Academic knowledge is no longer enough. Young people also need to learn life skills so that they can grow up to take the country in the right direction.
Since the Thai educational system is sorely lacking in this subject, demonstration or Satit schools have gathered to explain how life-skills training can be included in the curriculum.
The third Satit Education Fair kicked off yesterday at Kasetsart University Laboratory School Centre for Educational Research and Development (KUS) in Bangkok. It runs until May 1.
Rather than just showcasing academic intelligence or innovations, this fair is different in that it includes activities to teach students life skills, KUS principal Assoc Prof Daranee Utairatanakit said.
"We are presenting activities that can help improve students' life skills and want to encourage teachers from other schools to use these ideas," she said.
Phra Mahavudhijaya Vajiramedhi, director of the Vimuttalaya Institute, said in his keynote speech entitled "Mindful Education", that Thailand has only focused on the academic side of education because of competition with the West. Knowledge has been kept specialised, and students were encouraged to only learn by rote.
"Lessons taught this way just stress out the students and burden them with a lot of information. Also, students' creativity and imagination are stifled. Our education system does not turn them into good people," he said.
"The global educational trend is changing from competitive learning to lessons that bring people together. Why do Thais still want to compete?" Vudhijaya asked.
Instead, he said, people in the educational sector should use the Buddhist precepts to teach students life skills, so they grow up to be less selfish.
KUS already applies the principle of equality in its classes. Daranee said classrooms in her institution had all sorts of students - normal students and those with learning disabilities, rich kids as well as poor ones. This way they learn to help each other and not look down on those inferior to them.
So far, around 50 demonstration schools under the Higher Education Commission and Rajabhat universities have presented their achievements through exhibitions, presentations and workshop training under the "Best Practice from Lab Schools" concept. Apart from developing students' life skills, including morality and teenage attitudes, these schools have also developed attention-grabbing instructional media and better teaching techniques.