The photograph shows almost 100 KU students wearing self-made paper hats with two ear flaps in what appears to be an attempt by the supervisor to prevent them from looking at each others' answer sheets during an examination at the agro-industry faculty.
The KU Students Administrative Board posted the photo on its Facebook page on Wednesday, and almost immediately the “bizarre exam picture” went viral, eliciting mixed feelings and serious questions on the Thai education system from online communities and the general public.
The board later issued a statement apologising for causing a controversy and discontent and decided to remove the picture from its Facebook page, saying the negative reaction had gone far beyond its original purpose.
“Based on the picture, the room is small but there are many exam-sitters,” the board explained. “So the [anti-cheating hats] measure was introduced during the exam but we had no intention [of targeting] the quality of the students and only wanted to help them focus on the importance of the exam.
“We must apologise for causing differing opinions. We actually intended to make people look at it in a funny way during the exam.”
Rector Wuttichai Kapilakarn said he did not know about the incident but would look into it.
Internet users on Facebook and popular Thai web boards like Pantip.com had mixed opinions on the issue.
A Facebook user with the alias Burn Noppachai said he felt very embarrassed by the incident as he is a KU student. The board should just apologise and delete the picture, he said, without giving such a nonsense explanation to protect itself.
A Pantip commenter using the alias ATICUS_T described the method as “very retarded” and said adults sometimes forced youngsters to do things they did not want to.
"The students may fail in the exam because they were disturbed by the paper on their head," another poster FeoLiiTa joked.
However, the picture also met with positive feedback. The most "liked" comment, written by a person with the alias Nong Nu Na, was: "There was only a teacher in the room. The teacher did it only to prevent potential cheating and all students were pleased to cooperate. No finger-pointing that the students’ quality is bad here, all please understand.”
“Why not, looks like a great idea. Nothing’s wrong about it,” a Facebook user named Tulakan Ruangrong said.
"This is fine because both sides agree. Some people just take it too seriously,” another user Pongrykung Potter said.
Thammasat University political scientist Kasian Tejapira said he felt pity for what he saw from the controversial picture because even high schools had never implemented such a method as used in the KU exam room.
“If we have to use this method in our exam rooms, it means our education system has failed, no matter if [the students] pass the exam or not. It’s still a failure even if everyone in the room passes the exam,” he said on his Facebook.
“Because they are the product of our education system and were treated like they couldn’t be trusted or that they would not instantly do the honest thing.
Sangsit Piriyarangsan, dean of the College of Social Innovation at Rangsit University, said the KU self-styled anti-cheating measure was excessive and unnecessary. The picture caused damage to the university and reflected failure in the education system, he added.
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