‘Where are my kids?’ Ms. Pannee Sriyab would ask herself as she scanned her sparsely populated classroom. Few of her students were interested in math and even fewer wanted to watch Pannee squeakily scribble combinations of letters and numbers on the whiteboard. The formulas, after all, seemed as useful to
Here’s How to Make 4th Graders Love Science Class
Asking questions, dreaming up experiments, crushing plastic bottles – students in Ms. Salakjit Chuenta’s science class learn by doing, and have a lot of fun along the way. While rote memorization remains the preferred teaching practice in Thailand, Ms. Salakjit has broken from tradition to provide the fourth graders of […]
Volunteer Steps Up to Help the Vulnerable and Abandoned
Improving Community Health for Healthy Aging
“Will they be lonely? Will they be left alone? What will they have for breakfast, lunch and dinner?”
Wassana Tadthong worries about her elderly neighbors who have no spouse, children, or siblings remaining. With no loved ones to turn to and a social safety
Health Official Learns Simple Steps to Active Aging
Just as someone who saves small amounts of money consistently from an early age can accumulate tremendous wealth for their retirement, one needs to build good health habits years and even decades in advance to maintain an active lifestyle in their senior years. The small daily choices one makes in
How One Unsung Hero is Transforming the Lives of the Elderly
Go to just about any secondary city, small town, or rural village in Thailand and you’ll notice something peculiar: nearly an entire generation is absent. You’ll see plenty of elderly people chatting outside their homes and young children playing in the schoolyard, but working aged adults are scarce. With few
Kids Accidently Learn to Love Math
Let’s face it, most kids (and adults!) find math a bit boring, even though they know it’s really important for the future. As Ms. Jiratthida Phonnirakul, a 4th grade teacher in the Sura Ban Rai School, Samut Prakan Province explains, “Normally, the teacher simply gives students knowledge. Students don’t have […]
The Best Way to Teach Kids to Code Isn’t How You Think
Thai teacher discovers the secret to making STEM education fun and accessible to build 21st century skills
Loud whispers emanate from a small group of teachers huddled in the back of the auditorium. After a few moments of hurried discussion, the huddle opens up, and Visut, the team’s spokesperson, steps
This is How One Teacher Brought Out the Best in Her Students
As a primary school teacher in Nakhon Pathom province for the past five years, Ms. Wipaporn Deeseng knows how the Thai education system tames the curiosity of students and slows their development at an early age. After delivering lesson-after-lesson to rows of silent boys and girls, she realized a startling […]
Leader Uncovers New Ideas to Care for People with Disabilities
Before entering the 10th grade, healthcare worker Dr. Hoang Manh Hoai faced the most difficult decision of his young life. A horrible spell of weather had just wiped out all the crops on his family’s farm. Worsening matters, Hoai’s father had fallen dangerously ill. With the family’s sources of income
Why Women Workers are Struggling to Seize their Rights
Vietnam has made great strides to increase women’s participation in the economy over the past 30 years. Today, 72% of women are in the workforce, giving Vietnam one of the highest female employment rates in the world, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). That fact, to be sure, is