There are three main objectives of this research: i) to study the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province; ii) to compare the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province, classified by personal factors; and iii) to study the problems and guidelines for the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province. The sample used in this study consisted of 142 Sangha administrators in Nonthaburi Province, drawn from 220 total numbers by random sampling technique. The tool used for data collection was questionnaire with reliability value equal to 0.945. The gathered data were analyzed by using statistical techniques such as frequencies, percentage, mean and standard deviation. To test the hypotheses, t-test and F-Test (One Way Analysis of Variance) were employed. A mean difference of the pair was conducted by a Least Significant Different (LSD).
The findings of this study are concluded as follows:
1. The majority of respondents are between 56 – 60 years old with 21 -30 years of ordination. Most of them have lived in their monasteries more than 16 years with highest level of Dhamma Studies. They have no Pali studies, while their general education is lower secondary school. Most of them are deputy or assistant abbots.
2. The overall opinions of respondents relating to the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province, were found at the high level. When considered into each aspect, it was noticed at the high level in social, cultural and environmental aspects, whereas moderate level in economic and public health fronts. To compare opinions of respondents relating to the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province, classified by personal factors such as age, years of ordination, periods of monastery living, level of education, and Sangha position found no significant differences even at 0.05 level of confidence, therefore rejecting the formulated hypotheses.
3. The problems and recommendations for improvement of the roles of Sangha administrators towards social development in Nonthaburi Province, revealed that for social aspect, lack of budget supporting from state or concerned agencies and inadequate numbers of learned and service minded persons to do social work; for economic front, lack of persons who specialize in economic integration and there should fund for creating the strength of community economic system; for cultural aspect, recently local culture has been destroyed by urbanization process, resulting in deterioration of people’s mental health; for public health, it was found that in present, the climate changes caused increasing numbers of mosquitoes and insects as carriers of diseases; and for environmental aspect, it showed that people lack awareness and knowledge how to conserve environment and they just take it for granted.
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