Lesson learned: Developing life skills in youth for reducing inequality and elevating the quality of life in highland rural school dormitories of Omkoi district, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract

Background: Youth dormitory management in Thailand’s education system reveals evidence of discrimination. This is due to the high deviation in educational policy in aspects such as high cost or budget of educational management with dormitory provision in some programmes, when compared to the lower number of youth who receive the benefits of these programmes. Moreover, some programmes are not fair in the selection criteria and had the objectives that responded only to a specific group of population. Objective: The objectives of the study were to implement a group intervention programme in life skills development for youth in highland rural school dormitories of Omkoi District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Methods: This study used a qualitative research method to recruit and select 30 participants. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were used to collect data from the participants. The thematic analysis method was used for analysing the collected data. Results: The findings revealed three themes: 1. The result of analysing and synthesising the context, 2. the result of developing the model, and 3. the result of the life skills development activity programme for youth who lived in the school dormitories. Conclusion: Further studies would be required in order to compare the situation between rural and urban areas. Furthermore, youth life skills development programmes should be developed in the appropriate contexts. Moreover, the researcher must pay more attention to the society and culture of the target audience in order to achieve development that would be consistent with the area.