the NIETS should announce in advance its specifications for tests that students would have to sit.
“NIETS should show some examples of test questions too so that |students know what to expect,” he said. He added that NIETS should also check the difficulty levels of its tests before they are held.
In the latest tests for nine core subjects that Mathayom 6 students took for their university admission, average scores were lower than half in all subjects except the Thai language.
NIETS director Samphan Phanphrut, who showed up at the press conference alongside Teerakiat, said these tests were difficult because they were used as criteria for university admission.
He also dismissed reports that all test questions appearing on the Internet this week came from the latest Onet, which was held during the past weekend.
“Our preliminary checks show that just one question comes from the latest Onet,” Samphan said.
