Changing in opening-closing semester now is in discussion

Changing in opening-closing semester now is in discussion

Dr. Chinnapat Bhumirat, the secretary-general, the Office of The Basic Education Commission (OBEC) mentioned about the issue of changing an opening-closing period of study semester, from June–October for the 1st semester and November–March for the 2nd semester into September-December and January –April respectively, in higher education level upon agreement of the conclusion of the President Conference that “it needs to be rediscussed with other any involvement including teachers, students and parents. Nevertheless, it is impossible to sudden this issue done within 2012, the change need to take place at least 1-3 years, because it will inevitably affect an advanced education plan such as the Ordinary National Educational Test as well as set admission dates. Therefore, the office will bring this issue into the meeting for endorsement first.”

Dr. Sumet Yamnun, the secretary-general of the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) said that revision about to which country the change will be similar should be done primarily. “Since I know that 10 countries in ASEAN has totally a different open-and-close period and currently there is merely Malaysia changing their the aforementioned system to match with European countries and USA”, he said.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Numyoot Songthanapitak, the president of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), said “we do not have to overhaul in whole system from primary school, high school through vocational education level, it merely changes in higher educational row. However, the most important thing to do now is to develop educational quality because it will interest other people in ASEAN.”

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Supol Wuthisen, the president of Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University (BRU) said that “the change can help university administrators and teaching staff open their view in studying other contexts relevant to ASEAN community and bring back to improve their educational system.”

Translated by Mr. Suraporn Onputtha

Source: http://www.news.rmutt.ac.th/archives/14065