Thailand

With school closures, the pandemic impeded learning opportunities for Thai students and heightened the educational divide in Thailand between urban centers and rural areas. In 2020, The Asia Foundation launched Thailandlearning.org, an online learning portal for Thai students and educators disrupted by the Covid-19 crisis. The learning portal provides access to quality educational tools and resources from across Thailand and around the world in a single site.

While Thailand was largely successful in containing Covid-19 infections in 2020, the economic impact may outlast the pandemic. The Asia Foundation’s Enduring the Pandemic: Surveys of the Impact of Covid-19 on Thai Small Businesses revealed that 70 percent of the national workforce suffered a monthly income fall by an average of 47 percent, and 11 percent of small businesses are at risk of closing permanently. The survey was the first in a series of three, and initial findings have been presented to relevant Thai government agencies.