Small Primary Thai School Became A Winner

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EDUCATION

Small Primary School became a winner

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

Once a failure, 109 now ranks in South's top 10

NARATHIWAT: -- Believe it or not, a small primary school with only eight teachers is among the top ten excellent schools in the three restive southern provinces.

Lots of small schools with limited educational resources and personnel have failed to pass external assessments and get satisfactory scores in a national test, but that's not the case for Wattantikaram Mittapap 109 School in Narathiwat's Rangae district.

It is the only small school that has been ranked among the top ten excellent schools with highest average scores in the second round of external assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa), according to Sukkaew Kaewdang Foundation.

Moreover, the school has won high scores in the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net). In 2010, it recorded up to 77 per cent in O-Net scores on average.

This school has finally enjoyed sweet success after having provided helpful and enjoyable extracurricular activities for students before and after class and on weekends, for years.

"Parents were not satisfied by the students' academic performance. They had a big problem with reading and writing standards 20 years ago when I took over running the school," said Sudsai Bunchuay, director of Wattantikaram Mittapap 109. She said more and more parents were moving their children to study at other schools in the hope they could help improve their reading and writing skills.

Well, what extracurricular activities has it provided that resulted in better academic performance while still being allocated the same budget and number of teachers?

Sudsai said the extracurricular activities were: analysing questions in O-Net's maths and Thai language tests to find correct answers, doing meditation before practising reading, learning games about vocabularies and proverbs in Thai and English languages, karaoke singing, dancing and drawing and painting.

"Small gifts were offered when the 61 students played learning games. We found they were encouraged to search for information and knowledge by themselves, to be ready to answer questions that would win the games and earn the gifts. They really enjoyed this and had fun while doing and learning from the activities. This motivated them to think and be more confident to express their opinions," she said.

Another factor in its success is that the school opens everyday. Teacher Prawat Boonprasert volunteered to take care of students who prefer to attend school at the weekend. They are allowed to do homework, surf the Internet, practise typing and southern Thai traditional dance Manora, sing karaoke songs and have lunch with him. He offers to tutor students in any subject they request.

Before coming up with different activities and getting strong support from teachers, Sudsai devoted her personal life to providing what her teachers needed and helping when they had problems. Her mobile phone is turned on around the clock and is available for any teachers to call for help. She takes care of teachers' children when they have to leave home and is their adviser when they encounter difficulties.

Having won their hearts, it is not difficult for Sudsai to get their support when she asks. Her teachers do not hesitate to work harder to provide extracurricular activities for their students.

Another secret behind the school's success is support from community leaders and residents in the communities.

"After I was appointed the school's director around 20 years ago, I decided to visit parents and senior people in nearby communities, asking them what they wanted from the school," Sudsai said. "They told me they wanted quality students."

When they were more familiar with her and understood what she planned to do, they were willing to support the schools' activities.

"Sometimes, parents join in activities together with our students at school. Mothers and children search vocabularies from newspapers together. So, they learn how to encourage and teach their children," she said.

Rung Kaewdang, president of Sukkaew Kaewdang Foundation, is promoting Sudsai as the role model for a good administrator, and her school as an example of how a small school can improve its performance through limited resources and community participation.

He has recruited freelance writer Kasama Satayahuraksa to study the school's success and write a book about it - with financial support from the Office of the Education Council and Onesqa.

The book will be distributed in three months to inspire other school directors, Rung said. He has invited individuals, organisations and companies to donate funds to help the foundation tell the story to the public in more interesting way - through a video.

-- The Nation 2012-04-23

[rogerman]

Good to see something good coming out of this badly hurt and frustrated piece of countryside. Good to see teachers, community and families working together for the betterment of their children.....It's a pity that other schools don't follow in their footsteps.....I am happy to hear good tings happening here

[JohnAllan]

Perhaps the government might learn a few things from this school about successful education stragegies, especially taking account of the external factors these pupils and teachers have to contend with. Unfortunately, education, like many other issues, is top down, and while politicians prove incapable of learning lessons, there is little hope of their getting to grips with the challenges of solving learning issues in schools.

In the meanwhile, how about a bonus for Khun Sudsai and the teachers at Wattantikaram Mittapap 109?

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Yes, I think that the Thai people can take a very effective role in pushing improvement of their communities' schools. Real reform is much more likely to come from the grassroots than from above.

I'd really like to see a way for we farang who would like to help in that process to be empowered to do so systematically, basically removing the barriers put there by the bureacracy.

Of course measures are needed to keep all the sex-crazed paedos away from the kiddies, but I doubt if the government could do that effectively, much better in trusted private hands. . .

[anterian]

Yes, I think that the Thai people can take a very effective role in pushing improvement of their communities' schools. Real reform is much more likely to come from the grassroots than from above.

I'd really like to see a way for we farang who would like to help in that process to be empowered to do so systematically, basically removing the barriers put there by the bureacracy.

Of course measures are needed to keep all the sex-crazed paedos away from the kiddies, but I doubt if the government could do that effectively, much better in trusted private hands. . .

My worry is that having attracted public acclaim some religion crazed lunatic decides to attack it.

[strollling]

Good.

Let's hope they didn't make a big massive award winning envelope in order get such high scores.