DEVELOPMENT OF A SAFETY MANAGEMENT APPLICATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATIONS IN MAE YAO SUBDISTRICT, MUEANG DISTRICT, CHIANG RAI PROVINCE

Abstract

            This research and development project aimed to analyze the current safety management systems of early childhood development centers, develop a safety management application focusing on hazard identification, hazard reporting, and hazard control measures appropriate to the local context, and evaluate the quality and user satisfaction of the developed application. The study was conducted at nine early childhood development centers located in Mae Yao Subdistrict, Mueang District, Chiang Rai Province. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select 25 staff members working at these centers as the study participants. The research instruments included a semi-structured interview guide, the developed safety management application, and a satisfaction evaluation questionnaire for system users. Statistical analysis employed percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The findings revealed that existing safety management systems at the centers exhibited several limitations, particularly in risk assessment, incident recording (covering both accidents and near misses), monitoring, data reporting, and emergency communication. These gaps informed the design and development of a safety management application using the AppSheet platform, which supports use across smartphones, tablets, and computers. Key features of the application included incident reporting, hazard/risk mapping, student check-in and check-out tracking, real-time alerts via email and Telegram, and a dashboard for instant data summarization. The application was evaluated by three subject-matter experts, who rated the overall quality at the highest level (X̄ = 4.59, SD = 0.56). Moreover, user satisfaction among the 25 participating staff members was found to be at a high level (X̄ = 3.55, SD = 0.82). These results indicate that the developed safety management application is feasible for practical implementation and well-aligned with the operational contexts of early childhood development centers, supporting sustainable improvements in occupational health and safety management at the early childhood level.