Thailand Zero Dropout Policy is an excellent beginning to help bringing back the children with vulnerabilities to the education systems, said the UNICEF Representative for Thailand.
The Equitable Education Fund (EEF) Thailand had launched the "Thailand Zero Dropout Policy" aiming to bring backs dropout students to the education system by setting goals of bringing back 1 million students to schools within these five years.
Kyungsun Kim, the UNICEF Representative for Thailand, spoke to Bangkok Post at the UNICEF Thailand office that the policy it would help bringing back children with vulnerabilities to the systems.
"The Thailand Zero Dropout Policy presents a crucial and timely opportunity to address the systemic barriers in education that continue to push children out of school," Ms Kim said.
School Dropout as Complex and Intersectional Problems.
Ms Kim explained that student dropout should be understood as the problem underlying with complexity and multiple factors that lead to decision to drop out, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn have led to a deterioration in school attendance in Thailand.
According to the EEF and the UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted with the National Statistical Office had confirmed that attendance rates have fallen since 2020, especially children from poor family, and what was worrying the most is many children had dropped out of the school during the stage of compulsory education.
There has been an increasing number of children dropping out of both primary and lower secondary level. At the upper secondary level, only half of Thai children completed their 12 years of free education.
"Financial costs such as school contributions, transportation, uniforms, and meals are significant barriers for poor households," Ms Kim added.
Besides, according to the 2022 National Disability Survey, only 60 % of school age children with functional difficulties attended schools, compared to 97 % of children without these difficulties. Furthermore, children with disabilities often face physical barriers at schools, alongside the challenges of stigmatization and discrimination.
Additionally, students from linguistic minorities may struggle because struggle because subjects are not taught in their primary language.
Also, migrant children often face administrative barriers related to registration requirements, despite Thailand's inclusive education policy. Plus, while it is adolescent boys who most often struggle to remain in school, the majority of the youth who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) is female due to complex gender barriers.
Moreover, many children struggle to learn at all school levels for multiple reasons, including psycho-social and emotional problem and lead to dropout.
According to PISA 2022, 20% of 15-year-old students reported feeling lonely at school, and 18% feel excluded. These emotions are linked to disengagement and lower academic outcomes long before the decision to drop out is made.
Likewise, Ms Kim explained national and international learning assessments indicate that Thailand's education system primarily benefits the privileged in terms of learning outcomes and future success, which in turn widens the inequality. Thai youth have consistently expressed that current traditional schooling lacks relevance and does not equip them with the skills necessary to thrive in today's rapidly changing world, which made them lost their motivation to learn, especially those who had reintegrated in the schools after dropout.
"This is the greatest concern because the rising dropout level would further increase the already high rates of inequality in Thailand and much needed human capital. It’s important to understand the diversity of out-of-school children and the multiple, complex reasons that can lead to dropping out," Ms Kim said.
Thailand’s Zero Dropout Policy = Excellent Beginning.
Ms Kim had commented that the recent Thailand’s Zero Dropout Policy is considered as an excellent beginning to bring these children back to the education systems by emphasizing that each child is unique and recognizing the complexity of the challenges that out-of-school children face.
Besides, the policy includes all the elements of successful second-chance programs: individualized support mechanisms, catch-up classes, mentorship and counseling services, alongside data-informed monitoring of children.
The policy also promotes an integrated approach across ministries to meet the educational, social, and economic needs of these children.
A target has been set to identify 1 million out-of-school children in the next five years and reintegrating them back into education or work, depending on their age.
"Reaching this target and preventing further drop out is essential if we are to achieve the education SDG 4 targets in Thailand," Ms Kim added.
What Next?
Collaboration withing Subregional Levels.
Meanwhile, Ms Kim pointed out that the policy success depends on the quality of implementation at the sub-regional level.
One of the examples that show the successful implementation at the sub-regional level was in Udon Thani’s Na-Phu Sub-District where she visited in June this year. Adapted from the EU’s Reinforced Youth Guarantee Scheme under the collaboration of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council, the Ministry of Labour, sub-district policymakers, practitioner, and Unicef, with its individualized and young people-centred approach, the initiatives for youth identified as NEET had successfully reintegrated 93% of youth in the pilot programme into education, employment, or training within six months of joining.
"Good intentions are not enough, they must be backed up by hard, sustained policy and work. Political will at all levels and investing in the capacity of the workforce to deliver the programme, are crucial elements," Ms Kim added.
Funding
Besides, access to adequate, predictable, and flexible funding is vital to enable agile responses to local needs and challenges. Therefore, as the current public spending in education goes mainly to maintaining the system and infrastructure, there are needs to be more budget allocation at both central and local level into learning and innovating.
At the same time, exploring options outside of the education budget to bolster funding should also be explored.
"The pilot is one strong example of one of the multiple and flexible pathways that should be part of the Zero Dropout Policy portfolio. Learning from such initiatives can help us anticipate challenges as we begin to operationalize the policy at a national scale and see changes in the lives of children," Ms Kim added.
Prevention
Besides, for the zero drop out policy to work, Ms Kim had suggested that there should be mechanism to reduce the number of children and young people by preventing early school leaving in the first place and Thailand can learn from other countries that had successfully implemented such mechanisms.
In the US, Lithuania, the UK, Kosovo and Malaysia, the countries launched the "Early warning system" to monitor attendance, behaviour and performance as potential dropout indicators, then use this information to provide customized support to the students and reduce overall dropout rates, which Thailand could learn from this model.
Plus, education services should play their critical role in providing Mental Health Psychosocial Support and Services identified as part of a multi-sectoral package to meet the specific needs of children and adolescents.
"Investment in dropout prevention - combined with a focus on reintegrating out-of-school children - is the most cost-effective and sustainable solution to these complex problems in the long run," Ms Kim added.
Inclusive and Equitable Education for All
Plus, in keeping children in school depends on addressing the principle of "inclusive and equitable equality education and learning" - the principle lies at SDG4 core because the quality of education is critical to keep children learning in the school and to the human capital development. So, Thai schools should provide basic foundational skills.
Yet, given the high number of adolescents who drop out in Thailand, Thai education also needs to reimagine secondary education as multiple pathways, including alternative and flexible option that can provide all children and adolescents with relevant knowledge and skills, such as through work experience, household responsibilities, informal training, hobbies, volunteering and knowledge on the internet.
Furthermore, these paths should be recognized and developed through mechanism under the Thailand Education Ministry and viewed by higher education institutions and employers as equal to formal learning pathways, so that they do not contribute to further inequity.
"Getting 1 million currently out-of-school children back into education or work is a vital step forward, but it cannot be the only one [approach] we take in the next five years. We must seize this opportunity and reimagine the Thai education system so we can create an education system that truly ensures no child is left behind," Ms Kim ended.