SET Senior Executive Vice President-Head of Legal Affairs Division and overseeing Social Responsibility Management Department Rongrak Phanapavudhikul, as a director and treasurer of the SET Foundation, said that the SET Foundation has been implementing the "EF" project in Chiang Rai province since 2020 until now, Under the project, the concept of EF has been shared to public health network pers
"The project's findings revealed that changes in the approach to caring for and raising children have significantly improved early childhood children with 70 percent of them having good to very good levels of EF brain skills. The project's success stories demonstrate better behavior of caregivers and children. For examples, children stopped mobile phone addiction and aggression to engage storybooks, social play, and normalized interactions. Moreover, school students have adopted positive skills including working memory, shift/cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, emotional control, self- monitoring, focus, initiating, planning & organizing and goal-directed persistence after teachers have joined the project and revised teaching methods to align with EF guidelines."
"Such knowledge and wisdom will form a valuable model, enabling Chiang Rai Province to become an important learning source for human resource development, with outcome that can further expand to other areas broadly with ripple effect throughout the country. This will help create positive impact in a sustainable manner," added Rongrak.
Chiang Rai Provincial Education Officer and Secretary of Chiang Rai Province EF Development and Promotion Committee Wanlop Maijampa said that Chiang Rai Province borders a high-risk drug trafficking zone while the economic situation has forced parents to leave home to work, causing children to have delayed development and be at risk of going down the wrong path. After the SET Foundation has implemented the "EF Approach" project using the EF prototype developed in Phaya Mengrai district to drive EF in Chiang Rai Province, significant advancements in early childhood development were witnessed. The project yielded a remarkable 20 percent higher in children's EF value than the national average (norm).
Chiang Rai Province has 57,853 early childhood children aged 0-6 years, accounting for 46.3 percent of all children and youth in the province. Currently, 35,377 children and 39,177 public health personnel, early childhood teachers, parents and community leaders have participated in the project. There are also more than 270 people who are knowledgeable about EF or EF Facilitators who work together to disseminate this knowledge to achieve broader results. In addition, the province has appointed the Executive Function committee for Chiang Rai Province to support in-depth operations and serve as an important learning center for human resource development to build a solid foundation.
RLG Institute Managing Director Subhawadee Harnmethee said that EF brain skills begin developing from the first year of life to around 25 years but the best development at 3-6 years old. Early childhood is therefore the foundation of life. Children who continuously develop their brain skills or EF will be able to build good life immunity, have discipline and responsibility, and be ready to push themselves towards their goals in life.
In addition, EF brain skills are the foundation for the development of more complex thinking processes and personality, or called "higher order thinking" which will lead to "21st century skills" that are essential for living in the modern world.
The SET Foundation believes that the development to uplift the quality of life of the people who are the foundation of society is an integral part for the country's sustainable economic development. This involves working with partners from the government, business and civil society sectors to improve the quality of life and create well-being for all Thais.
The SET Foundation firmly adheres to "Power of collaboration for better society" (Partner for Better Society).
Source: SET Corporate Communications