A solution to rural Thailand’s IQ inequality
Studies continue to show that IQ levels in rural areas of Thailand are lagging behind Bangkok and other urban centres.
The gap is a major hurdle to the Kingdom’s ambition of escaping the middle-income trap and booting up “Thailand 4.0” – the much-vaunted digital economy.
Scientific studies have established strong links between childhood nutrition and IQ levels. That means the struggle for IQ parity begins at home and in the family situation. Sam Kass, President Barack Obama’s senior policy adviser for nutrition policy, explains this well in this TED Talk video: http://tinyurl.com/hvzb8x2
Unfortunately it seems there is little information available in Thai on nurturing IQ levels. My own efforts to have English-language articles translated have not met with much success. This is a shame since Thais –especially Thai mothers – should be able to fully participate in the discussion about IQ inequality and possible solutions. Remember, when you make knowledge available to a mother, you educate a new generation!
This letter is therefore a plea, from a farang living in rural Thailand, that English-language information on boosting intelligence levels among children be made available for free to translation projects like mine. Making such information readily available in Thai would surely help close the gap and get Thailand on track to “4.0” status and out of the middle-income trap.
Dirk Sumter
