Officials fond of dictating English standards should take tests themselves 

Once again we get nonsense about English being promulgated from on high. This time the 
villain seems to be the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC, presumably pronounced “Oh, heck!”). Its head, Khun Supat Jampathong, likes the fact that “the test is made harder each year”. If this enlightened principle were followed consistently, 
eventually the test would be so hard that even the most accomplished native speaker of English would be unable to pass it. Shakespeare would burn all his sonnets, and Hemingway would commit suicide all over again, because they wouldn’t be able to pass Thailand’s English proficiency test.
Here we have a powerful government agency imposing unreasonable requirements on a cowed population of overworked, underpaid teachers. May I ask why Khun Ajaree Chamroonkitkajhon, the kindergarten teacher in Narathiwat, needs to know English at all, let alone pass the TOEIC test? Unless she is teaching introductory English to her kindergarten students, she doesn’t need to know a word. If she IS teaching English to her toddlers, all she needs to know is a little more than what she is passing on to them. Otherwise, you might as well make her learn Hottentot.
This is a perfect example of a situation all too common in Thailand, where the strong bully the weak, the big guys beat up the little guys, and everybody thinks it’s okay. 
A basic principle of leadership is that a leader should lead by example, not by decree. So I invite Khun Supat to take the TOEIC test himself, and publish the score he gets in The Nation. I invite the current minister of education, yes, and even PM Prayut, to do the same. The results should be edifying to contemplate, especially since they’ve all enjoyed the advantages of an advanced education. Your average impoverished upcountry teacher hasn’t.
S Tsow