When the 1937 census in Thailand revealed that approximately 70 per cent of the country's population was illiterate, the government took immediate steps to raise the literacy level. Among these were the establishment of the Division of Adult Education under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and the enactment of the compulsory law in 1940, thereby giving birth to the Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning (FLFLP) program. Subsequent factors such as World War II and the instability of the economy forced the repeal of the law and placed less emphasis upon literacy. / With the recovery of the economy, the FLFLP program was reactivated, and experiments in adult education were conducted. At first the thrust of the program was to campaign for literacy, making the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic important. Following these experiments, the FLFLP program was extended to include problem solving, family planning, and other means to improve living conditions. / The basic purpose of this study was to describe and to analyze a single case and pilot study of the FLFLP program as it was actually carried out in a rural area of Thailand. A second purpose was to ascertain reasons for participation or non-participation in the program. A third purpose was to develop a research plan that could be used in additional studies of the FLFLP program in other villages. / Using Rogers' adoption process as a guide for observations, interviews, participation and analysis, the researcher determined those factors motivating villagers to participate in, not to participate in, or to drop out from the FLFLP program in the research village. / The most often repeated reasons for participation in the program were to learn literacy skills, to gain practical knowledge and skills that would improve their living conditions, to help them communicate with outsiders. Fatigue, illness and geographic distance were the reasons that both non-participants and drop-outs gave. / At the conclusion of the study, the researcher had gathered data through interviews and observation to indicate that the FLFLP program in one Thai village had fulfilled only one of its objectives; specifically, the improvement of the villagers' literacy skills. The two objectives which were not achieved by the FLFLP program were: (1) To help the learner to become "Khit-phen"--someone who is capable of engaging in a critical thought process. (2) To improve the living conditions of the learners. / In the course or the development of the program it appeared that the villagers acquired new knowledge and skills but nevertheless had difficulty in applying these in their daily lives. / As a consequence of the data collected in his pilot study, the researcher made a number of recommendations which, if implemented, might increase the likelihood of the success of the FLFLP activities in the villages of Thailand. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 0893. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74143 |
| Contributors | AMATYAKUL, KIATIWAN., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 115 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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