Mahidol’s early childhood centre tries out pre-school classes under the new normal

Mahidol University’s Early Childhood Development Centre opened its doors on Wednesday (June 17) to 30 pre-schoolers to try out childcare under Covid-19 conditions.
The children are being made to wear face masks and kept apart by splitting them into five groups and dedicating a 5-square metre space to each group.
This Covid-19 classroom will be tested out for a month, before risk-assessment results are presented at an online academic conference.

Dr Adisak Palitpolkarnpim, chief of the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Centre as well as director of Mahidol University’s National Institute for Child and Family Development, said the centre provides care for children with special needs as well as those who are vulnerable. Each child’s development and growth through this demonstration classroom is monitored by paediatricians and experts.
The Early Childhood Development Centre launched two services in 1999: Day Care and Child Development Services for children aged one year and three months to three years, and the Kindergarten Demonstration Project of Developing Potential for children aged between three and six years.
Once the new semester starts on July 1, the Mahidol centre will bring its 220 pre-schoolers together with 12 children from the “Samitivej Centre for Early Childhood Demonstration Project”. Children admitted to the Samitivej Centre are either victims of neglect or trauma and normally undergo about half-an-hour a week session with a child psychiatrist.
Results of running pre-school classrooms under the new normal will be presented at a five-day online academic conference on June 23, 25, 26, 28 and 30. Attendance is free and interested parties can register at: https://cf.mahidol.ac.th/th/