Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI): National Technical Training Workshop 10 March 2015, Trang Hotel Bangkok Pumsaran Tongliemnak, Ministry of Education Thailand By

 Thailand’s Access to Education has been improved - New Compulsory School Law (6 th to 9 th 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, drop- out students

 Compulsory education starts from 1 st to 9 th 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 1 st to 12 th 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.

Source: Bureau of Policy and Strategy, MOE, 2013

Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) found that for students who were born in the same year.  1 in 10 (or 13%), do not finish 9 th grade (compulsory level)  3 in 10 (or 30%) leave school after 9 th grade  2 in 10 (or 21%) finish 12 th grade/vocational certificate  4 in 10 (or 36%) continue at tertiary education In sum, 43% of Thai students in each generation have only 9 th grade education or lower.

 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.

 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 out- of-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-SchoolNumber of students Autistic/disable children1,700,000 Stateless children300,000 Children of immigrant workers 250,000 Rural-area students160,000 teen mother/pregnancy100,000 Orphans88,730 HIV-infected children50,000 Juvenile delinquency50,000 Homeless children30,000 Child prostitute25,000 Child labor10,000 Drug Addict10,000 Source: Amornvit Nakornthap,2014

 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 (Nicholas Burnett) - Quality of Human Capital necessary for economic competition of the country  Impact on Thai Society social inequality, negative externality on Thai society, problem of heath care, more crime, poor social capital

 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.