Initiative to expand opportunities and enhance learning through cloud technology under aim of closing gap in educational opportunities for over 10 million students and teachers across country
Bangkok, 9 September 2020 – Microsoft (Thailand), recently announced its partnership with the Ministry of Education, alongside others in the private sector, launching the Digital Education Excellence Platform (DEEP), which consolidates a variety of learning courses into a national resource to encourage lifelong learning, narrowing the learning gap and propelling the education sector towards excellence. Microsoft is honored to provide content and resources to support self-learning through Microsoft Office 365, an online learning platform for education, to expand educational opportunities and equip over 10 million students and teachers with digital skills.
Mr. Pawish Jaishuen, Deputy Managing Director, Public Sector, Microsoft Thailand, said: “COVID-19 has hastened the adoption of digitalization to optimize the operations of all sectors, including education. We are witnessing how technology is being utilized in the education sector in four distinct ways: technology being integrated for users or learners, improvements in the performance of operational processes, the potential of educational personnel being unleashed, and the creation of new learning content. Now that the education system has been urged to improve and reform, everything will be moving towards a digital experience. It requires harmony between school directors, staff, teachers, systems, educational materials, and IT experts to ensure a complete, consistent, and comprehensive education system. As we go on, hybrid learning will become an effective approach that works well with this direction in the future.”
“We found the Ministry of Education’s plan to be a great start in laying the groundwork for the present and future of Thai education. The plan’s goal is not only to create new ways to learn but also to elevate the educator community nationwide, uplifting and upskilling them in the right way. It is clear that we are still in a transitional period now; the education system and schools are still determining the best path forward. While there are still challenges to address, we can foresee that when pedagogy is coupled with scalable technology for online and hybrid learning, it can help drive enhanced learning outcomes, increase well-being, and create a more fulfilling experience for teachers and students,” added Mr. Pawish.
Mr. Aiden McCarthy, Worldwide Chief Solution Architect for Education, said: “Digital transformation is about reimagining how to integrate technology with people, data, identity authentication, and other processes together for students, educators, parents, and system leaders to capture the benefits of digitalization and prepare for the innovations to come. This requires the reorganization of the learning process, and reimagining educational content and delivery. Today, we congratulate the Ministry of Education in leading the reform of Thailand’s education system and for its clear understanding that digital education transformation will continue to support education in Thailand in the future. Naturally, this needs leadership, technology, experience, and a workforce to drive and support the new approach, but it will provide lifelong learning opportunities for students.”
With the on-going learning gap issues in society at present, alongside the fast-changing digital transformation of the 21st century and the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education has enacted a policy to collaborate with the private sector and civil society to ‘Unlock, Modify and Open’. This policy has the aim of driving the education sector towards excellence and sustainability, targeting over 10 million students and educators to be able to access high quality content and various learning options, and will increase the capabilities of teachers and students to match changing global demand.
Mr. Nataphol Teepsuwan, Minister of Education, said: “DEEP is a platform that enhances equality in education. It creates more learning flexibility as it is a digital learning platform that provides comprehensive courses on different topics for learners to choose from and improve their performance. It meets the needs of students, educators, and school leaders. Most importantly, the platform helps create workers with performance levels that match the demands of the job market and the private sector. Any individual who would like to re-skill is also welcome on the platform as DEEP was designed to enable lifelong learning.”
“We are committed to boosting human capital, so the main goal of education is to ensure that all Thais succeed in their desired careers. If we can accomplish that goal, we will be able to create a talented and skilled workforce across the country. We must work together to drive the growth of education towards excellence by empowering children to unleash their full potential in their own ways because the future of children is also the future of the country,” Mr. Nataphol concluded.
Microsoft is committed to empowering every person and every organization on this planet to achieve more. This means supporting the education sector around the world, as well as in Thailand. Microsoft is elevating and transforming the education sector in line with the country’s plans to drive growth and streamline the education system, enabling teachers to focus more on children than paperwork in order to adapt to the 21st century environment. Microsoft is also taking part in supporting the Digital Education Excellence Platform (DEEP), providing the platform and curricula designed together with content developers who are benefiting the Thai education sector by offering various learning options to over 10 million educational personnel and students.
Microsoft also supports the Ministry of Education’s Human Capital Excellence Center (HCEC) designed to enhance the country’s human capital to meet the demands of work, industry, and business. Microsoft is providing Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to elevate the teaching profession through a partnership with the Office of the Basic Education Commission to expand the opportunities to access technology and up-to-date skills and knowledge developments that meet global standards for 400,000 teachers.
In addition, Microsoft is collaborating with Bangna Commercial College on a pilot project focusing on teaching currently-in-demand vocational skills for teachers (train-the-trainer) to become Microsoft Innovative Experts (MIEs), who are expected to pass on their skills and knowledge to over 1 million vocational students. This not only advances the competitiveness of vocational students, but also responds to the government’s strategies for ‘First S-Curve’ and ‘New S-Curve’ industries. So far, over 100,000 teachers have attended online training sessions since the COVID-19 pandemic began.