Mong Thongdee, the 12-year-old stateless boy who won first prize in a paper airplane team competition, has been honoured as a science ambassador and promised a scholarship for a doctorate degree.
Science and Technology Minister Kalaya Sophonpanich yesterday led officials to greet Mong at Suvarnabhumi airport and said the boy had been rewarded for encouraging other children to study the sciences.
The Science and Technology Ministry will sponsor his study, Khunying Kalaya said.
"All Thais are proud of him and the ministry will offer him a scholarship to study for a doctorate," she said.
Mong's father, Yun, said that without the scholarship he could send the boy only to Prathom 6(Grade 6) because he and his wife earn just 190 baht each a day and they had a two-year-old daughter to take care of.
The boy now studies at Prathom 4 in Chiang Mai. He has no nationality because he was born to the ethnic Burmese construction workers in Thailand.
Mong yesterday returned to Thailand with the third prize in the individual contest for children and the first prize in the team contest in the Origami Airplane Contest in Chiba at the weekend.
Prasert Chalermkannon and Surin Intarachot won the second and third places in the men's individual category and Fongfon Sriswat came first in the wom-en's individual contest. Mong's paper airplane stayed in the air for 10.53 seconds, which was enough to win him third place in the individual category.
"I am so delighted, and this award will be given to His Majesty the King,"said the boy after alighting from the real aircraft at Suvarnabhumi airport.
"My technique to make the plane stay aloft longer was to fold its wings in equal parts. When I grow up I would like to be a pilot."
Mong nearly lost his chance to participate in the contest after the Interior Ministry refused to issue him a document to apply for travel papers because of his statelessness.
The ministry's decision was overturned.
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