Graduation at Ban Naseenuan School

Graduation at Ban Naseenuan School

March 2014

This post is long overdue, as I (gulp) realized while doing some much-needed sorting and organizing of my iPhoto files. But here are some pictures anyway, with all best wishes to my former colleagues and students at Ban Naseenuan School, in Sakhon Nakhon Province.

The graduation ceremony was held in the assembly hall. Students had decorated the stage the day before in the school’s colors, white and sky blue.

The three words above the stage mean Nation, Religion, King.

In the pictures below, we see the teachers arriving, wearing their academic robes. The colors and stripes differ depending on the university and the teacher’s major discipline. The women in the first picture are carrying the certificates that will be handed to the students.

Here comes the marching band, followed by students who will graduate. Notice that the students are wearing their everyday uniforms, not academic apparel.

And here you see everyone at the stage, teachers seated in front, with the school principal in the center, and students behind them holding their certificates. As I remember, the handing out of the certificates went very fast and I gave up on trying to take pictures of it.

In the brief video below you see boys in traditional costumes carrying in the stand that holds the strings for the string ceremony. The strings are in the school colors too.

And here is part of the performance by the student dancers, well trained by the excellent dance teacher who taught at the school while I was there.

Finally, here are students with strings tied around their wrists and good luck messages written on their shirts and blouses – the Thai equivalent of having your friends sign your yearbook. Ban Naseenuan School didn’t have yearbooks, and I don’t think Thai schools do in general.

In this last picture, you see teachers singing and playing for the students -- a warm-hearted conclusion to the event.