On 18 January 2021, Mr. Grisada Boonrach, Director of the Thai Red Cross Chapters Administration Office, visited Narathiwat and Pattani Provinces to follow up the progress and challenges of the Learning Promotion and Development for Students and Youths in Rural Areas Program. The program was carried out following the gracious initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Executive Vice-President of the Thai Red Cross Society (TRCS), to help students and youths with literacy problems.
The follow-up results showed that the selection of volunteer teachers in the areas is efficient because both volunteer teachers and students can meet near their homes. Therefore, there is no waste of time and travel expenses. For the curriculum designing and the Thai language teaching methods, according to students’ language problems, the Thai Red Cross Chapters Administration Office suggests the classification of the target students into three groups; 1) Ethnic students who communicate with their family members using their local dialects almost 24 hours a day. Most of them live in remote rural areas without electricity and communication devices. They have no opportunity to use Thai language in daily lives. 2) Students who are from different cultures and use local dialects which are different from students in general, and 3) Students who are illiterate because they either are unable to study full-time or have learning problems. In most cases, these students are from poor families. The above mentioned classifications will be applied as suggestions for the Provincial Red Cross Chapters in recruiting volunteer teachers and improving Thai language teaching approaches and techniques in accordance with students’ problems.
