Out of conviction that human resource development is key to national prosperity, True Corporation has beaten obstacles to better education across Thailand throughout the past 16 years. Its efforts have made positive impacts and paved the way for sustainable educational development.
Prevailing Inequality
Paddy fields stand by the sides of big buildings on roads heading out of Chiang Mai. On the roads are mainly 18-wheeler trucks. At a deeper level, scenery along these road reflects an economic and social transition that has been taking place in the country. Just outside Chiang Mai, Lanna pagodas rise from the grounds. Their glittering presence underlines rich history and culture. Around those pagodas are the elderly and children, many of them leaning comfortably against longan trees.
This corner is in Ban Nongnguak in Lamphun’s Pa Sang district.
Lamphun ranks 59th in Thailand on the percentage of underprivileged students. When it comes to dependency ratio, it is on the 68th spot. With divorce rate, it is the 65th. The development plan for this northern province has described these figures as related to sensitive issues and connected to various other problems.
Chiraporn Chandee, a senior teacher at the Lamphun-based Bannongnguak School, revealed how some local children had struggled really hard in their lives. “I’ve visited my students and found out that some have lived in a makeshift shelter that has neither wall nor fence. They have just had a roof over their head. Some others, meanwhile, have lived in surroundings that utterly fail to meet hygienic standards”.
Some children in Lamphun have lived in such conditions even though the province has achieved economic growth. Its gross domestic product totals 82.588 billion baht. The per capita income of its population is as high as 209,668 baht a year, the highest in the North and the 16th highest in Thailand. In spite of such achievements, the number of Lamphun residents registering themselves as low-income earners to get the government’s welcare card numbered as high as 104,761 in 2022. In other words, one fouth of Lamphun’s population are poor based on Thai People Map and Analytics Platform (TPMAP).
“Students at my school come from various backgrounds. Some hail from good families, but some struggle with broken families. Some children have lived with their grandparents because their parents need to find jobs elsewhere. Parents of some students have already gone separate ways too. Some parents have already started new families, simply leaving their kids from previous marriage behind. Domestic violence has also taken place at some students’ home, with them coming to school with signs of physical injuries. Some students, meanwhile, are so poor that they cannot afford to have breakfast,” Chiraporn said about the stark inequality.
Ban Nongnguak ranks among the neighborhoods that show inequalities have still prevailed especially in regard to income distribution. The problems have continued even though Thailand has recorded significant economic growth, social development, and structural changes throughout the past few decades. The percentage of the poor in the country has fallen from 58% in 1990 to just 6.8% in 2020. According to the World Bank, more than 79% of “poor” Thais live in provinces and work in agricultural sector.
Educational Inequality
To Thailand, there are several challenges including the new threats such as climate change, the pandemic, and growing elderly population. Worse still, educational problems and the lack of skilled labor pose big challenges in the digital age where competition is very fierce.
Thailand’s current educational quality has created a weakness in the country’s human-resource development efforts. A report by the World Bank shows Thai students’ average school hours rank among the longest in the world. Quantitatively speaking, Thailand ranks high on the global stage. But “qualitatively speaking”, the country lags behind so many countries. Apart from national tests, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Thailand ranked 56th on mathematical knowledge, 66th on reading, and 52th on science in 2018. The rankings were compiled based on the performance of more than 600,000 students from 79 countries.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says education has delivered many benefits at both individual and public levels. Just as education has increased productivity and driven economic growth, it has importantly developed ‘people’ who are at the heart of innovations and creativity. Education therefore is a basis of a sustainable society. If people are well-educated, they will help their country handle various challenges in the 21st Century. As a result, upgrading Thai education to curb the gap between its “quality” and “quantity” is absolutely an urgent agenda.
Kasem Jaikrasen, director of the Lamphun-based Bannongnguak School, said when he started his tenure here 16 years ago, affordable parents tended to send their children to a bigger, better-equipped school in town. Due to that trend, the number of students at his school fell significantly from 200 to just 120. The drop threatened to downgrade the school’s status to a ‘small school’ from a school that offered up to junior secondary level. If the downgrade happened, the school’s budget would reduce and the cost of providing educational services at his school would be higher than that of a bigger school.
“True Plookpanya”: Beginning of Positive Change
As a leading telecom-tech company, True is well aware of Thailand’s problems. It thus launched “TruePlookpanya” initiative in 2007 based on ‘Cultivate Knowledge, Virtues, and Love of the Environment” concept. This initiative aims to deliver quality knowledge from not just Thailand but also the world to underprivileged children by leveraging True’s expertise and resources in technology and innovations. In the first phase, the initiative served world-class knowledge via ‘TV and TrueVisions’ satellite sets ’. Broadcast over satellite, useful knowledge has reached children at more than 6,000 remote schools.
“Thailand needs human development for it to prosper. Human development forms a basis of eduation and the focus of True Plookpanya,” Dr. Naetchanok Wipatasinlapin, Head of Strategy and Education Division at True Corporation, said.
“Thailand needs human development for it to prosper. Human development forms a basis of eduation and the focus of True Plookpanya,” Dr. Naetchanok Wipatasinlapin, Head of Strategy Division and Education at True Corporation, said.
The ‘Plookpanya’ (Grow Wisdom) efforts, in the initiative’s second year, started delivering knowledge via internet. It even created a platform, www.trueplookpanya.com, for the purpose. Thanks to fantastic feedback, this website had been the No. 1 educational website for five consecutive years (since 2019). While the online platform has been a big success, True Plookpanya has also sought to curb educational inequality further by serving knowledge ‘On-Air’ via True Plookpanya TV channel and ‘On-Ground’ via school activities across Thailand.
“We are the first mover with every technology that promises to enhance children’s access to education because we keenly seek to ensure Thai kids can access quality educational services or knoweldge anytime, anywhere,” Dr. Naetchanok said.
True Plookpanya has also collaborated with academics and educators of leading universities such as the Chulalongkorn, Thammasat and Mahidol, in developing academic content and other types of knowledge based on official Thai curriculum and extracurricular programs for www.trueplookpanya.com. This website has thus functioned like a database of knowledge and exam questions that cover all eight core subjects for students at all educational levels from primary and secondary ones. Also uploaded to this platform are clips of famous tutors’ classes, teaching plans for teachers, parents’ manuals, and self-development functions like Upskill and Plook Explorer. Today, www.trueplookpanya.com is Thailand’s largest knowledge and exam-preparation trove for students, parents and Thais of all ages. Users of the website enjoy free access to quality and up-to-date content, which perfectly keep pace with the changing world.five
“We are the first mover with every technology that promises to enhance children’s access to education because we keenly seek to ensure Thai kids can access quality educational services or knoweldge anytime, anywhere,” Dr. Naetchanok said.
“Content is at the heart of educational development. For its website, True Plookpanya has prepared content that is fun to explore and fosters thinking process. Integrated into the content is also ethics because our society needs not just capable but also ethical people,” Dr. Naetchanok explained.
All these efforts reflect the True Plookpanya Initiative to ‘standardize Thai education’ with the help of technology. Enabled by tech, students across Thailand including those living in remote areas can access quality education, classes conducted by experts, the fast-changing world’s up-to-date knowledge.
Turning Point of Thai Education’s Future
Dr. Naetchanok said as educational technology has leant increasingly towards digitalization, digital ‘tools’ become important just like a digital platform. A survey by the Office of Basic Education Commmission’s Teaching Technology Bureau reveals that about 1.4 million Thai children have still lacked tech gadgets for learning at schools. As educational technology has established growing presence in Thailand, such shortage of tools become a pressing problem.
In 2016, the government started the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in support of sustainable development under a 20-year national strategy. True jumped on this bandwagon to drive basic education and leadership development, as the government sealed partnerships with 12 corporate giants to upgrade these fields in Thailand. Chosen private firms have since taken up the role of other partners, deploying their volunteer employees in the mission to sustainably develop target schools in collaboration with local communities.
In 2020, this PPP operation transformed into the CONNEXT ED Foundation. The move removed many obstacles for ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of Thai education. Via the foundation, True and other school partners have developed an ‘Educational Blueprint’ for nationwide implementation. This blueprint has prescribed five strategies as follows:
- Transparency: It requires educational institutes to set up School Management System for efficient data analyses and planning. The system covers five main data categories: general school information, school performance indicators, school grading, school improvement plan, and school report.
- Market Mechanisms: Designed to ensure children can apply their knowlegde to local context, these mechanisms create opportunities for local agencies / organizations to engage in, support or promote educational development;
- High-Quality Principals and Teachers: It aims to enrich management and teaching skills among principals and teachers so that they can efficiently keep pace with the changing world in the 21st century;
- Child Centric and Curriculum: It encourages children to ask questions, explore solutions, debate rationally, take action, evaluate, and improve. Such practice gives good character to children; and
- Digital Infrastructures: It boosts access to quality technology, media, and knowledge for the purpose of curbing educational inequality among rural and urban children.
Collaborating with Communities for Better Quality of Life
In 2017, the Bannongnguak School joined hands with the Ban Nongnguak Municipality in to create a “better quality of life for locals on a sustainable basis”. In pursuit of this goal, they set up a ‘Learning Center’ to find solutions to local problems. This collaboration is one of the projects coming out of True’s partnership with the CONNEXT ED Foundation, which believes educational services should respond to social context, enable market mechanisms and promote participation of schools, communities and private sector in the sustainable development of schools and communities, paving the way for better educational achievements.
To engage society, it is necessary that communities must first have confidence in educational system. For the confidence to grow, educational quality must be solid.
“We thus must develop school and the local community at the same time to achieve tangible results. The problems of the schools and the community cannot be tackled separately,” the director of the Bannongnguak School said. He continued that to raise the number of his school’s students, the needs of the local community must also be taken into account. He expected his school to drive efforts to find solutions to the community’s problems. With that expectation, he started improving curriculum. After parents started noticing that the school has had a great curriculum, they stopped sending their children away
The Bannongnguak School has embraced Child Centric Learning approach. Its students therefore are encouraged to ask questions, explore and take action. Their debates to find the best solutions are rational. Improvements have also been done in three dimensions in pursuit of sustainability. These dimensions are:
- Social Dimension: Love in hometown becomes the basis for the promotion of desirable cultural value and good governance;
- Economic Dimension: Leadership and entrepreneurship are fostered at community level to uphold economic security; and.
- Environmental Dimension: Inspirations and ambitions are fostered via innovation-driven strategy.
Enabled by market mechanisms, participation of relevant parties, and children centric learning approach, the Bannongnguak School has prepared the following learning objectives for its students:
Early childhood education – Students learn about cotton, to use their muscles, and to create cotton collages;
Junior primary education – Students learn about cotton cycle, occupations in their community, as well as local tools/materials;
Senior primary education – Students learn how to dye cotton fabrics with natural materials and local wisdom; and
Junior secondary education – Students learn about weaving, embroidery patterns, and dyed patterns.
Curriculum based on these learning objectives have got positive feedback. Students have fun learning and they are keen to explore answers in the real world. While engaging in such learning activities, they have also developed soft skills such as analytical thinking, problem solving, collaborations, and communications of their ideas. The local community, meanwhile, has benefited from the transfer of knowledge from the school. Locals can apply such knowledge to their jobs. They, for example, can rely on technology in conducting online marketing and adding value to their products.
“Today, our school is a modern learning center. Students thus can carry out various activities on their own. Through practice, we have honed our analytical thinking skills and become more confident in expressing ourselves. As our school has integrated cotton-weaving into its curriculum, we feel proud of contributing to the development of local products. We have really learnt how to weave step by step from local experts. We have also added value to local cotton products with the help of technology,
Chiraporn, a senior teacher at the Bannongnguak School, said apart from positioning itself as a learning center for the local community, her school had also used True Plookpanya curriculum to complement its core content – but not without meeting resistance at first.
“Some of our staff members are quite old. They were worried and unfamiliar with technology when the new idea was floated. In their view at that time, anything that was beyond the core curriculum was additional burden,” Chiraporn said.
“Today, our school is a modern learning center. Students thus can carry out various activities on their own. Through practice, we have honed our analytical thinking skills and become more confident in expressing ourselves.
Thitapas Chumpuchanapai said as a student of Bannongnguak School.
Thai Education’s Transition into Digital Age
True and CONNEXT ED Foundation have continuously worked together in driving educational development via Notebook for Education project, which supports Thai education’s transition to the digital age. This project has raised funds for schools in need of tech devices across Thailand. Under the project, notebooks have been procured to facilitate learning process that will equip students with digital skills. This project also aims to give equal access to technology in all areas of Thailand, curbing educational inequality and upgrading educational quality on a sustainable basis.
The ‘access’ to tech devices, so far, must be accompanied by necessary digital skills otherwise the devices would just be useless. Recognizing this fact, True rolled out the ‘ICT Talent’ project. ICT talents here refer to teachers who specialize in ICT knowledge and skills. They take up the role of advising teachers and students at more than 5,600 schools, which are under the supervision of the CONNEXT ED Foundation.
“There are many jigsaw pieces in Thai education’s transition to the digital age. So, we have removed obstacle after obstacle to find solutions and continue our pursuit of our goals,” Dr. Naetchonok said.
Regarding digital adoption or the use of tech devices, Kullawat Rueankhong said in her capacity as the ICT Talent at the Lamphun-based Bannongnguak School that it was quite a challenge to implement the project. Eight years ago, she met a lot of difficulties when she tried to guide other teachers at the Bannongnguak School about digital technology and its integration into educational services. She said given that most schools at the time were approaching retirement, they were reluctant and worried about digital technology.
ICT Talents have three main duties: 1) Coordinating to provide data between the foundation and their school’s personnel; 2) Repairing devices given by the CONNEXT ED Foundation to ensure the continuity of educational services; and 3) Enriching digital skills of teachers and students at their school through training. At present, there are more than 200 ICT Talents across Thailand. They have received regular training to boost their knowledge and learn about new tools. Such training not only provide them with ICT skills like AI, Coding, and Network System, but it also enhance their communication, management, and other leadership skills. The training is provided on a quarterly basis.
From the perspective of Kullawat who has been a semi-outsider at the Bannongnguak School for over eight years, this school has been strengthening and successfully increasing the number of its students because of its holistic approach and collaborations among three parties: the school director, teachers and the school’s committee that plays a role in driving and supporting new solutions.
According to the Thailand Development Research Institute’s (TDRI) research findings, students’ and teachers’ ICT literacy have risen by 76% and 88% respectively at schools with ICT Talents’ contributions.
Quality Schools, Quality Students
Today, True Plookpanya is over 16 years old. Since its birth, True has collaborated with the government and allies in bridging the educational gap between rural and city kids by leveraging True’s ICT expertise.
Dr. Naetchanok said True Plookpanya has already given 5.9 million Thai children from kindergarten up to second educational levels access to useful content and learning activities (Accumulative figure from 2007 to 2020). Over the period, True Plookpanya has already given more than 11,000 schools access to digital media.
“In the past 16 years, we have already fulfilled our three goals. We have scored our victory. Thanks to True Plookpanya, students’ capabilities increase. Parents’ trust in schools grow. And schools can stay alfoat,” she quipped.
Looking back to the past 16 years, Kasem said, “Our efforts to win parents’ confidence have paid off. The number of students has increased. So, we can stay on as a school with junior secondary educational classes. I really would like to tell everyone that the best school for kids should be the school in their neighborhood. Only when the school is nearby, can students have time to learn outside classroom”.
“In the past 16 years, we have already fulfilled our three goals. We have scored our victory. Thanks to True Plookpanya, students’ capabilities increase. Parents’ trust in schools grow. And schools can stay alfoat”
Chiraporn said after Child Centric Learning materialized at her school, she could notice her students’ behavioral changes. Students’ interactions have increased. Instead of mainly having one-way communication, students have engaged in debates and exchanged knowledge with their friends. Such skills are good for other classes too.
“My class atmosphere has changed significantly. Students don’t just sit quietly anymore. Today, students have fun learning, asking questions and commenting. The type of questions I use in class are open-ended. I no longer use close-ended questions. Aside, my questions are related to local communities. This is how we can foster students’ analytical thinking abilities,” this teacher said.
In the face of the fast-changing world, Dr. Naetchanok concluded that Thailand needed to upgrade its educational quality as follows:
“Leveraging digital technology holds key to Thai education’s upgrade and relevance to the global context. We need to digitalize textbooks. We need to bring content to life with the help of technology. Aside, we need to update the content of the textbooks in line with the fast pace of the world. And no matter how fast we can do the updates, we need to ensure that our students know how to apply what they have learnt in the fast-changing world. This is the essence of education and what we must pay attention to in the 21st Century”.
