Children have little interest in a career in politics and are calling on adults to stop quarrelling and unite, a poll published yesterday by the Research Centre at Bangkok University showed.
Children from Darul Ulom Nibong Bahru School in Yala pose with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in front of the Government House building to mark Children’s Day today. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
The poll surveyed 1,115 children aged six to 14 in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces between Tuesday and Thursday to mark Children's Day today.
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The Bangkok Poll asked respondents which career path they would like to take. About 16% of them said they wanted to be doctors, 14.1% wanted to be teachers, and 11.5% wanted to be police officers , while only 4.2% wanted to get involved with politics.
Asked what they wanted to tell adults, 33.6% said they wanted adults to stop quarrelling with one another and turn to unite in helping each other. About 23% said adults must strive to be honest.
Asked what attributes a good person should have, 38% named kindness and generosity, 36.4% said honesty, and 15% said diligence and endurance.
Tablet computers were the most popular gifts children wanted to receive from Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (19.7%), followed by a smartphone (15.3%), a big doll (12.2%), a notebook computer (7.2%) and a bicycle (5.9%).
Asked to rank places they would like to visit, children most wanted to go to Siam Park and DreamWorld (26.9%), followed by the beach (25.5%), the zoo (15.6%) and temples (12.9%).
The motto for this year's Children's Day given by the prime minister was: "Keep disciplined, be keen on acquiring knowledge, enhance wisdom, and integrate Thailand with Asean."
Children said that being keen on acquiring knowledge was the easiest to achieve (46.9%), followed by keeping disciplined (28.8%), integrating Thailand with Asean (13.7%) and enhancing wisdom (8.9%).