The people of the three nations of Indochina and of Myanmar are renowned for their enthusiasm for education. Yet the dire shortage of schools and teachers means that the environment is less than conducive to the fulfillment of their educational aspirations. One potentially effective means of improving the educational environment in these countries is promotion of greater use of the media in education. This two-year project invited media personnel from the target nations to study the practical aspects of distance education via satellite television.
The grant recipient, the Thailand-based Distance Learning Foundation (chaired by H.E. Khwankeo Vajarodaya), initiated a highly successful satellite TV distance education project for students in remote regions of Thailand in December 1995. At present this project, which enjoys the strong support of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is providing class content via TV on a regular basis to 119 elementary and secondary schools around the nation as well as the general viewing public. Hearing of the project's success, more and more people from China, Vietnam, and other neighboring countries began visiting the foundation to observe its work, and the foundation realized that it needed to find a way to meet the needs of media personnel from these countries. The SPFsupported project came at just the right time.
This year a total of 43 people took part in two nine-day training programs, in January and November. The participants included not only TV production personnel in charge of educational program production but also Ministry of Education officials and educators from correspondence colleges in the four target countries. They observed the operations of Thai news agencies and TV networks and received instruction in program-production techniques and the operation of transmission equipment for distance education. In addition to acquiring program production know-how, they gained a greater understanding of the future potential of distance education and the conditions necessary for undertaking it, including the importance of securing the means to make use of satellite communications.
Most important, the project made Distance Education Foundation personnel keener than ever to use what they had learned in Thailand to further the development of surrounding countries. The Thai media gave the project major coverage, and it is hoped that this kind of cooperation will continue in some form.