Creating a New Generation of Learners in Thailand

During the EdTechX Ecosystem Event tour, we asked our audience to think about how their education ecosystem can improve and evolve, giving this scenario:

“It’s 2030, and Thailand has made it to the top of the global rankings in education. The country now has the highest literacy & numeracy scores, the highest share of expert and motivated teachers, the highest university pass rate & lowest unemployment rate.

What is the first step that Thailand’s government would need to take today to achieve this phenomenal jump in the country’s global education rankings?”

The focus of the responses from the audience and judges alike were to change the current mindset on education and work. Rather than focusing on one particular part of the sector, for example, K12 or higher education, the audience of entrepreneurs, investors, educator and edtech thought-leaders focused on ensuring consistency and driving a sustainable change, embracing a new way of looking at Education and work in Thailand.

Samuel Harris, from AWS EdStart, highlighted that what global education rankings look like in ten years could be very different from what they look like today. For example, considerations like entrepreneurship skills, working a global economy and adapting to different situations should be considered. Looking at embracing mobile phone and language learning, Thailand can lead the way in rethinking what a global education ranking looks like.

Dr Prae Nanthaporn Seributra, from Starfish Labz, also mentioned how different education in 2030 will be from education today. Therefore PISA rankings will change also, agreeing with Samuel Harris. She also highlighted the importance of collaboration, that the movement of learning from schools to work should be more in sync to remain relevant. Knowledge is always something that grows and it important that the resources grow with it. The more people who provide good quality education the better the results will be.

Starting in schools, to embrace learning throughout life, the audience discussed how students need to learn a purpose. With this in mind, investing in resources to improve teaching will help to facilitate the change in school education. This will, in turn, create a generation that constantly seek to upskill and reskill through their working lives, and can approach learning in an open and creative manner.

Tawan Dheva-Aksorn, CEO of Aksorn Education plc, spoke about ensuring classrooms become more of an active learning environment. To achieve this, one needs to develop lesson design and training for the teachers. By better equipping the teachers with high-quality resources, student engagement, learning and communication could improve. To reach the top of the PISA ranking, the culture of teachers needs to develop, and we should focus our work on providing the best resources possible for teachers to achieve the best results. This even stems to helping teachers make interesting lessons and activities for students, inevitably creating a community where students are continuously searching for knowledge.

Worawat Suvagondha, from SCB Academy, spoke about their focus in creating a new way of working, providing more opportunity for skilling and upskilling in the workplace. This will aim to develop a life long living culture, which is becoming more in front of mind. He mentioned that it has to begin with K12, building an active learning community environment in schools. If students are engaged and look forward to going to school then they will approach going to work with the same mindset. This can then create an active learning community at work, contributing to a workforce that is continuously learning.

For Thailand, the message was clear, by creating an active learning community across all schools in Thailand, this mindset will grow into higher education and then into the workplace. To reach the highest quality of education by 2030, Thailand would need to encourage the next generation to look at learning as something at this continuous moving, requires creativity and communication and to never stop understanding how the world of work it evolving and adapt their skills to grow with it.