In northeast Thailand, there exists an educational institution which employs democracy to its very core. The school setup in rural Thailand is run by the students. Tasks like audits, purchases and procurements are all run through the students. Even the hiring process of teachers and intake of other students is taken care of by the students themselves.
In times when democratic education is professed, but rarely practiced, the school is looking to set a model example for others in the way the governance of an educational institution should go about. Classes in the school are developed and run with a view to not only imparting bookish lessons, but encouraging pupil to take the role of teaching themselves in the future.
Among the many encouraging practices followed by the school, no tuition fee is made mandatory for students whose parents cannot afford it. In exchange for the payment, the school requires some 800 trees to be planted in the immediate vicinity of the school as a modal attempt to preserve and protect the environment.
The Mechai Bamboo School, as it is known, was not founded with a view to upholding academics alone. The school servers a greater purpose, whereby it attempts to engage the community. Whether it is the purification of water, other agricultural initiatives or health and social measures, the school is attempting to be at the forefront of providing such information.
Internet based learning is a key part of the school’s curriculum and has been leveraged by students to create socially relevant projects and solutions. The school is now working to expand the model to other institutions and together with the help of tech giants Microsoft, spread awareness about the benefits of e-learning. But the school still maintains its affiliations with teachers where needed as they are the cornerstones of good education.