The Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin (RCRHH) has developed a close relationship with the Principals, teachers and pupils of the Baan Hua Hin Nongkhon over a number of years with projects including supplying clean drinking water, providing new toilets, the Brain Based Learning (BBL) playground and the building of a Monkey Library.
With increasing demand for by parents for the school, the existing facilities had been outgrown by the number of student placements required and there was a need for a substantial upgrade of the buildings and educational resources the school made the decision to build a new purpose-built building containing 15 classrooms at a cost of 10,000,000 Thai Baht and approached the RCRHH to seek support in developing this project. The Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin agreed to contribute 1 million Thai Baht toward the cost of the construction of this new building.Discussions on this project started back in 2018 and has taken two years to reach fruition as the new school building was completed in May 2020.
As part of the contribution by the RCRHH the school Director promised that the club would receive one classroom to be used by the club to develop enhanced learning for children and thus was borne the dream of establishing a Rotary Education Center at the school to teach students advanced lessons in English, Sciences, and the arts. Rotarian Dr Keith Humphreys through his collaborative work with the University of Hong Kong in collaborating with Hong Kong schools and also the Thai Voices project at the Phetchaburi Panyanukul school in Hua Hin, Rotarian Dr Keith Humphreys proposed that we take the project further and establish one of the first Primary school-based Technology Enhanced Learning for Knowledge (TELK) in Thailand, and thus planning for this project started in early 2019.
Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the school and the RCRHH in 2019 the school promised to add an additional classroom, therefore giving us a double sized room. Following two months of hard work and investment the TELK Classroom became ready to be used for training the teachers at a cost of the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin 2.7 Million Thai Baht, 1 million of which went towards helping the School to construct the new School building.
Donations were also r
eceived from Help4People Foundation in Switzerland run by Dr Michael Gubser, and Meinolf and Uwe Juergens.
eceived from Help4People Foundation in Switzerland run by Dr Michael Gubser, and Meinolf and Uwe Juergens.The last phase of the project has now started with the purchase of 12 more computers at a cost of 479,574 Thai Baht and various pieces of artwork costing 28,000 Thai Baht to enhance the learning environment, this was achieved by a further donation by Dr Gubser of 10,000 USD, Andrew Madigan from Australia with a donation of 1,000 AUD, 20,000 Thai Baht from Rotarian Jean Claude Le Roux and a loan of 200,000 Thai Baht from the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin.
Hopefully funds can be raised in the near future to purchase the remaining 15 computers and installing a writing wall at this years Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin 11th Amateur Golf Classic to be held again at Banyan Golf Club on Friday 11th December 2020.
The Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin would like to sincerely thank the sponsors, players and other supporters of the Annual Amateur golf classic who over the years made this dream possible to set a precedent on establishing a state-of-the-art learning environment using the global Internet platform here in Hua Hin.
This paradigm shift in how education will be taught here in Thailand is compatible with the Education reforms (2020) recently outlined by the Ministry of Education.
This is by far one of the most ambitious projects the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin has ever embarked on and offers to establish the club as providing a state-of-the-art Education facility here in Hua Hin that will leave a lasting legacy for the school. The remaining challenge is for the Rotary Club of royal Hua Hin to support the teachers in the mindset shift required to allow the students to discover innovative approaches to learning on the World Wide Web. This we are currently doing in collaboration with the teachers.
A selection of pictures from the opening are below, CLICK HERE for more.
