Students' math skills must be raised

Upon learning about the results of this year’s Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) scores, Office of Basic Education Commission secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat was quick to react and ordered his team to investigate and analyse the appalling academic performance of our high school graduates. One can almost anticipate the findings: poor instruction on the part of the teachers and low interest in the subjects on the part of the students. Chinnapat went further by blaming the universities for not using the scores as part of the direct admissions process.

My concerns are focused on mathematics, in which the average score was 22.7 out of the possible 100, a slight improvement from last year. There is more to this number than meets the eye. On the one hand it indicates that our students have poor knowledge and problem-solving skills in maths, an indispensable tool for studying advanced courses in college and living in the modern world. 

“Mathematics is the queen of science,” is a well-known phrase, so the poor score also shows that it will be hard to find more students interested in science. On the other hand, as mathematics is widely known to help inculcate basic reasoning skills in children, the low score indicates that our future citizens are likely to lack the ability to use logic in everyday life. As a progressive community we need members who lead their lives based on logic and who accept other’s reasoning.

So, it is time to improve the teaching of mathematics in our country. It is time to equip our children with mathematical knowledge needed to improve their lives. And it is time to use more logic, not greed or prejudice, in our everyday dealings.

Surapon Vatanavigkit

Bangkok