Thai school changes Mother’s Day activity to support students living without mothers

Anuban Sri That school has chosen to abstain from organising traditional Mother’s Day activities this year. Instead, students have been encouraged to create cards to express their love and respect. The decision comes following the school’s exploration into the home lives of its enrollees, revealing that less than 30% of its students live with their mothers. The revised details of the event, posted on the school’s Facebook page, garnered significant applause and shares from netizens.

Anuban Sri That school in Udon Thani, a large-sized institution accommodating students from kindergarten 2 through to sixth grade, currently houses approximately 805 students with 33 educators and administrators. The majority of these students are from low-income families, earning less than 3,000 baht (US$85) per month.

Today the school is dispersing Equal Education scholarships, a scheme for its most impoverished students, awarding 27 scholarships of 1,500 baht each (US$43), reported KhaoSod.

One pleased family, 11 year old schooler Nam Khaeng, fifth grade and her 63 year old grandma, Kemthong Wanyao, shared her satisfaction today when received a scholarship from the school.

“I’m overjoyed. As I can finally pay the electricity bill. I’ve been raising my two grandchildren alone because their parents are separated. It’s just like they’re my kids. I always join them on Mother’s Day at school due to the absence of their biological mother, but this year the school didn’t organise such an event and let students compose poems and write essays instead. It’s a nice change.”

The director of Anuban Sri That school, Seksan Sopharat, revealed the school didn’t cancel the Mother’s Day activities. They just adjusted it from paying respect to mothers to making greeting cards, painting, writing essays and composing poems in praise of mothers.

“This change happened because we acknowledge our student’s feelings. The school’s survey showed that most children do not live with their mothers, either due to their parents’ separation, their mother’s death, or their mother’s work out of the province. We saw that less than 30% of families have mothers staying with them.

“On a closer look, some live with grandparents. Every time we organised the event, we found some tearful students who had no mothers coming like other friends. However, the change of the event methodology seems to be understood by all students, as they all know that most friends wouldn’t have mothers around the event… We offer equal education scholarships to students that are also a form of help.”

Seksan expressed his surprise at the extensive shares and comments on the school’s fresh approach.

“It never crossed our mind that there would be an enormous amount of shares. We neither set up a scene nor did we follow the trend, but we just did what we saw. All these realities of family conditions were proposed to me by the teachers before we went ahead with it.

“We are just a small school. Any action taken would be discussed and mutually agreed upon. This is the pride of all teachers and the reputation of the school. We wish to thank netizens for the encouragement and admiration of Anuban Sri That school’s recognition.”