Status of Education in Thailand

Thailand has been a member state in the United Nations since its admission on December
16, 1946 (United Nations, n.d.). The UN sees education as a driver of progress for a country.
Their three main priorities are to: put every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and
to foster global citizenship. (UN Global Education Initiative, n.d.) As a member of the UN,
Thailand strives to obtain these goals. However, many barriers for Thailand lie in the way. For
example, with putting every child in school the problem is within child labor and for improving
the quality of learning one of the problems is a language barrier. On the flip side, the one thing
Thailand does right is implement their values in to the school system in order to support global
citizenship.
The first priority of the United Nations Global Education Initiative is to put every child
in school (UN Global Education Initiative, n.d.). Thailand is currently meeting these demands.
Figure one from The World Bank shows the gross enrolment ratio of Thailand in comparison to
the United Kingdom and the United States. The gross enrolment ratio for primary school
enrolment rates is the total enrollment in primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a
percentage of the population of official primary education age (World Bank, n.d.). Although the
GER for Thailand falls below the other two nations, in 2013 the rate was at 92.8. At first glance
this is a positive, because almost all the population is being enrolled in primary school. However,
the percent in 2013 is 5.3 less than it was eight years prior in 2005. This means that the
enrollment rate is decreasing.

Figure 1. School Enrollment, Primary (% gross): This graph demonstrates the gross enrollment
ratio for Thailand, the UK, and the US. The GER may exceed one hundred percent because of
the inclusion of over/under aged students.
The Education Initiative identifies two of the five main barriers to school enrollment and
completion as unaffordable costs and child labor (UN Global Education Initiative, n.d.). In
Thailand, children engage in child labor in different sectors of agriculture, including in the
shrimp and seafood processing, as well as they are trafficked sometimes for commercial sexual
exploitation (US Embassy, February 3, 2014). Figure two represents Thailand as being at a high
risk for child labor in 2014 (Maplecrofts Human Rights, 2014). There are many reasons why
access to educate for these working children is limited. It can be for reasons that include: lack of
awareness among local government officials and migrant families of migrant children's right to
an education; the long distances children must travel to attend school; the prohibitive costs of
school lunches; burdensome student registration requirements; and family pressure to work
rather than attend school. A sixth barrier is language barriers. This includes class instruction and

school applications only in the Thai language which can limit the quality of learning.

Figure 2. Child Labor Index Map. This map shows the level of risk of child labor that each
country is at and ranks the top ten countries at an extreme risk of child labor.
In 2013 the Thai Government strengthened the regulatory framework to combat human
trafficking and the worst forms of child labor. They did so by enacting the Anti-Transnational
Organized Crime Act (2013) and ratifying the UN Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime and its protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women
and children (US Embassy, February 3, 2014). These efforts should help Thailand monitor child
labor in order to put every child in school.
Citations

Text:
Member States of the United Nations. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from
http://www.un.org/en/members/
Global Education First Initiative Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/218.htm
2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/thailand.htm#ENREF_1

Images:
School Enrollment. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR/countries/TH-GB-US?display=graph
Child Labor Index. (2014). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://maplecroft.com/portfolio/newanalysis/2013/10/15/child-labour-risks-increase-china-and-russia-most-progress-shown-southamerica-maplecroft-index/