Apiphawadee Kruesopon says the Thai education system is in something of a black hole, a time warp.

"Can you imagine? A girl I talked to in this office, who is about 12 years younger than I, studied the same textbooks I did?"

Aye, the writer, too, is familiar with Mana, Manee, Pitti and Veera from the tatty old days of Thai language class in primary school.

So what does this say about the current state of education and its effect on the country's future workforce?

Trained as a music teacher at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education and then furthering her vocational training at Pittsburgh State University in Pennsylvania, Apiphawadee sees a fundamental thought disease plaguing most of Thailand's children - a lack of imagination.

As a teacher trainee, she witnessed first-hand its root causes. Apiphawadee recounts how a teacher told her young student in an art class that the colour of her tree leaves was wrong. The leaves should be green, the child was told firmly.

Later, when the educator-businesswoman was running her own art camps, Apiphawadee allowed her students to paint to background music. One of them came up with a picture of a tree with yellow leaves.

But instead of clubbing the kid's creativity, like a little Arctic seal cub, she asked why the leaves had a golden glow. It was the sun shining from behind the tree, the child explained.

Killing the imagination of a child is a crime, Apiphawadee says, and there are many ways in which adults can squeeze the fun out of a child's life.

The media environment in general, she says, has not been keen to promote programming conducive to the development of young minds. In fact, the media is now a cultural desert for children. Children's programme "Chao Kung Tong", starring myna-bird and water-buffalo puppets, has been relegated from a daily morning show to twice weekly: Thursdays and Fridays at 5am.

With children's programming making way for celebrity chat shows on morning television, the educator-businesswoman believes there is simply not enough appropriate media content around, particularly for youngsters and especially for preschoolers. There is simply too much violence in today's cartoons, which attract many young viewers, Apiphawadee says.

MCOT's current president, Wasan Paileeklee, attempts to quench Thai society's thirst for knowledge by pledging to increase "edutainment" programmes across all platforms, and while we await delivery on that pledge, perhaps it is fitting to ask whether content providers for other media outlets are planning to jump on the bandwagon.

With the urge to introduce something innovative and new to Thai children, Apiphawadee, who is also a director of event organiser Lawson Marsh's Entertainment Division, last year introduced "Barney's Musical Castle Live" to local audiences. The show, starring a cuddly purple T-Rex, was staged for three days in Siam Paragon Hall. It was moderately successful - a 60-per-cent attendance rate - considering there was little advance publicity.

This year, Apiphawadee is bringing in "Sesame Street", another Public Broadcasting Service show from the US. The "Elmo's Colouring Book" episode from the long-standing television series, like Barney's show, costs about Bt20 million total and is partly sponsored by milk-product firm Dumex.

It will make its way to the Bangkok Hall in the Suan Lum Night Bazaar via South Korea and Singapore, ending its mid-year Asian tour in the Philippines.

While Apiphawadee acknowledges that the Sesame Street show is in no way a blockbuster, she is hoping to woo at least 1,500 viewers per show, or 60 per cent of maximum capacity, for a total audience of 25,000 over the show's three-day run from June 29 to July 1.

A fan of musicals, she credits Takonkiet Viravan with a mild revival of the genre in Thailand, with "Tawipob" and "Fah Jarod Sai". Takonkiet's brainchild, the Muang Thai Ratchadalai Theatre in The Esplanade shopping complex, like the Thailand Creative and Design Centre atop The Emporium, is a sign of how some art and culture managed to ebb into the mainstream torrent of Thailand's crass consumerism. Apiphawadee considers it a positive and necessary first step.

Businesswise, she enjoys devising new projects, using her expertise in what is good for kids. It also helps that she is the mother of two young children and able to leave administrative matters to her business partner, Sutrissaya Vuthimedhi, executive director of Lawson Marsh Events.

Apiphawadee's work-life balance is of the utmost importance. During school term, she tries to take her three-year-old son to school herself, and with her four-month-old daughter, they return home together.

On holidays, Apiphawadee and her husband, Tom Kruesopon, former CEO of Boon Rawd Trading International, often take their children to visit relatives in the US, just for a change of environment.

How can she stay so focused in both her life and her work in children's edutainment, when the line between the two is rather blurred?

"You have to put your children at the centre of your life," she smiles.

Ki Nan Tsui

The Nation