A stealthy order signed last month by the Minister of Education has brought unnecessary attention and divisive policies back to the deep South. The minister, Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, published in the <i>Royal Gazette</i> a new ruling on student dress which in essence, allows administrators of schools located on Buddhist temple land to decide if they will ban the use of the Muslim hijab headdress by girls.
Mr Teerakiat issued the ruling without any public input barring biased meetings of religiously segregated parents of students at Pattani's biggest public facility, the Anuban Pattani School. That's a familiar school to anyone concerned with the South, and with religious freedom. Just six weeks ago, it was in the headlines over the same issue. The background is simple enough.
In mid-May, the new director of the large and popular school, Prachak Chusri, decided to ban the hijab. In contrast with other such ill-advised actions, the school cited religious reasons for the ban. The headmaster claimed that since the school is on the grounds of Wat Noppawongsaram, Buddhist parents and monks were not bound by either the law or dress code regulations. Education permanent secretary Karun Sakulpradit and Boonrak Yodpetch, secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) flew in from Bangkok and reinstated the decades-old order that allows the wearing of hijab by any female students.
The temple and some Buddhist parents held a protest meeting. They got the support of the prominent vice-chairman of the Thai Buddhist Federation of next-door Yala province. Phrakru Samutpisit Analayo said that Anuban Pattani School banned hijab "50 years ago". This is probably correct, give or take a decade, but the monk (and the concerned parents) failed to recognise the 1988 law and many Obec rulings that permit the Muslim headscarf on a voluntary basis.
The noisy opposition to the hijab by Phrakru Samutpisit Analayo and Buddhist followers is as unseemly as it is illegal. There are serious problems with the view that temple land ownership should decide social orders. In the first place, the monk and Buddhist parents appear both petty and intolerant -- the very opposite of Buddhist values. In the second, the law is clear both on religion and on education -- there is no room for religious bias in public schools, and all education matters must be religiously neutral.
In addition, there is irony in this unflattering fight over the hijab in Pattani and a small number of other schools. Parent groups and right-minded people have battled for at least two decades to stop schools from dictating tiny matters of dress and comportment. It took years to make corporal punishment illegal -- it is not even eradicated yet -- and to stop the schools from measuring the length of their students' hair. The parents in Pattani and elsewhere seeking to increase the number of dress-code rules goes against the tide.
Mr Teerakiat should withdraw his hasty and secret new order on the hijab, which last month made matters far worse than before. His new order "permits" the hijab -- unless the school is located in a Buddhist-owned area. Clearly, he meant to ban wearing of the hijab at the leading school of a Muslim-majority province. But the knock-on effect of this terrible order could extend to other places. In 2012, the director of Wat Nong Chok school in eastern Bangkok tried to ban the headscarf and was forced to reverse the order. His "reasoning" was identical to Mr Teerakiat's opinion.
A minority of adults have chosen to make the issue important at Anuban Pattani School. It is important that officials above Mr Teerakiat dissuade him from inserting religious bias into this important and popular school. Public schools must be run for the benefit of all.