The activities reinforcing value and happiness of the elderly in elderly schools

Abstract

The research on “Activities Reinforcing Value and Happiness of the Elderly in Elderly Schools has 3 objectives:- 1) to study the organizing process of activities for the elderly in elderly schools. 2) to study the participation in organizing activities for the elderly. 3) to study the changes that occurred to the elderly after participating in school activities. Five elderly schools under the Social Welfare Development Center for Older Persons are selected. The mixed methods research is used with 3 research tools:- 1) the semi-structured interview for the elderly school’s personnel using the in-depth interview. 2) the semi-structured interview for the participants in organizing activities using group conference. 3) questionnaire for the selected elderly. All are selected by using purposive sampling.

The study found that there are 4 steps to organize activities for the elderly schools which are; creating a curriculum, selecting instruction, managing education, and evaluation. The operational obstacles are based on 3 factors:- 1) the factors from the elderly, i.e., their physical and mental readiness, traveling facilities, personal duties, communication, and self-adaptation. 2) the factors from the elderly schools, i.e., budget, location, the readiness of school buildings and learning equipment, public relations, and insufficiency of personnel to perform the activities. 3) environmental factor that is a religion, it restricts the female elderly to participate in school activities. After the elderly have participated in educational activities in the elderly schools, there are changes at a high level of their self-esteem recognition as well as their overall physical, mental, social, and intellectual happiness.

            Suggestions from the study findings to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security: 1) there should be a policy to raise funds for the elderly in order to create a budget to support the operation of the elderly. 2) there should be a cooperation with the Ministry of Finance to set a tax preferential policy for the persons/organizations participating in the activities for the elderly schools to encourage all sectors to pay more attention to the work for the elderly. 3) there should be a cooperation with the Ministry of Interior to expand the establishment of elderly schools in every sub-district to encourage elderly participation.