On Friday, netizens expressed outrage and anger over responses from the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) to the Covid-19 situation and how it could affect high school students who must take admission exams.
The comments poured on Twitter after a screenshot showing a Facebook response from a council official went viral on Twitter on Thursday night. In the conversation, the officer said that students who test positive for Covid-19 when taking entrance exams can always join the admission process next year.
“Take it next year or go for other majors that don’t require test results,” the officer responded to a student who was seeking advice in the event someone caught Covid-19 and was unable to take the exams on time.
More people responded to the original post with more similar screenshots criticizing the council for not having defined measures to address the exams issue related to the coronavirus situation.
Another user asked what students should do on the second exam day if a Covid-19 case or cluster is detected in the first session, but the officer only replied: “Let’s see what happens first.”
The topic quickly became a trend on the platform, with students from all over the country expressing disappointment and frustration at authorities’ apparent indifference to the pandemic and how it threatens the future of many high school students.
The Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT), which is in charge of supervising entrance exams, was under fire and faced backlash through the hashtag #bancupt, which amassed hundreds of thousands of tweets.
Later on Friday, the CUPT apologized for the responses, described as “insensitive.”
Chalie Charoenlarpnopparut, who is in charge of the Thai University Central Admission System (TCAS), said that the council had apologized to the student community for the comments posted by the official TCAS Facebook account’s administrators. However, he explained that they had only provided “answers by the book” to users’ queries.
Regarding the Covid-19 measures that universities must take, Mr. Charlie stated that students who catch the novel coronavirus would not be allowed to take the tests. Also, those who have high temperatures but test negative would be able to take their designated exams in separate rooms, he added.
