Dr.Tarradon Piamphongsant, Director – Public Policy of the Future Innovative Thailand Institute (FIT), announced that the winner of EdTech is 'Career Visa', who has successfully introduced Thailand's first-ever career guidance application featured with career suitability assessment certified by highly renowned and experienced career experts from several professional fields, ranging from Wall Street's investment bankers to Broadway artists. Backed by extreme specialization in data analysis, the newly developed application has been expected to assist university graduates, totaling over 6 million per year, in understanding their strengths towards appropriate career opportunities. The project has selected eight outstanding teams from a total of one hundred teams to promote Thailand's progressive development, particularly in education. Additionally, this knowledge-based project requires a collection of information on five major implementation aspects as well as an evaluation of skills of the assessment's respondents using the Machine Learning (ML) model for greater assessment accuracy.
The First Runner-Up: School Bright
School Bright introduces its new digital school management platform, where students, teachers, and parents can be exposed to a seamless connection together on a mobile application. Currently, more than 100,000 students and 100 schools have registered for the application, which helps teachers reduce their working time to only 15 minutes per day. According to several studies, teachers' working time has been wasted by daily document-related tasks, estimated to be a lengthy period of 15,862 years. This revolutionary platform can efficiently help teachers save their working time by 90%, while providing schools with reduced implementation costs of up to 30%.
The Second Runner-Up: BASE Playhouse
BASE Playhouse comes up with an integrated platform where knowledge can be fostered in the form of games. The platform provides Thai youths of the 21st century with logical skills and abilities to tackle existing issues. As a person's actual skills can be developed while playing games, this platform also unveils a collaborative action of offline and online skills to be illustrated in selected board games. As a teacher has completed a simulation setup of the learning system, students will therefore be able to create practical skills through selected broad games, focusing mainly on the development of knowledge, creative thinking, communication skill, and ability to work with others. In fact, this platform aims to promote advanced skill development for students of the junior high school level. Recently, this skill development platform has been selected for a trial by Plearn Pattana School and Vajiravudh College, where advanced technology will play its vital role in evaluating students' skills via their playing behaviors and accurate playing processes.
The Third Runner-Up: VOXY
VOXY makes debut of its online English teaching platform using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology together with live lecturing. It can be said that Thai people's lack of English proficiency is resulted from inferior English teaching in schools and universities, despite spending a large amount of development budgets, and fear of English communication. This platform has been developed as an application, providing 24-hour online English programs run by native English speakers, which can be installed on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers of both iOS and Android systems. With a variety of updated contents, this application can highly satisfy growing demands for English language learning of both organizations and individual users. Reportedly, more than five million people have registered to use this groundbreaking application.
The Fourth Runner-Up: Codekit
Codekit successfully advances a brand-new computer software development platform with the use of unconventional technology, for instance, Artificial Intelligence or AI. Thailand's business and industrial sectors are experiencing the lack of manpower with specialized computer communication skills due to the scarcity of skillful and experienced teachers, teaching by coding mainly on paper, and obstacles related to coding curriculum development. Codekit has a passionate desire to generate self-learning for all groups of users, ranging from junior high school students to adults without related backgrounds. According to the team, this platform helps minimize educational disparity efficiently and appropriately.
For HealthTech, the team 'ARINCARE' has been honored the winner of the competition, followed by two runners-up. ARINCARE has evolved a digital pharmaceutical platform to substitute traditional working processes. According to surveys, there are more than 21,000 drugstores in various communities across the country and around 11 million people are willing to reach out for their services. It is reported that almost all working processes are operated manually and via offline programs. In contrast, the digital pharmaceutical platform is developed to unveil excellent services, varying in pharmaceutical management, patient data collection, and medical prescription, with free of charge, especially for Thai pharmacists. The platform also provides productive suggestions for issues and improvements related to business operations and management, leading the Thai pharmaceutical industry to digital transformation. Its services are available for over 2,000 drugstores and 30,000 customers over the previous year. Additionally, the application developed from this digital pharmaceutical platform can efficiently support a broad range of medical services provided by community hospitals and public health centers, particularly in pharmaceutical management. In the near future, the medication use data inside and outside hospitals will be linked together as an integrated platform under one database.
The First Runner-Up: MeDiSee
MeDiSee proudly presents a sophisticated clinic service platform that efficiently facilitates both operations and management of medical centers. This innovative platform allows patients to obtain diagnostic tests and bring them to medical specialists for further treatments. In addition to enhancing Thailand's public health system, the newly developed clinic service platform can ensure the reduction of complicated treatment processes.
The Second Runner-Up: Remote-Care
Remote-Care has introduced its daily healthcare platform on a wearable device, where healthcare programs will be featured on an online application. Developed especially for users' happiness and fun, practices of daily healthcare, starting with step counting, will be rewarded with prizes, including cash. The service, recently available at two public hospitals and a few other private hospitals, is being promoted among patients with obesity and non-communicable diseases, considered major causes of other severe illnesses, in which the government is inevitably forced to provide continuing supports of medical treatments for over 8.5 million patients with a massive budget of more than 28 billion baht.
"We always remain concerned about education-related issues, including social inequality in all aspects. Admittedly, traditional solutions alone cannot solve such problems and we have therefore determined to initiate the 'GovTech Mission – One Nation, One Mission' project aiming to push Thailand forward with greater development of education and public health, supported by strategic collaboration of several sectors, providing new knowledge and professional assistance in terms of operations and management for the industries. As ideas are implemented, we expect that public organizations, hospitals, and schools nationwide will be exposed to greater development. In the next stage, winning teams of the competition will be eligible to be part of the project, where details of implementation will be discussed further," said Dr. Tarradon.
Mr. Korn Chatikavanij, Deputy Leader of the Thai Democrat Party and former Finance Minister, revealed "This remarkable project aims to link Thai startups and advanced technology together, paving the way to greater development of education and public health in the country. Practical solutions are fostered to help solve work-related problems occurred to the public sector, as part of the goal to propel Thailand into the future. As a consequence, innovative startups and the Thai government will be able to gain mutual benefits in the long run."
"Personally, I would like to thank all excellent teams for joining the project. This is the beginning of a great success and, going forward, those outstanding ideas will be put into action. Aiming for practical results of implementation, these innovative startups have been anticipated to provide Thailand's education and public health industries with greater achievement. I believe we are really on the right track with these new development initiatives. As the general election will take place soon, many people may think only politicians can solve the country's problems, but, in fact, all of us can help in our own ways," added Mr. Korn
Mr. Parit Wacharasindhu, Co-founder of the 'GovTech Mission – One Nation, One Mission' project, unveiled "The project is launched to promote problem-solving alternatives backed by the application of modern technology, which can efficiently solve problems related to education and public health. Additionally, this technology-inspired project welcomes new ideas evolved by innovative people. As problems are clearly addressed, the private sector is aware of securing effective solutions and has determined to get this project implemented. Advanced technology, for instance, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and online applications are used directly to tackle existing problems in line with people's various demands."