Education Thailand Project #50702

Quality Education & Public Health In Thailand

by GVI Charitable Programs

Project Report | Jun 11, 2023
Education reaching adults and children

By Phang Nga team | Project Team

We are delighted to provide an update on the successes and challenges we have encountered so far this year, as well as to express our gratitude for your unwavering support for our Education & Public Health Program.

One of our notable achievements this year has been Adult english classes at the local hotel, which have proven to be an effective means of teaching English during staff working hours. As staff are employed from the local area, we have not only helped empower members of our community but also provided them with dedicated time to develop their skills and seize opportunities. These classes are tailored to each specific department, such as food and beverage, housekeeping, and HR, enabling staff to enhance their confidence in their job roles and improve their communication with international guests.

Our community adult English classes have continued to flourish, with regular attendance from dedicated students. Through targeted advertising and word-of-mouth recommendations, we have successfully attracted new students, including a tour guide from the local museum who joined the classes to practise her English conversation skills. Additionally, we are pleased to welcome two new students from a bilingual English school who are eager to further develop their language abilities.

We are excited to announce the restart of classes at our partner schools for the new academic year. At the all Burmese learning centre, we are teaching grades 3-8, while at a Thai government school, our focus is on grades 3-5. We surpport conversational English classes during the school day, focusing on essential skills such as conversation, pronunciation, confidence-building, and overall English language development.

During the summer holidays, we organised successful summer camp activities within the village, attracting children from multiple schools in the local area. These activities offered invaluable opportunities to engage in various endeavours, socialise, and receive exposure to the English language, enriching their vacation experiences.

Our healthcare program has also continued to make a significant impact by raising awareness of key health issues within our community. We supported health checks in multiple locations, which were well-received by community members. Furthermore, our workshops in schools focused on essential practices such as handwashing and toothbrushing for younger children. In addition, we assessed fine and gross motor skills in early years students to monitor key developmental stages of childhood.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the continuous support of generous donors. We are immensely grateful for your contributions, which have allowed us to sustain and expand our activities particularly through resources to support learning. With your ongoing support, we aim to enhance our educational resources and create exciting and creative lessons for our community. Additionally, your contributions will enable us to procure essential items for our healthcare program, facilitating accurate readings at community health checks, including blood pressure measurements and scales, and providing informative workshops.

Once again, we extend our deepest gratitude for your unwavering commitment to our cause. Your generosity is making a tangible difference in the lives of individuals within our community, and we are truly humbled by your support. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress in the months to come.

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Feb 8, 2023
Moving forward with education in 2023

By Eve Pilmore | Project reporter

Introduction

At last, the end of 2022 saw some normality resume to education institutions around the world, allowing our community programme to run classes consistently, increasing impact through our local schools and providing our students with some stability and structure to develop their language skills and confidence without interruption.

Project Outcomes

The delivery of our English education and health awareness classes in our local community has continued to run consistently and with huge improvements in students' English level and confidence. The benefit of a prolonged period of time with uninterrupted class schedules, (e.g. the end of the COVID-19 pandemic) has really begun to show. Classes and year groups across the board have shown high marks in end of semester exams and dramatic differences in confidence levels since the start of semester.

In our local community, conversational English classes have continued to be a huge success as participants attend classes regularly and new students join every week, as feedback from our classes spreads by word of mouth in the community. One member of our adult class programme has recently opened up her own business in the local community, owing to the confidence gained from her English classes and her new ability to communicate clearly with passing tourists during the busy high season. This is a great new opportunity for this student who is very grateful to our teachers for her greatly improved level of English.

In the last months of the year we piloted a new style of adult English education, upon request of a local business wanting to improve their employees' English level. This 10 week block with 20 hours of teaching has been a huge success showing positive feedback all round from students, volunteers and the employer. As requested by the business owner, we have started the next 10 week course to build on the progress made in the initial classes.

At the end of the year we celebrated with one of our local schools through a special alumni/reunion event. Past students from the school joined together with teachers new and old to share stories and catch up on old memories. It was a pleasure to hear that so many of our past students have gone on to continue their education further or have successfully gained employment in stable jobs in the tourism industry and now have access to a better quality of life.

During this quarter we have been able to support our wider community with over 400 health checks completed alongside health, hygiene and wellbeing workshops at three different schools. We have covered topics that include dental hygiene, nutrition and diet, wellbeing, hand washing and exercise.

Challenges and Solutions for 2023

With the continued support of our partners and donors there are several challenges we would like to address as we move into the start of 2023.

To improve our impact in 2023 our community programme would greatly benefit from the addition of access to better resources and equipment for both our English classes and health awareness workshops. This would include more scales, health monitoring equipment and classroom resources (crafts, pens, whiteboards, flash cards and lamination).

This year we would also like to launch an IT literacy programme, to improve employment opportunities and access to further education. Additional laptops and workshops would provide our local community with equal access to these opportunities.

Finally we would like to increase the number of field trips we can run to all of our educational projects, broadening the horizons of all our students.

Summary

We are grateful for your ongoing support to continue our work in our local community in working towards SDG Goals 3 and 4 at this critical time. This year has seen some huge milestones accomplished within our long term project plan, something we hope to expand on in the coming year.

We respectfully ask for your continued support towards the Quality Education and Public Health in Thailand projects.

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Oct 11, 2022
Let's move forward together

By Adele Lynch | Community Coordinator

Introduction

September 2022 at the United Nations General Assembly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declares: “Let’s move forward together, so that everyone can learn, thrive and dream throughout their lives. Let’s make sure today’s learners and future generations can access the education they need, to create a more sustainable, inclusive, just and peaceful world for all”

As the world starts to make cautious steps towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, good health and wellbeing (SDG 3) and quality education (SDG 4) are reaffirmed as being of the upmost importance as we work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Report

As COVID-19 restrictions have reduced in Thailand, this has resulted in less school closures allowing us to consistently deliver English education and health awareness classes as part of the school timetable in our two village schools.

With the easing of restrictions, community events and celebrations have started once again and we were proud to be a part of the CDC end of year graduation ceremony to celebrate our students’ achievements. One graduating student who excelled in English gained 98% in his final English exam. The school thanked GVI for their ongoing support and strong involvement with the school.

At CDC our focus has been on conversation skills and confidence in speaking. In the end of year English exam we found that the exam marks in all our classes consistently increased since the students last exam 3 months earlier, reflecting the achievements of students from regular, undisrupted English classes. At Ban Nam Khem school we have focused on delivering the school English curriculum through interesting and interactive lessons. The Deputy Headteacher of the school is very pleased with the progress of the students across all year groups. Her attendance allows her to take notes and ideas from GVI lessons which will further support English teaching in the school.

Our healthcare program has delivered healthy living workshops at CDC and after school groups including healthy and unhealthy foods, food groups and exercise. Students have taken part in practical sessions and have created work that they can take home and share with their families to further communicate important messages of good health and wellbeing. They have also collected height and weight data from Kindergarten students as well as researching assessment techniques to measure fine and gross motor skills development of children. Once further refined, these can be used to support developmental checks for children in early years education across our partner schools.

In our local community, conversational English classes have continued to grow as participants are starting to feel more comfortable in group environments again. We have regular students who attend twice a week and through word of mouth about the quality of the lessons, we have increased the number of students. Regular attendance demonstrates great commitment and enjoyment of classes from our students and they have reported back the practical application of their new English skills and confidence. English language skills are particularly important in our local area due to a high level of tourism. Some of our students have been able to use their skills as part of their occupations in the tourism industry as hotel employees, guesthouse owners and massage therapists. Other students are currently at college and their development of English skills will give them a great advantage when seeking employment opportunities in the future.

During this quarter we have been able to support our wider community with 4 weeks of beginner English classes and basic hygiene practical sessions (handwashing and teeth brushing) at Montessori school, Khao Lak and a whole day camp at Bannokna School, Koh Kho Khao which focused on English, Healthcare and Conservation.

We are grateful for your ongoing support to continue our work in our local community in working towards SDG Goals 3 and 4 at this critical time of COVID-19 recovery.

We respectfully ask for your continued support towards the Quality Education and Public Health in Thailand projects.

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