It is not just about encouraging creativity to produce straightforward items using local expertise alone; it also provides a venue for “young innovators” from rural and urban schools to compete in teams for ideas to enhance local goods and sell them on global marketplaces. It can be obtained for sale through the Shopee application, an online marketplace that can open up new markets overseas. Production discovered four years ago that the students involved in the project’s workmanship might bring in more than 1.5 million baht.
The path to the “Equity Partnership’s School Network Award” competition was not a smooth one. Each team must endure a rigorous evaluation procedure by the committee based on three criteria: incorporating innovative ideas into the result (creative innovation), illuminating the process, and demonstrating teamwork. The first gate that draws visitors to an online store is the provenance of the goods and the means of communication from the packaging. Next is teamwork, where everyone must organize their tasks and recognize cultural variances while also forging ideas in unison. The final component is marketing. Marketing/Selling has to estimate manufacturing costs and realistically design trading routes. More significantly, there must be a profit left over after all expenses are paid.
Most of the bi-polar school students who participated in the program, both in rural and international settings, claimed that it helped them become assertive, dared to think, dared to do, and dared to attempt and fail. Most importantly, students broaden their horizons, develop connections with people from many backgrounds, and get perspective on how to think about making their own goods distinctive, exceptional, and more global through the counsel of peers and mentor professors.
There were three categories of winning teams when it came time for the Equity Partnership’s School Network’s year four competition announcement day. Team South won first place for producing 100% natural mambrid Eco print scarves. Children from Ban Nong Thong School in Phatthalung Province combined their ideas with those from Prasarnmit Demonstration School’s international curriculum to create it. The 2nd prize goes to the Moonsilk team, developing simple soaps to be valuable with silk proteins. Children from St. Andrew’s International School in Bangkok and Ban Kae Yai School in Surin Province collaborate. The TBS Team from Ban Tub Berk Ruamjai School in Phetchabun Province and Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok, who created a Hmong embroidered shoulder bag, took third place. Every youngster leaves with a success certificate and a wonderful recollection of their colleagues serving as their study partners in Thailand.
The rivalry may be completed, but what is truly sustainable is laying the groundwork for a network of educational equality and local business growth. Every product narrative features a tale of young people from various cultural backgrounds cooperating to create priceless things and establishing relationships with customers both domestically and abroad. Additionally, because they are situated in remote places or rural areas, schools that are considered ineffective are given new life and given hope. They got the chance to demonstrate their potential with peers from other schools, which is a terrific tale for the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) to use to assemble the network’s strength, generate funds, and fight to ensure that all children have access to education.
