Education knows no border
A collection of good practices and lessons learned on migrant education in Thailand
- Available in:
- English
- ไทย
Highlights
Thailand has a progressive and generous education policy that mandates 15 years of free education for all children, whether they are Thai nationals, undocumented migrants or stateless children. The enrolment of migrant and stateless children in Thai public schools has increased markedly since the landmark 1999 Education for All Policy and 2005 Cabinet Resolution on Education for Unregistered Persons. More recently, the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) that aims to support the education of poor and disadvantaged students, has also benefited migrant and stateless children and boosted their enrolment rate in Thai public schools. Yet, migrant children are still the largest group of children out of school, with some estimates showing that half of the migrant children are out of school and not receiving any form of education.
This publication identifies the challenges of educating migrant children – for migrant children and families, and for schools – and explores, through case studies, the good practices and effective strategies that Thai public schools and educational authorities have adopted to address the challenges in enrolment, teaching and learning, and preventing drop out. The publication also investigates the financial cost of addressing these various educational challenges, including how public schools are using the subsidies provided by the Thai government and how they are mobilizing additional resources, as well as how parents are coping with the additional costs of education for transportation, the purchase of different school attires and tuition fees.
