Victory for student as court overturns exam ban

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Victory for student as court overturns exam ban
Published: 30/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News

An 18-year-old student has won an 11th-hour court ruling against examination organisers who disqualified her from sitting a medical school entrance exam because her application was missing a photograph.

The Central Administrative Court yesterday instructed the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools (CTMS) to allow Saranya Channamwong, a Matthayom 6 student from Benchamaratrangsit School in Chachoengsao's Muang district, to sit the aptitude test held today.

The ruling ended a two-week struggle for Ms Saranya.

"I dream of becoming a psychiatrist - that's why I had to stand up and fight," she said.

Ms Saranya lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last week, alleging that the CTMS - an alliance of seven medical schools and the Phramongkutklao College of Medicine - unfairly disqualified her from the exam. The complaint said the CTMS had failed to notify her that her application papers were incomplete.

She found out she was disqualified on Oct 15 when she could not find her name on the exam website.

The CTMS told her that her application paper was invalid because one of the five photographs required was missing. Ms Saranya insisted she had handed in all the required documents.

The NHRC investigated the case and filed the administrative charges against the CTMS on her behalf on Wednesday.

Yesterday, the court ruled in favour of Ms Saranya, saying the CTMS had failed to investigate the real cause of the missing photograph before issuing the disqualification order.

The court also instructed the CTMS to allow Sirikwan Charoensuksophon, a Bodindecha student who was disqualified for a similar reason as Ms Saranya, to sit today's exam.

"I want this case to become a lesson for exam organisers that they should proceed with the application process with care, as any mishap could ruin a student's future," said Ms Saranya, who will sit the test at Thammasat University.

Any decision to disqualify a student from an exam must be made more reasonably, she said.

CTMS staff could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The CTMS has disqualified 185 students from this year's entrance exam - 41 of them because they failed to submit five photographs.