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In a meeting room at the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, a group of secondary school students had just finished reading The Boy and the Tiger, a folk story adapted by children’s author Daniel Morden. It describes a boy rescuing a trapped tiger—only to be betrayed when the tiger announces its intention to eat him.

One student raised a hand, “Is that justice?” The question sparked a flurry of others, as the 14 Thammasat Secondary Schoolers debated how different characters in the tale—a cow, a monkey, and even a fig tree—offered contrasting perspectives on what was fair. There was no consensus on who was right. But that was the point.

More than a typical reading exercise, the activity was part of a pilot programme supported by UNESCO to introduce Philosophy with Children and Youth (PwCY) into Thai classrooms, launched in March 2025. The approach uses stories—like the tale of a boy and a tiger—to spark dialogue and inquiry, encouraging students to grapple with complex ethical and philosophical questions. In an era where digital technology permeates education, the ability to think critically is not just valuable, but essential. highlights that while technology offers vast educational resources, its rapid evolution can outpace students’ ability to interpret and evaluate information thoughtfully.

'Children should learn not only how to gather evidence but also how to interpret it from the point of view of values and meaning in the social world, in a particular context and time,' said Dr Siriphen Piriyachittakornkit, a retired Chulalongkorn University professor and the keynote speaker at the workshop event. Drawing inspiration from the work of Matthew Lipman, founder of the P4C (Philosophy for Children) approach, Dr Siriphen emphasized that philosophical thinking helps children develop critical, creative, and caring minds.

She also challenged the idea that science offers absolute truth, citing the role of gender stereotypes in the scientific language of biology, where recent research on fertilization has shown that cultural definitions of female and male have misled human judgements on the agency of sperm and eggs. This among other shifts, she argued, underscores the need to teach students not just what we know, but how and why we come to know it.

Philosophical enquiry’s unique role in classrooms is often overlooked, said Mr Phinith Chanthalangsy, ���������䰿’s Regional Advisor for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific. 'To the eyes of the public, it doesn’t bring immediate returns like engineering or business,' he noted. 'But its value runs deeper. If we want to build a society that can navigate complexity, resist misinformation, and make ethical choices—we need these thinking tools to reinvent the ways we tech and learn.'

While the impact of engaging with philosophy at a young age is hard to quantify, a growing body of evidence points to the effectiveness of P4C, which is now used in more than 60 countries. The  cites two meta-analyses that found improvements in students’ cognitive skills, academic performance, and socio-emotional development. In one study involving 48 schools in the UK, primary school students who participated in P4C showed higher scores in reading and mathematics than their peers, with the greatest gains observed among disadvantaged students.

Dr Sahawarat Polahan, director of Thammasat Secondary School, said the pilot aligned with the demonstration school’s efforts to create a sustainable model for implementing philosophical inquiry in Thai education, with potential for wider application across the educational system. 

UNESCO and its partners, including Thammasat Secondary School, hope this pilot will spark momentum. Under the UNESCO Management of Social Transformation (MOST) and Youth Programme, next steps include mapping existing PwCY practices in Thailand, developing training and certification for teachers, and building partnerships with both the Ministry of Education and regional networks like the Federation of Asia-Pacific Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA). There are also plans for podcasts, videos, and collaborations with influencers to raise awareness of the value of training children and youth in philosophical enquiry.