Tuesday, September 22, 2020 – Pol. Gen. Aswin Kwanmuang, Governor of Bangkok, welcomed the delegation and gave an opening address: “Expanding the Results Project and Develop Help Assistance to the Early Childhood Poverty Group in Early Childhood Development Center and Early Childhood who are out of school in Bangkok.” Assoc. Prof. Adisak Plitponkarnpim, M.D., Director of the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University gave a reported speech to this project and Mr. Patanapong Sukmadan, the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) assistant manager gave a speech to the cooperation and budget of this project. Moreover, Mr. Sakoltee Phattiyakul, Deputy Governor of Bangkok, and administrators joined as honorable guests.

Pol. Gen. Aswin Kwanmuang, Governor of Bangkok, the president of the opening ceremony said, public services are currently organized to promote and improve the quality of life of vulnerable children and youth and special needs children but it’s still missing the mechanisms, and personnel who have knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, and expertise to take care and promote the development of this group of children. Therefore, it’s necessary to have cooperation from an organization that has the knowledge, experienced, and expertise in academic technical in order to develop help assistance to early childhood and early childhood who are out of school. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration together with the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University, and the Equitable Education Fund has implemented the “Expanding the Results Project and Develop Help Assistance to the Early Childhood Poverty Group in Early Childhood Development Center and Early Childhood who are out of school in Bangkok” in order to develop, promote, support and enhance the potential of the Early Childhood Development Centers in Bangkok to have the capacity to take care and encourage the development of child poverty and early childhood who are getting into a difficult situation to grow up into a quality adult in the future.

Assoc. Prof. Adisak Plitponkarnpim, M.D., Director of the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University said that our institute is an academic center at the national level under the Mahidol University that do the research study and produce the personnel who are experts in child and family development. Moreover, it’s an interdisciplinary academic resource that working in both the science and social science in order to develop knowledge that will lead to the expansion of the benefits in wider society. The institute has set a working direction that using the 20-year National Strategy Plan, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Mahidol University Strategic Plan to answer our vision “a National Academic Institute that creates innovation and collaboration in the development and protection of children, youth, and families toward an equitable and sustainable society.”

This project will lead to help and promote the development of the child poverty group in the Early Childhood Development Center, no less than 10,000 persons and early childhood who are out of school no less than 1,000 persons.  In addition, the staff of the Early Childhood Development Center in Bangkok will get capacity development in order to support and promote the development of poor children who are getting into a difficult situation. The guideline that we get from this project will have a lot of benefits to expand to other cities in the future.

Mr. Patanapong Sukmadan, the Equitable Education Fund assistant manager explained the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) focuses to work on reducing inequality in education. We run out the policy to develop a reform model or innovation management with high efficiency to support the Ministry of Education and major organizations in the education system in order to use to support the government policy to reduce the education inequality and forwarded to the main responsible agency to expand the sustainability results.

The result of this project will help early childhood in Bangkok get a preparation before entering to studying in primary school. Moreover, this project will encourage the rate of children continue studying more in the primary school and also reducing the education inequality as well as we will have the guidelines to work with the community and family who are taking care the poor children in Early Childhood Development Center and early childhood who are out of school in Bangkok.

Pol.Gen. Aswin Kwanmuang then finalized explained that this project has integrated to work with other organizations to support both early childhoods who are in the education system and out of school.  Many academicians and supporters have adopted a good practice from real practice to exchange and learn together. We expected that this project will achieve according to our goals and reduce the education inequality to answer to the 20-year National Strategy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).