Educational Cooperation between Thailand and Cambodia: Outcomes on Human Development, International Understanding and Future Prospect

Thailand and Cambodia set up educational cooperation since 1996, before signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Promotion of Education in 2003. This research aimed to investigate outcomes of educational cooperation projects on Cambodia human development and international understanding, process of participatory learning and action on educational cooperation among Cambodian coordinators and beneficiaries, driving force and future prospect on educational cooperation, and propose policy recommendation for educational cooperation in the middle future (2020). This research performed 3 phases: documentary research, survey research, and futures research. The samples were 2 groups of participants: 1) 10 Thai and 7 Cambodian coordinators; and 2) 311 Cambodian beneficiaries. The research results revealed Thailand and Cambodia had 4 main educational cooperation projects which consisted of 7 sub-projects. About 14,923 Cambodian beneficiaries were developed by educational cooperation projects. Most of them participated in the project initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. After participating with the projects, international understanding among Cambodian coordinators was increased by 2.47 to 3.47 (40 percent); while among Cambodian beneficiaries was increased by 2.81 to 3.59 (28 percent). Analyzing the driving forces affected by the interaction between human development and international understanding indicated educational cooperatio