Vilawan Hengtrakul (left) and Pratheep Malhotra, MD of
Pattaya Mail Media Group, present books as alms at the opening of the Wannasri
Library in Pattaya School No. 11.
Warunya Thongrod
Pattaya School No. 11 opened a new library for use by both students and
the public made possible through a donation by the city’s top education
supervisor.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, deputy mayors and city council members were on hand
for the Jan. 15 ribbon-cutting of the Wannasri Library. The 850,000 baht
facility was funded with donations from 20 benefactors, with 500,000 baht coming
from the family of Wannapa Wannasri, head of the Pattaya Education Department’s
Educational Supervisory Unit.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome (center) and Wannapa Wannasri
(3rd right), along with honored guests and sponsors, unveil the new Wannasri
Library at Pattaya School No. 11.
“The sponsoring of the library is what the family wanted since we have been
taught by our parents to help provide opportunities to those wanting to learn,”
said Wannapa. Neither her nor her husband’s parents attended higher education.
“Their vision was instilled in me and other members of our family and, since we
had this good opportunity, we decided to sponsor the library for children to
have an education source leading to progress in education management.”
Principal Jirasak Jitsom presided over the ceremony, which saw nine monks from
area temples bless the facility and Wannapa make additional merit by donating
books for the new center.
Features include a multimedia-education room, computer-research room, newspaper
corner stocked with Thai-, English- and German-language publications, magazine
corner, presentation area and administrative offices. The library is open to
students, teachers and the general public.
“A library is an important factor in youth education as it connects directly
with reading,” Itthiphol said. “This will be the place where children can
develop their excellence in academics to become a national strength.”
“I am happy that the school has a new library since the old one is quite far
from my school building and is smaller with not enough educational tools,” said
Mattayom 4 student Nattakan Phinthurak. “The new library will be beneficial in
researching materials or homework because the new library is larger and has
enough computers.”
The spacious library is able to accommodate many
students.
