The Last Day of Internship at UNESCO Bangkok Office

People in Japan is suffering the cold weather while I am still enjoying the 'hot' winter in Bangkok. People at UNESCO Bangkok Office is taking leave for holiday while I am also packing and preparing for leave. Today is the last day of my internship in Bangkok. 3 months are really fast. I still feel the work just started while I have to say goodbye to everything in here. After having the last cup of coffee at office, I decided to write something that is about my life and work in the past three months.

•First working experience in international organization
The first working experience in international organization provided me a good opportunity to understand more about the culture of the organization, the mechanism of the organization and the challengeable responsibility of the organization for coordinating the member states in terms of the various fields concerned. Meanwhile, it also gave me a great opportunity to know and to learn from the experienced staffs, from various fields within the organization. Their unique views which I learnt regarding the field of development, education, culture, etc. can not be heard from school or read from books. I do believe these precious and unique experiences will influence my future career and life. In addition, during three-month internship, I was lucky to get the chance of listening to a speech conducted by the new Director General—Mrs. Irina Bokova. I was moved by her ambitious speech and clear vision regarding the work for UNESCO in the future. It also pushed me to work harder for joining the organization in the coming future to really make the great goal come true.

•Better understanding of the works in AIMS Office
The three-month internship in AIMS Office helped me further understand the challengeable work regarding educational statistics between UNESCO and its member states. Generally, it is not only the work to deal with data, indicators, analysis and publications, but also the work to deal with people, government, politics and other factors which are out of our control. More importantly, after experiencing a couple of cases, I further understood how challengeable it is to deal with educational statistics in the field of development. For example, the result of the gross enrolment rate in one country may be doubtable based on the various sources of population data. In order to deal with it, UNESCO has to take the initiative to negotiate with the related stakeholders through technical skills and find out a solution for achieving more reliable educational data in each country. However, to achieve this is really challengeable and needs staffs’ hard works.

As part of the internship, I was luck to be involved in the work on the EFA Monitoring Training Module. It provided me a precious opportunity to understand the challengeable work of developing training module for education officers at district and school levels. Although I have experience of conducting data collection for academic research, it is still new and challengeable for me to write something that should be easier to understand. Furthermore, it can stimulate the learners’ interests and push them to continue reading the training module to the end. At the same time, I also learnt how to conduct a good-quality school census, how to design school census questionnaire, how to collect accurate data and how to make clear data analysis. In addition, this process also provided me various knowhow which can supplement my own fieldwork in the past and in the coming future.

•Key words and unforgettable sentences which influenced me during the three months:
Staffs in AIMS are really intellectuals! What they told me will be kept in my mind forever!

Is it accurate? Where did you get it? --- Nyi Nyi Thaung
My summary: To keep the source reliable is the very key to continue any kind of work, especially the work with statistics and academic research.

Try to update yourself in order to know more about your work and yourself.---Subramaniyam Venkatraman
My summary: As a researcher, I should always keep myself in the front of the new knowledge and information regarding my field and my life.

Close your eyes before you sleep and think about what you want to hear about people’s talk on you when you die. Then you can decide what you can do now. --- Nyi Nyi Thaung
My summary: I have tried many times in the past three months. Now when I close my eyes, I always would like to hear that we remember JING LIU who helped us with our schooling and education. I can say my dream is to devote my whole life to help those who need help through education. More importantly, I wish based on my help they can utilize the knowledge they got to achieve happy life! I will try my best to make it come true! In order to achieve it, I should start from here and now.

Dear friends! I am going back soon! Before I leave the office, I would like to invite you to come to UNESCO Bangkok Office. When you come you will understand the feeling that I am having now.

May the New Year bring many good things and rich blessings to you and all those you love! Merry Chirstmas and Happy New Year!

JING LIU from Bangkok