While preparing for public examinations like their counterparts around the world, students at one school in Thailand also study core life values, such as truth, respect and honesty, as part of the curriculum. Roong Aroon School, in Bangkok, is a school with a difference. Based on Buddhist principles, it was set up by a leading Thai academic, Prapapat Niyom, in 1997, and built in an idyllic setting beside a lake surrounded by trees and wildlife.
The school applies a holistic approach to teaching. It has 1,150 students, ranging from kindergarten to secondary level, and the curriculum values 'learning by doing'. Children are taught important life skills by local farmers, hill-tribe villagers, environmental management workers and gardeners. So instead of sitting in class with a textbook to learn about food, students go to the fields to grow rice.
'We believe education is not about getting higher marks in examinations or competing with others,' says Prempreeti Harntanong, a social science teacher at the school for the past 11 years. 'We want our students to have a public and civic mind - and have life skills to cope with challenges.'
Some parents might doubt that a school devoting so much time to non-exam subjects can prepare its students for higher education. But 90 per cent of children that have left Roong Aroon have gone on to study at university.
There are about 50 of these alternative schools in Thailand today - 20 of them in Bangkok. And the number is growing.
'More people in our society are looking for better education - one that can guide their children to improve on personal quality and [learn] to share, love and respect,' Harntanong says.