Located in the Kusuman district of Sakon Nakhon province, approximately 730km northeast of Bangkok, Ban Ponpaeng School, or the Fifth Chearavanont Uthit School, is one of the many remote learning institutions that have grown through adoption by a private enterprise.
CP Group to the rescue
Recently, the Charoen Pokaphand Group (CP Group), led by vice-president Wanlop Chearavanont,paid an annual visit to this adopted school to provide computers and sport wares. The programme is part of the company's "Chearavanont Uthit School" remote learning facility development project.
With the help of the CP Group, the 69-year-old Ban Ponpaeng School has become the only government school that hosts students from the kindergarten level to Mathayom 6 (Grade 12). Currently, the school has 856 students and 34 teachers.
Eighty percent of its students belong to the Thaisoue tribe, which is proud of its unique culture and dialect, and which is indigenous to the Kusuman district.
Mr Manu Chaithongsri, director of Ban Ponpaeng School, says that with the assistance of the company, the school has advanced tremendously.
"I believe that the students are proud of their school and themselves, and are also proud to be a part of CP Group," says Mr Manu.
He says there are a few major problems that still trouble the school; they are the lack of teaching and learning materials - especially for science for Mathayom (Grades 7 to 12) students - and insufficient laboratory equipment.
Agriculture for School Lunch programme
One of the aims of the adoption scheme is to share agricultural knowledge through the school. Such know-how could well be the most vital asset of this strong agriculturally oriented community.
In 1990, the school was selected for inclusion in the Agriculture for School Lunch programme, a venture initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. That was when the CP Group first came into contact with the school, as it started the association by providing 480 chickens and funds for layer-chicken farming.
Since then, the company has been supporting the school in many ways, including reconstructing buildings that were destroyed by fire during the 1993 political unrest.
At the end of last year, the CP Group, in response to the princess' direction, started to work closely with the students and their vegetable garden.
Mukda Ramokhon, a Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) student from Ban Ponpaeng School, Sakon Nakhon,demonstrates how vegetables are collected at her farm, which is part of the Agriculture for School Lunch programme.
"At first, I was very surprised to find that students in a rural area like this one didn't know how to grow vegetables efficiently," says Athachai Peinthantham, the CP Group's crop integration business manager, who is assisting the students in the vegetable project.
Mr Athachai says that many students tend to leave the agricultural sector, although they were born in it. "We need to push students back into the agricultural sector. We have to encourage them to love to take up agriculture," he says.
Self-sufficiency
Today, on a two-rai (3,200-square-metre) plot of land, the students produce most of the vegetables that are available in the local market.
"We don't have to depend on others, and we don't have to pay [for vegetables]. Besides, we can make use of our skills in our [future] careers. The vegetables we grow are chemical-free," Mukda Ramokhon, a Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) student says,explaining the benefits of the project. She and her friends are directly responsible for taking care of the garden.
She added that she feels very proud when she sees her friends eat the vegetables that they grow themselves. Mukda has applied the Chinese broccoli-planting method to her own garden at home.
The children's produce is sold first to the school cafeteria. Any surplus is sold at the local market.
The CP Group also teaches the school about layer-chicken farming, and the company provides the equipment and the layer chickens.
"The CP Group's officers showed me the proper way to raise and handle the chickens," says Ronthachai Paipier, a Mathayom 5 (Grade 11) student, who is in charge of the chicken farm. He also acquired special techniques, such as channelling music into the chicken coops and feeding the chickens on Leucaena leucocephala (Lead tree) leaves to lower the chickens' stress, thereby enabling the chickens to lay more eggs.
The farm has 415 layer chickens that produce about 400 eggs each day.
Schools for the poor
The "Chearavanont Uthit School" project aims to support schools in remote areas. The first Chearavanont Uthit School was established in Sikhiu district, Nakhon Ratchasima province.
Since then, the company has adopted several schools in different regions of Thailand, including Ban Ponpaeng School. To date, there are seven schools in the project.
An adoption of a school results in five main commitments on the part of the CP Group:
- an annual school visit to provide teaching and learning materials and essential
basic subsistence items;
- involvement in an agricultural project;
- provision of accommodation support;
- dissemination of information and communication technology development; and
- participation in activities organised by True Corporation.
"The CP Group is well aware of the importance of education," says Mr Wanlop, "Without education, Thailand will never develop."
In the case of Ban Ponpaeng School, according to Mr Wanlop, the school's success has been made possible by the dedication of the school director and the education service office in the area in cooperating with the CP Group. Without them, the company's help alone would have achieved little.
"The CP Group's support for the school in layer-chicken farming and vegetable cultivation is not intended to just reduce the expenses of the school. The main goal is to teach the students to be aware of their duties and responsibilities and to inculcate in them a sense of citizenship," says Mr Wanlop.
He offers his thoughts on Thai education today: "It is wrong to let teachers provide everything to the students and solve all their problems for them. We should point out the problems and let them solve their problems on their own. We just stand behind them [and give suggestions and guidance to them]."
Bangkok Post, December 2, 2008