Thai education system
Jul 18, 2009
Assessment system
The assessment of secondary education subjects uses the ‘Grade Points’ system. In higher education, the system is based on credits. One credit stands for one hour of lectures.
Subjects are marked as follows:
Mark Description Grade Point
A excellent 4
B+ very good 3.5
B good 3
C+ fairly good 2.5
C fair 2
D+ poor 1.5
D very poor 1
F failure 0
I incomplete
W withdrawn
WF withdrawn due to failure
AU audit
Quality assurance
Thailand has no official ranking system for higher education institutions, though the state universities traditionally have a good reputation.
In the past, education regulations were prescribed by the former Ministry of University Affairs, which was also the main accreditation body. Since the enactment of the National Education Act (www.edthai.com/act/index.htm) in 1999, the Ministry of Education has set up a new quality assurance and accreditation system.
The system covers both internal and external quality assurance. Internal quality assurance is the responsibility of each individual education institution. External quality assurance falls under the responsibility of the Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQUA). This is an independent public organization, and is not part of the Ministry of Education.
Thailand is currently still working on setting up an accreditation system. An initial assessment was carried out by ONESQA in 2002, and 81 higher education institutions were assessed in 2004. ONESQA has now set up a subcommittee tasked with streamlining the regulations and criteria that apply to accreditation methods.