Chiang Mai project a ray of hope for thousands of poor schools
Various innovative learning activities have been tried at a school in northern Thailand to help nearby schools - and maybe poor schools across the country - cope with limited resources and a shortage of teachers.
The activities are part of the pilot project of “One Helps Nine”.
The National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA), in collaboration with its allies from Maejo University, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Art For All Foundation, ONESQA’s in-house educators and the community itself, recently conducted the interesting learning activities at the Baan Pang Maidaeng School in Chiang Mai for one full week.
The ultimate goal is to push and pull poor-performing primary schools above ONESQA’s academic standard line.
At the Baan Pang Maidaeng School, children eagerly took part in school repainting, re-landscaping, and art classes for students just as their teachers attended academic workshops.
“One Helps Nine is a pilot project,” says ONESQA director Professor Channarong Pornrungroj, “We set up the Baan Pang Maidaeng School as a centre to help eight other poor-performing schools.”
According to the ONESQA, more than 16,000 schools around Thailand – primary and junior high – are poor beyond the academic standard. And, they need help.
The problems are quite obvious, as they’re located in low-income districts – isolated, if not forgotten, in the backwater districts, said Channarong. He said the schools are in trouble with a shortage of up-to-date learning equipment. The teachers themselves, more often than not, are outnumbered by students; so it’s not impossible to find a maths teacher in an English Class.
“For a week, we gave [the school] a real overhaul,” said ONESQA’s director. “The school director, for example, learns helpful tricks and tips on education management, while other teachers get an academic workshop for better classroom approaches and academic achievements.”
Besides the academic workshop, the education camp at Baan Pang Maidaeng School focused on art and beauty around the classroom and school itself.
The students from Mae Jo University, for example, repainted the school building and walls and placed lines of pot-plants and flowers along the walking paths. The volunteer artists from Art For All gave students an art lesson before painting the classroom.
“As I have mentioned earlier, this is ONESQA’s pilot project to boost academic achievement for the poor-performing school,” says Channarong. “If it could improve and push Baan Pang Maidaeng School and its satellite schools above (or even higher than) the academic standard, ONESQA would take One Helps Nine as a template for other poor-performing schools around Thailand.”
Lately, the One Helps Nine project has been attached to the CfBT Education Trust from the United Kingdom of England to develop education quality in Thailand.
In partnership between ONESQA and CfBT, teachers from England will host activities and workshops in order to exchange ideas for Thai schools to achieve a higher academic level.
