Mechanisms Development for Driving COVID-19 Pandemics Prevention in Educational Institutions in Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to study the mechanisms development for driving COVID-19 pandemics prevention in educational institutions in Thailand and evaluate the preparation measures before the start of the semester 1 in the academic year 2022. The samples were purposively selected, including 10 senior executives of the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Education. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews based on structured questions. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Quantitative sample group were 36,751 educational institutions that performed self-assessment on their preparation for COVID-19 prevention for semester 1 of academic year 2022 through the Thai Stop COVID Plus system. The data were analyzed by frequencies, percentages and tested of spatial relationships including the use of Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) study. It was found that the development of mechanisms to drive measures to COVID-19 pandemics prevention in educational institutions consisted of (1) driving operations with participation by the committee driving public health measures in preparation for the opening of the semester on COVID-19 prevention under the integrated policy cooperation at the central level and regional operations at the area level; (2) setting the direction of measures guidelines for practice and policy proposals; (3) transferring policies and implementation measures to network partners and educational institutions; and (4) monitoring the performance of educational institutions through digital technology. Among the overall educational institutions, 78.40% of them participated in the self-evaluation which covered 6 dimensions; 99.36% of them passed all 20 items; and 0.45% passed the first-dimension measure, items 1-12. The analysis results found that the higher percentage of provinces with educational institutions that had passed the preparation assessment after the school opening compared to the period before the start of school season indicated the effectiveness of the measures and the high level of compliance of the educational institutions. As a result, there was no COVID-19 case detected in educational institutions; which led to the confidence on the preparedness and safety for school opening. It was recommended that the systems and mechanisms should be developed to drive measures to COVID-19 prevention of other communicable diseases in educational institutions. and creating cooperation network with partners to drive forward health promotion work for vulnerable children.