Join The Thailand GREEEN Schools & Village Initiative
The Ysaan Institute would like to share the goals and strategies of our friends and colleagues who are now initiating the Thailand GREEEN Schools and Villages project.
If you would like to get involved please email us at living (at) livinghour.org for more information. More details on the GREEEN initiative follows:
PROJECT ONE: GREEEN SCHOOL INITIATIVE
Proposal
GREEEN School is a proposed integrated community & activity-based educational institution where children enjoy learning as a part of daily living without being compelled to do so. The school’s facilities and environment are children/eco-friendly: children play and learn through innovative technologies in harmony with nature. Teachers and administrator are capable and mindful.
GREEEN School will be a local institution established to accomplish social and economic missions to build and enhance children and social capacity, generate local economy, and sustain and improve the quality of the environment and people’s lives.
Transition
Global (comprehensive) Revolution in 4 dimensions of typical traditional schools will be implemented.
Education
At GREEEN School a holistic philosophy of education and modern pedagogy will be properly established. Teachers and teaching & learning technologies will be harmoniously integrated to ensure academic success for students; and will include Edutainment and PLEARNing (Play & Learn) activities.
School Administrator and Teacher performance will be enhanced continuously through open and equal opportunities to strengthen their profession’s capacity on the job.
Economy
Apart from being a social institution, GREEEN School will be managed and operated as a business-like organization. School affairs and expenses at every level and dimension will be efficiently and sufficiently managed to set a good example for children and society. Principle and practice of Sufficiency Economy will be encouraged and thoroughly blended in with all activity-based curriculums.
ENergy and ENvironment
Every GREEEN School will facilitate the creation of a demonstration and learning center for conservation and sustainable management of environment and energy. The center will function as a part of the learning process of school-based activities in green electricity generation and the production of green fuels. The school’s energy consumption in every section will be self-sustained with a goal to gain an overbalanced capacity to generate school economy, improving the quality of education.
In Conclusion:
GREEEN School will be a neo “Plato’s Academy” operated democratically and collaboratively with other local, national, and global institutions to lay a strong foundation for sustainable development by cultivating knowledge and integrity as a tool to re-establish social harmony, eradicate poverty, and finally create a more just, sustainable, prosperous, and peaceful local and global community in which everybody can live.
PROJECT TWO: GREEEN VILLAGE INITIATIVE
In compliance with Royal Initiatives, GREEEN Village is intended to set an example for the Thai government and show Thai society that communities can live happily and sustainably with Nature.
This proposed “Ecovillage” will be a place where villagers as local and world citizens spend their lives enlightening themselves and helping each other build better societies from the community level to the global level.
The “Sufficient” way of life exercised in the village will be knitted with the “Economy” activity-based, learning process of the GREEEN School system. GREEEN Village development will pave a right path to sustainable development and will help bring peace and prosperity to communities in rural areas and eventually the rest of the country.
Strategy
To advance HM Queen Sirikit’s initiative on wise environmental conservation and the proper utilization of natural resources, GIFT and UFT are in the process of collaborating with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to brush up and brighten an environmental ideology under Her Majesty’s patronage (“Small House in the Big Forest”) with an aim to eliminate Forest Encroachment and Degradation, and Deforestation, which are a serious national concerns.
Apart from collaboration with Government agencies, the GREEEN Village’s development will also be urged and encouraged in other sectors (religious, education, hotel & tourism, real estate, etc. ( to ensure a solid and widespread knowledge of permaculture).
In addition a GREEEN Village Network will be, gradually and globally, built to facilitate the education and promotion of World Harmony through the practice of Eco-Friendly Living, Harmonizing People and Nature.
Development Plan (2010-2011)
Nakhon Ratchasima
UFT has entered into an agreement with the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Administration Organization to GREEEN 16 secondary schools under its administration to improve the quality of education and strengthen the performance of their teachers and administrators.
In parallel with the transformation of the 16 trailblazers, another 42 schools of the PAO will also be urged to participate in the program.
Nong Khai
In collaboration with Ministry of Education and DPs, GIFT and UFT are currently GREEENing 2 adjoining primary and secondary “non-target” schools in Kai Bok Warn sub-district, a suburb of Nong Khai city.
This project is intended to set an example for the Ministry on how to innovatively solve “non-target” school problems; a paradigm-shift procedure (“Stop Shuttering, Start GREEENing Local Schools”) will be officially and publicly introduced as a total solution to the “low” education quality for which the Ministry is being strongly and widely criticized by the public.
