School plans it-based study to minimise paper use

Nahathai Thewphaingarm, formerly a politician with the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, is making full use of her non-political life with plans to focus her family's Thewphaingarm School on information technology (IT) within five years.

Under her plan, all students will have their own laptops, the Internet will be assimilated into the learning process and e-books will be widely used to minimise paper in classrooms. As well, the school plans to launch special programmes to increase its popularity among well-to-do families.

"Most children are familiar with computers, and we'll design Web-based education programmes and use the Internet as a core teaching tool," said Nahathai, who is chief adviser to both the school and the Thewphaingarm School English Programme.

To integrate IT into its teaching systems, the school will install wireless Internet to enable classroom Internet connection.

Nahathai said the changes were vital, because private schools not only competed against each other, but also faced tough competition from government schools, especially at the primary level. Of the Kingdom's 30,000 primary schools, 29,000 are government-operated.

The Thewphaingarm School, which has about 2,000 students this year, has recorded a drop in new enrolments at the primary level, while the number of its secondary students continues to rise. To support this rise, the school launched its Smart Teen programme two years ago under Nahathai's supervision. Under this programme, the school divides its students into three categories, depending on their area of excellence. One group consists of those demonstrating academic excellence, another is formed from students with life skills, who are encouraged to conduct their own research, and the third is a matrix group of those students whose area of excellence is not immediately obvious.

The students in the different groups are educated in different programmes, in order to boost their excellence.

"We've received good feedback from both learners and parents," Nahathai said. "The Smart Teen programme is one of our selling points. I believe Thewphaingarm is the first school offering this kind of programme."

She said Smart Teen was created to serve the market, because parents wanted to see their children's area of excellence exploited, in order to provide them with a bright future in university studies. Due to the programme, the school expects revenue growth of 10 per cent next year.

The Thewphaingarm family earlier planned to build a university, but Nahathai said the country's poor economic outlook did not promise a bright future for that idea at this time. Instead, it may launch an academic institution that can later be upgraded to a university.

Education is the Thewphaingarm family's main business despite it having embarked on a property-development project: Thew River Place Condominium. Nahathai said the project was aimed at generating revenue to support the school, which was founded by her parents, who were both teachers. The condominium's target customers are the parents of the school's students who want to buy a residence near the school for their children.

"We must work harder to promote our products and our school. I am fully engaged in the school, as many things must be done in the present atmosphere of fierce competition," she said.

Nahathai is also waiting for an opportunity to renew her political activities and understands that when this happens, she will have to step away from the school business.