Interview with an indigenous student that experienced a crisis from the covid 19 pandemic

Greetings and introduction

I am Suradech … from Xavier Learning Community (XLC) in Chiang Rai, Thailand. I am glad to be here to share my stories with you.

How did Covid-19 affect my learning process?

In the beginning of the outbreak, most of the students, including myself, had to go home and study online instead. It was a huge challenge for me. I was not used to the technology employed for the virtual classes so I had to learn how to operate it. Another challenge was that my house is located in the mountainous countryside. I often encountered problems in my study and my communication with classmates and teachers due to unstable Internet connectivity, resulting in me going up to the mountain to search for a spot with good Internet signal. Also, I sometimes could not recharge the laptop battery as I had not enough supply of electricity from the solar cells installed in my house. In addition, managing my time to study and help my parents on their farm was also challenging.

How did Covid-19 affect our school?

This pandemic certainly had a huge impact on our school. Among the major impacts was that several students had to quit from XLC to help their families earn money. It was really sad that they had to come to that decision. In addition, students in Hospitality Management could not complete their internships. Another impact was that many student formation programs were cancelled. For instance, we had to stop joint programs with our partners from Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, and USA. Until now, they cannot come back to XLC yet to do voluntary works here. We have missed our twenty-four-hour English and Chinese speaking partners since then.

How have we coped with the pandemic?

As now we are back in XLC, we practice the New Normal safety protocols in our daily lives. Besides, we have been flexible and creative in designing activities suitable to our needs and present situation. For example, we created online classes, training, and service learning programs with our partners from inside and outside the country. Above all, we have also coped with the pandemic with exercising patience, staying positive, and prayers.

How would I reimagine the post Covid-19 classrooms and students’ activities?

We realize that virtual classrooms will continue to be part of our learning process, integrated with face-to-face classrooms once campuses reopen. Having that said, we hope we will be provided with online learning programs that are more student-centered, engaging, collaborative, and inclusive. Having virtual student activities that are inclusive also helps us become more open-minded and develop stronger relationships with others. In addition, we hope we will be provided with necessary training to advance our skills in using technology. More than that, we need learning subjects or programs that offer us knowledge, skills, and values to facilitate us to become graduates ready to live in the post Covid-19 world. Certainly, we also hope foreign volunteers will be able to come back here to live with us learning together.