Transcript Out-of-School Children in Thailand: Issues and Challenges

Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI):
National Technical Training Workshop
10 March 2015, Trang Hotel Bangkok
By
Pumsaran Tongliemnak, Ministry of Education Thailand
Thailand’s Access to Education has been improved
- New Compulsory School Law (6th to 9th grade)
- “12/15 Years of Free Education Scheme” (2003/
2006)
- Available Student Loan at low interest rate for
high school/university students
 However, the quality does not reflect the quantity.
- Unsatisfactory student achievement (National,
International levels)
- PISA, TIMSS, Pearson, Global University Ranking
- Inequality of access to education to some
demographic groups, out-of-school students, dropout students
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Compulsory education starts from 1st to 9th grade
(7-15 years old). The law requires that parents
must enroll their children in schools or face
penalty.
In theory, Thai government subsidizes public
school students almost at full cost (tuition,
textbooks, equipment, uniform) to every student
from 1st to 12th grade under the “15 Years of Free
Education Scheme”.
However, Thailand does not have program which
accounts for the ‘indirect’ or ‘opportunity cost’ of
households in children’s education i.e. ‘conditional
cash transfer program’. Therefore, poor families
are at disadvantage as they lose labor force/still
have to pay out of pocket.
Type of expenditure by household income
18000
16000
14000
quintile1
12000
quintile2
10000
quintile3
8000
quintile4
6000
quintile5
4000
2000
0
Source: Bureau of Policy and Strategy, MOE , 2013
Average 9th grade O-NET scores by household income
60
50
quintile1
40
quintile2
quintile3
30
quintile4
20
quintile5
10
0
Math
Science
English
Social Studies
Source: Bureau of Policy and Strategy, MOE , 2013
Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) found that
for students who were born in the same year.
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1
3
2
4
in
in
in
in
10
10
10
10
(or
(or
(or
(or
13%), do not finish 9th grade (compulsory level)
30%) leave school after 9th grade
21%) finish 12th grade/vocational certificate
36%) continue at tertiary education
In sum, 43% of Thai students in each
generation have only 9th grade education or
lower.
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Thailand has a total of 16 million students
from Primary to Tertiary education (2014)
Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) has found that
3 million Thai children (1 in 5) are out-of-school.
2 million of in-school Thai students are at risk of
being out-of-school.
On average 60,000-70,000 students in each
province are at risk/out-of-school (equivalent to
the economic loss of 375 million USD (12,000
million baht) per year) or10 times more than the
loss from 2004 Tsunami destruction.
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5,752,500 out-of-school students (around
10% of total population of Thailand) (by
Amornwich Nakornthap)
Autistic students, Stateless students, and
Children of Immigrant workers are top 3 outof-school groups in Thailand
Social problems, poverty, sickness are main
reasons for out-of-school students
Less than 15% of blind students have access
to education (Boontan,2014)
Demographic of Out-of-School
Autistic/disable children
Stateless children
Children of immigrant workers
Rural-area students
teen mother/pregnancy
Orphans
HIV-infected children
Juvenile delinquency
Homeless children
Child prostitute
Child labor
Drug Addict
Number of students
1,700,000
300,000
250,000
160,000
100,000
88,730
50,000
50,000
30,000
25,000
10,000
10,000
Source: Amornvit Nakornthap,2014
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Impact on Thai Economy
Economic Cost of Out-of-school children in
Thailand is equivalent to 3% of annual GDP growth
(1 billion USD) or growth of Thai economy from
2000-2010 (Nicholas Burnett)
- Quality of Human Capital necessary for economic
competition of the country
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Impact on Thai Society
social inequality, negative externality on Thai
society, problem of heath care, more crime, poor
social capital
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Work-integrated Learning Curriculum
Comprehensive/Composite Schools
Role of Community/Parental group/School
Counselor
Non-formal/Informal Education
Equitable distribution of subsidy with regard
to economic background of students.