In 1988 Channel 11 started broadcasting as a TV network with an emphasis on public education in Thailand: 60 percent of its total program hours are devoted to educational programs. For its broadcasting, many programs have been sent from Japan: these include NHK's school broadcasts such as "Science Class (Rika Kyoshitsu)" Series and pre-school series called "With Mother (Okaasanto Issho)". In early 1989, plans were drawn up for a Thai-Japanese cooperative study to analyze the effectiveness of these NHK's educational programs for children in Thai primary schools. Three primary schools were selected representing the three different civic bodies governing the schools both in Bangkok and provincial area. A total of 1,039 pupils (grades 1-6) and 20 teachers were involved in the study. In order to meet a variety of objectives of the study, various sets of surveys were designed as follows and carried out in May and June, 1990. STUDY 1 A) GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE--- to obtain general information of the children's TV-viewing habits, including viewing hours, program preferences, access to Japanese animated cartoons, access to NHK's ETV programs, and parents' recommendation and control of TV-viewing. [No. of resultant samples-1,039 ] STUDY 2 : Evaluation of three programs of NHK's "Science Class" : "Magnet and Magnet" for grade 3, "Water and Vapor" for grade 4, "The Secret of the Seed" for grade 5. [693] B)SCIENCE TEST---to evaluate the role and the effectiveness of the science programs in increasing the pupils' factual knowledge on the particular subjects. The same tests were carried out before and after viewing the programs. [693] C)PROGRAM TEST---to analyze pupils' impressions and opinions of the science programs. [693] D)TEACHER INTERVIEW---to investigate the teachers' comments on the science programs above and general attitudes in using TV programs as educational materials. [20] MAIN RESULTS STUDY 1: The overall data indicate that Thai children are rather heavy TV viewers, with 51% watching more than 3 hours on weekdays. Access to TV is higher among Bangkok children than country children. As for program preferences, children in Bangkok are absorbed in watching Japanese cartoons, while, country children still prefer Thai dramas.The most popular Japanese cartoon is "Doraemon" both in Bangkok and the provincial area. 82% of the children find the NHK's ETV programs "very interesting." Among various programs, "Science Class" is the most popular in all three schools and in every grade. Parents and teachers also think highly of these NHK's ETV programs. The viewing of these programs is encouraged by 75% of the children"s parents and 63% of their teachers. STUDY 2: The results of the three programs in terms of effectiveness as well as audience evaluation show that the NHK's "Science Class" Series are effective as educational material for Thai pupils. The programs have a practical and immediate ability to potentially increase the pupils' knowledge on the contents. The highlights of the programs are the experiments, which bring a lot of excitement and stimulus for the pupils. The effects of the programs in three sample schools, considered to represent three different levels of learning ability, fails to produce a consistent pattern than can prove the programs are highly effective or extremely ineffective with particular groups of pupils. NHK's science series thus achieve their objectives by demonstrating that they can be used for nation-wide broadcasting in Thailand. The degrees of difficulty in each series seem to be suitable for the Thai pupils, so the series can be used for school broadcasts as well. Children at a provincial area are considered representative of the majority of Thai pupils. On each of the programs, its

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