The Thai Ministry of Education and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on primary and secondary education, curriculum development, teacher training and vocational training, a news report said.
Currently the South East Asia Center launched a pioneering educational initiated based on the Finnish model in 12 schools in Thailand. The hope is to inspire widespread educational reforms across the country.
The educational and social service organization announced that it would be cooperating with Code School Finland which was carefully selected out of 94 institutions worldwide.
SEAC chief capability officer and managing director, Aringya Thaloengsri, explained in the news report that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and with digital disruption being a major facilitator of change in all industries, it has become necessary to change the way Thai children are taught.
The curriculum not only focuses on hard skills such as coding, AI or robotics but also the soft skills such as learning techniques, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, business skills and user-centric ideas, which will be equally important this century.
The Finnish ambassador to Thailand, Yuri Jarviaho, said it was a positive and timely step with education in the country in a continuous state of flux.
“Finland has a long tradition of investing and developing its education system. In the Worldwide Education for the Future Index, we, Finland, were ranked number one,” he said.