Next week, grandmother Kim-lun Jinakul will be the most senior member — at the age of 91 — in the graduating class of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). Her loved ones are making the journey from Phayao province to the school to watch Kim-lun get her Bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology on Aug. 9.
“If we don’t learn, don’t read and know nothing, how can we talk with someone else? If we always read — be it a newspaper or listen to news broadcasts — we will be kept abreast with the goings-on in the world, in our country and in the society,” Grandma Kim-lun told Thai PBS.
It was her girlhood dream to advance her studies but life got in the way.
She she applied to STOU in 1998, when she was just 70 years old. But, again, life got in the way and she was needed to help out in the family’s business. In 2011, she returned to STOU and has now completed what is designed to be a four-year program, but can really be done as slowly as the student wants.
Assoc. Prof. Panumas Kudngaongarm explained that the university welcomes elderly students and does not ask them to pay fees. They have also created some courses specifically to serve the wants of older students and have created a study-at-home option for them.
Assoc. Prof. Rutchaneekorn Chotchaisathit of the Human Ecology department said that they make it easy for senior citizens to take classes. They simply register and all the reading materials are delivered to their door. There are also TV and radio programs that support the lessons.
This year, 199 Thai senior citizens have applied to the elderly study program at the university.
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