The growth of children and adolescents, which will result in the development of the nation, continues to be plagued by educational inequity. In order to facilitate learning for all people at all levels, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning acknowledges the value of leveraging resources from all sectors as “A Learning City”. The aim is to provide education that is comprehensive, of high quality, offers possibilities for lifelong learning, and promotes sustainable growth in other areas.
In organizing a forum to mobilize cooperation to drive towards a learning city to reduce inequality in education, there was a special talk on local issues to create people together and a learning city by professor Wuthisarn Tanchai, as a vice chairman of the sub-committee for area-based education to reduce inequality. He described the “learning city” as a power station for the vehicle of life because he viewed education as an essential tool for building people to lead to a change in the country. Despite the government’s initiative to provide free education, there is still a glaring educational discrepancy in Thailand at the moment. But based on the facts, it is still evident that there are disparities in the quality of education, both in terms of the educational system itself and the accessibility to comprehensive and formal education. In this sense, it is necessaryto establish possibilities for everyone to take advantage of the chance to have equal access to learning materials if we wish to address the issue of inequality. The state should provide schools the flexibility to manage in accordance with the context and work with local networks to establish a “learning city” as a crucial instrument to develop the learning of people in the community. This will help create an efficient system for both schools and educational ecosystems.
At the discussion forum on the topic of “How Might We, How to Become a Learning City,” Associate Professor Phanintra Teeranon, Head of Building a Learning City in Phayao Province for Lifelong Learning” Research Project of the University of Phayao, presented a plan for working in the Phayao province that uses network management come to be the main driver of the city. Before bringing individuals from the community together to establish a learning city, informal bargaining tactics were employed for the first time with local government agencies during the activities to create learning materials. However, the main problem in Phayao province is the increasing number of vulnerable groups and learning in this group must make the target group realize their value. Therefore, it is necessary to divide the work area into two parts for thorough care.
While another area with different physical characteristics, like the Klong Toey community, Khun Siriporn Phromwong, the project leader for the vocational skills development program for Klong Toey youth (Khlongtoey Dee Jung), suggested using the area of the pig slaughterhouse as a source of learning at the beginning of the creation of a learning city. It is hoped to establish a modest space nearby the community where everyone will be able to access learning and manage it in a Learn and Earn model. According to this group of kids, everyone needs room to raise their quality of life. Thus, they must both have education and money at the same time. The challenge in creating a learning city in the Klong Toey region is not the nature of the government’s objectives, but rather how to make such plans a reality through collaborating with the locals.
This idea is in line with that of Associate Professor Poon Thiengburanathum, Deputy Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy Administration, Program Management Unit on Area Based Development (PMU), who believed that learning and eating were the two most important aspects of the learning city cooperation mechanism. By building a learning city in the past, it may also create money. It is due to the widespread notion that education should be a standard feature of every community. However, after joining UNESCO, Thailand has begun to adapt to edible learning, ready to move forward to meet the needs of more diverse groups. By establishing cooperation with various sectors at the level and area mainly, it is believed that the city of learning will be one of the policies that will make alternative education more flourishing.
The Equitable Education Fund (EEF) attempted to establish an educational ecosystem in the past, according to Khun Pattanapong Sukmadan, assistant manager of the EEF. The door of learning should be open to everyone in society equitably. One of the methods used to build an ecosystem that supports human learning is the learning city. Each site is expected to cooperate with the network and accept responsibility for its own human resources by the Equitable Education Fund (EEF). The fundamental issue is that they may still create a learning city in their own territory, no matter how big or tiny the area is.
As for Dr. Twarat Sutabutr, the President of the Office of Knowledge Management and Development (OKMD), said that was ready to support and promote local government organizations as a city of learning. The OKMD will be a role model agency for public learning spaces that see learning challenges as intellectual infrastructure that needs to be decentralized locally. We let the locals have a role and direct their direction by suggesting to create a learning city in the form of educational tourism because there was a lot of information to learn in each area in the past but it was never collected.
It is crucial to gather them as educational tourism attractions that can spark curiosity with the help of both national and local government organizations. One strategy to promote equality in education at the municipal level is to build a “learning city” that encourages lifelong learning. The involvement of the government, local decentralization, participation, and stakeholder awareness is required. Utilizing innovation and technology, it aims to lessen educational disparity, aid in the effective promotion of learning, and contribute to the nation’s sustainable growth.
