On July 10, 2022, Mr. Chatchart Sitthiphan, Governor of Bangkok, said at the event “Bangkok Is Getting Good” … on the Thonburi side at Bangkhunnon Park, that in pushing the education policy, there are two important words: “area” and “learning,” because he viewed from now on that the word “education” will not be as important as “learning.” He explained that education is just a program set by a group of people while the world in the future changes rapidly, so children need self-study skills with more public learning areas, but in the past, it was found that Bangkok does not have enough space for children.
“BMA is not as good as the networks that directly work in this field in terms of learning, but we have a duty to push for spaces to be opened for people, including being consistent with their needs.” Bangkok has the area to do so in every district. We have parks and buildings with usable spaces. One of them is that we can turn the school into a learning center on Saturdays and Sundays. However, it must not be a burden for teachers. We will let the people in the community use it, take care of each other like brothers and sisters, and have volunteers to help take care of it. BMA confirms that this is important and we will do everything because what we do today is to prepare children and youngsters of the new generation who will be the owners of this city in the future.”
The Governor of Bangkok stated that the policy to push the learning area requires the cooperation of four parties, namely the government, private sector, academic sector, and communities, which are the main forces to get outcomes that actually answer the question. This is because the city can’t be better if everyone doesn’t work together.
“One month ago, it showed that Bangkok was powerful. We got 1,300,000 trees within one month without spending a baht. Everyone came to work together. This is just the first dimension. I think we have both the same and different perspectives. If we take the same part as the main thing – we want the youth to have a good future, a quality learning space – and then solve the different parts. I believe that we will get a better Bangkok.”
Dr. Kraiyos Patrawat, Manager of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), said that EEF had the opportunity to work with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to create an area to promote Bangkok as a city of learning according to the UNESCO guidelines. The learning area does not have to be large, but it is important that everyone and agencies from all sectors are involved in the design of activities and make it a space where children and youths from various communities can participate.
“To push Bangkok to become a learning city in accordance with international urban development guidelines that emphasize local roles in promoting lifelong learning and creating educational equality is to be a learning city. Currently, there is a global network of 229 learning cities around the world that can effectively manage resources across sectors to support learning for all citizens and at all levels, equitable and inclusive learning, including the promotion of a culture of lifelong learning.”
Dr. Kraiyos said that the situation of COVID-19 has caused Thailand to close schools for a long time, and the consequence is that children are stressed and experience a learning recession. The solution to this problem is not to compress academic content, but for children’s emotional and social skills to be unlocked with a safe and creative space to encourage children and young people to be familiar with overcoming obstacles in their life, have a positive outlook, and be enthusiastic about solving problems. Therefore, if there is a learning area that draws children out of the house, makes them overcome stress, fear, and insecurities, and shows what they can do well, children will be able to escape from the recession and return to learning. EEF will work with BMA and all sectors, especially the private sector and the public, to draw participation in creating a learning space for children and youths together.
It is in accordance with Ms. Nattaya Boonphakdi, Director of the Office of Child, Youth and Family Health Support, Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), who said that creating a learning area is easy to do and highly effective in keeping children up to date with the current world. BMA has many areas to do so, for example, grass ground in government offices or parks. It is important to have creative activities that are held regularly and continuously. Activities have to be diverse and accessible to all lifestyles because the secret of the learning area is that children and youths have to figure out what they want, and then adults help provide the necessary things for them to do and learn with fun. Next, we let them summarize and draw lessons from what they did. There must be an area like this in every subdistrict, village, and community so that children do not have to travel. It is just a few steps from their house to reach such an area. Therefore, I would like to persuade BMA to come together to find a way to make the existing resources spread to the learning areas, and bring children to activities that will give them life skills, far away from temptations, to help them survive in a new world.
Mr. Suranat Panprasert from the “Bangkok Is Good” project added that the emergence of a learning area will be a model of success that can be extended to other communities and draw more participation from all parties to drive and help each other. In the past, the Bangkok Is Good network worked with community leaders on the Thonburi side, the Bangkok side, and other districts. We have people in the community who are natural leaders. There are youth leaders, mentors, and children and youth groups and networks with unique identities, strength in wisdom, art, and culture, who have an influence and help communicate with people in the community to jointly improve the environment.
“In addition to the cooperation of the community, we have also received support from various foundations and agencies because some of the problems cannot be solved only by people in the community. We must bring some knowledge to help by realizing the promotion of youth potential and increasing the dimension of learning resources. If the community can bring out its inner values, everything can carry on in a natural way. Our community has quite a lot of organizations involved. We have to think about how to make the most of it and make changes. We have to make the idea embedded in the community, and organizations coming in need to know our community enough to work together.”
In this regard, the push for learning areas for children and youth throughout Bangkok will be piloted every Sunday in 12 districts through the “Public Areas for Living Learning” Project. It includes arts, music, markets, workshops, and creative plays for children, young people, and people of all ages. It will commence on Sunday, July 17, 2022, at Bangkok Yai Park from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM. News and movements can be followed at the Bangkok Is Getting Better page.
