OBEC Plans Standardized Exams for Grade Promotion Nationwide
The Office of the Basic Education Commission announced plans to replace school-created grade promotion exams with standardized national tests to help students identify learning gaps. Secretary-General Thanu Khwan-dech also outlined broader reforms targeting small schools, teacher allocation, AI integration, and a shift from rote memorization to competency-based, activity-driven learning. The changes aim to reduce educational inequality rather than simply boost PISA scores.
OBEC plans to reform the grade promotion examination system, shifting from schools creating their own exams to using standardized central exams to assess students so learners can identify their weak subjects.
On November 11, 2026, Thanu Khwan-dech, Secretary-General of the Basic Education Commission, revealed that small schools — increasing in number due to declining birth rates — are a pressing issue for the Ministry of Education and OBEC that must be urgently addressed. Solving the small school problem does not necessarily mean only merging or closing schools; other approaches must be considered alongside allocating teachers to match grade levels and qualifications to ensure quality, accessible education. The key goals are reducing inequality and adjusting teaching methods to give teachers more instructional time.
Thanu said OBEC has established five policy task forces and begun turning policy into practice. Three key task forces will integrate their work: the AI for Teacher Development and Learning Management task force, the Education Quality Enhancement for Reducing Inequality in Small Schools task force, and the Learning Transformation for Higher-Order Thinking Skills Development task force. All three will jointly tackle inequality by bringing technology to support learning management. Preliminary findings will be discussed with Educational Service Area Office directors nationwide in mid-November.
Thanu added that the assessment and evaluation system must also be reformed in tandem, because changing teaching methods while keeping old evaluation methods will return education to the same cycle. The shift must move toward a competency-based curriculum emphasizing activity-based learning where children think and practice rather than memorize, with evaluation methods aligned to this approach.
Initially, OBEC intends to shift from schools creating their own evaluation exams to using standardized central exams for grade promotion, so learners can quickly know which subjects they are weak in and what areas need further development.
However, nationwide simultaneous change may be too large, so it may start with schools in education innovation areas as pilot sites, while also setting teacher selection criteria for participating schools.
"If the evaluation system becomes part of regular learning, tutoring for PISA exams will become unnecessary, because I view PISA scores not as the core of education quality. Tutoring just to raise scores is not the answer. What should be done is changing teaching methods so children think and analyze, not just memorize," Thanu said.
Thanu noted that while PISA emphasizes analytical thinking and is globally valued, Thai education still faces many other problems — like walking on different keys of a piano. PISA scores cannot fully reflect or solve Thailand's educational inequality. Analysis shows that even if Thai children's PISA scores improve, educational inequality remains vast. Therefore, what OBEC wants to drive is not merely raising PISA scores but reducing inequality and raising learning quality so all groups of children access opportunities equally. If inequality can be reduced under a new teaching system, PISA scores will naturally improve as well.
