A good example of the reasons for the rise in teenage pregnancy in Thailand can be seen in recent events at the Khaosaithapklo Phitaya School, a secondary school in Phichit province. A couple of years ago, it faced a significant teen pregnancy problem. When Phenrapee Klapkun became the director of the school, located in a remote district of the northern province, two young students had fallen pregnant.
The new director looked at the cases and found that neither girl had parents around to teach them about relationships or sex. Almost half of her students lived with their grandparents or relatives while their parents had left to work in cities. “A girl who gets pregnant is usually a good, studious student. The only issue is that she does not have anyone to guide her about relationships because she has lived on her own without any parents around,” said Ms Phenrapee.
There is a generation gap between grandparents and teenagers, especially when the latter requires parental guidance. This absence is described by population scientists as a “skipped generation”, and it is a common thing in Thailand's rural provinces.
Ms Phenrapee decided to step in and asked the teachers to fill in the gap left by missing parents. The school now incorporates education on relationships in its curriculum. The pregnant students were encouraged to continue their studies after they gave birth. Teachers at the school are required to pay more attention to students by teaching them life skills in addition to academic knowledge.
The result is that in general the students have managed to improve their academic performance, while no student has unintentionally become pregnant in the past two years, Ms Phenrapee said.
The situation at Khaosaithapklo Phitaya School is not an isolated case. In fact, it reveals the challenge for the next generation of Thais. When young teens require counselling from their parents to help them transit from childhood to adulthood, their grandparents are often too old to provide understanding and advice. The result can be girls who lack education about relationships end up pregnant because they are not well informed.
Rapid urbanisation has forced many of the working-age population in country areas to leave their children in the provinces because they are not equipped to raise them in an urban setting.
Their ageing parents in the provinces provide a social safety net for the young ones who migrate to work in the cities. Consequently, some of those youngsters left behind suffer a communication gap with their grandparents.
Traditionally, Thai families consist of two generations. But the number of two-generation families was reduced to about one quarter, or 27.5%, of the population in 2012. The one-generation family, consisting of only a husband and wife, has risen to 13.3%. Elderly families and skip-generation families, meanwhile, increased to 33.9% in 2012, according to the National Statistical Office of Thailand.
The figures show the changing face of Thai families, a result of demographic change. With a lower birth rate of 1.6 children per woman, the amount of people working will be less in the future. Thirty years ago, the average was 6.3.
Although the government has recently increased tax allowances to encourage women to have more babies, many working mums do not want to have more than one child. Many working mums are struggling to raise their children because their companies do not provide them with supportive day care facilities to help them raise their families in the stressful urban environment. The government’s incentives are not enough. Many of them do not have enough savings for when they get old.
Thailand's changing demographic structure will have a profound impact on society. For instance, declining numbers in the working population will put constraints on economic development in the future.
Fewer people in the working population are willing to take over their ancestors’ businesses in the agricultural sector, which has been the backbone of the Thai economy and provided a social safety net.
The discussion on the changing demography has so far focused on support for the elderly. This is despite the fact that people who are senior citizens today are likely to be better prepared than the future generation.
Many elderly Thais are still able to live in an agricultural-based environment and provide social support for the young ones who live in the city, as is evident by the prevailing skip-generation households in the provinces.
Unfortunately, when it comes to changing the structure of the Thai demography, people or decision-makers tend to look at the elderly as a piecemeal issue. This is despite the fact that the above-mentioned factors are all related.
By the time we are aware of the severity of the challenge, it may be too late.