Bangkok--22 Mar--19 Media
TK Park launches “Thailand Conference on Reading 2013” under the topic ‘Reading for Equity’ in hope to minimise social inequity and increase awareness of reading as the ‘right’ of mankind.
TK Park launches “Thailand Conference on Reading 2013” under the topic ‘Reading for Equity’ in hope to minimise social inequity and increase awareness of reading as the ‘right’ of mankind.
Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park) — a governmental organization under the umbrella of The Office of Knowledge Management and Development Bangkok - will be holding an academic conference “Thailand Conference on Reading 2013” with the theme ‘Reading for Equity’. The event will see the gathering of scholars and practitioners from Thailand and three neighbouring ASEAN countries who have been actively supporting reading and developing learning sources. These prominent academic figures will also be joined by Dr.Dhir Jhingran, a veteran ‘reading right’ activist from India, who aims to share his experience and knowledge to assist the promotion of reading on an equal basis in hope to minimise social inequity and raise the society’s awareness that reading is a basic human’s right.
Dr. Tatsanai Wongpisetkul, Vice President of the Office of Knowledge Management and Development and Director General of Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park), reveals that the “Thailand Conference on Reading 2013” academic event is part of a promotional effort to provide a creative reading and learning environment nationally which is TK Park’s primary mission. This meeting also aims to extend the knowledge and awareness within ASEAN countries while securing international academic and pedagogic cooperations on reading policies and developing learning sources that will lead to a deeper understanding as an ASEAN member under the ‘Towards ASEAN Citizenship with Books and Reading’ philosophy.
“The conference’s topic of ‘Reading for Equity’ is TK Park’s continual effort from our 2011 reading promotion campaign as part of the preparation process for Thai youngsters to become ASEAN citizens. This academic meeting will be a venue for exchanging knowledge concerning reading promotion with our neighboring ASEAN countries. Surveys of readership within ASEAN community have found that each country has encountered a similar obstacle — social inequity that results in the lack of opportunity and the lack of access to reading materials by a large number of people — that could be stated as a current fundamental problem of ASEAN countries.”Dr. Tatsanai says.
The “Thailand Conference on Reading 2013” will be held on March 21 — 23, 2013 at Asia Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. For this event, TK Park has invited experts and practitioners who have strongly advocate the promotion of reading and developing learning sources to share their insights and experiences on the stage.
The keynote speakers are:
Dr.Dhir Jhingran, India’s National Coordinator of Right to Education (RTE) under the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR),who will be giving a speech on the topic of "Education of equitable quality: the crucial role of development of good reading skills and habit during primary education".
Nila Tanzil, the founder of Indonesia’s Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi). She is a children's literacy advocate who focuses on promoting literacy in underdeveloped and remote areas of eastern Indonesia. In less than three years she has distributed more than 20,000 books and built 25 children's libraries across ten islands. Nila, who also works full-time for Nike Inc. in Indonesia as the Head of Stakeholder Mobilization, is dedicated to providing Indonesia's children with access to imaginative and inspiring children's stories. She will be presenting a speech under the topic “Rainbow Reading Gardens: An initiative to inspire children's imagination in eastern Indonesia”
Ye Htet Oo, the founder of Myanmar’s Tharapar Library and Amara Learning Center whose active role in promoting reading among children and young people has led to establishments of several small community libraries and mobile libraries in Myanmar. He will be giving a presentation focusing on the topic of “Rethinking roles of small libraries and reading promotion programs in Myanmar.”
Mrs. Nguyen Hai Ha, Director of the Hanoi School of Public Health Library, will be delivering a talk on “Transferring of books among libraries: The solution of effective promotion of the use of the books and other information in order to reduce people cultural standard between rural and city communities”
And not to be missed, is the special lecture “Book and Reading Culture in Southeast Asia” by Associate Professor Dr.Sunait Chutintaranond, Director of Asian Studies Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, who will be examining whether reading culture is involved with urban culture or the behavior of the locals in each country.
The stage will also be joined by the presence of Dr.Patcharaporn Panyawuthikrai, Independent Academic from Brain-based Learning for Kids Project, Institute of Research and Development Foundation, Thailand, who will be giving a paper presentation “Reading your ASEAN neighbors through local folk tales” to analyse whether stories for children in each ASEAN country is different.
Finally, Dr. Chulakorn Masathienwong, Director of Ramajitti Institute, Office of Research Coordination Network for Children, Youth and Education, under the support of the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Thailand Paper Presentation will be delivering a paper presentation on the topic of “Kids Who Read the World: from Reading Skill to the 21st Century Skill”.
On the last note, Dr.Tatsanai adds that he hopes that participants at this academic conference could bring back the knowledge, concept and guideline in promoting equity in reading to successfully create tangible changes in the future. He also says that every part of the Thai society should be awared of the importance of creating equal opportunities and access to reading materials for local children and youngsters nationwide. Reading, he stresses, should be the fundamental ‘right’ of every human being today. It is not about giving the opportunity but more of a duty to provide and distribute access to readership and learning to children, youngsters and people of all level. When equity in reading and learning is achieved, problems of social inequity will then lessen and cease to exist.