In a striking irony, as Thailand pledged to the United Nations to protect refugee children's rights, the Ministry of Education early this month started cracking down on learning centres for migrant and refugee children out of ultra-nationalistic fervour.
Ending marginalised children's access to education risks pushing them into the arms of the criminal underworld. It also violates their right to an education, the country's longstanding "Education for All" policy and the cabinet resolutions that guarantee educational opportunities to every child in the country regardless of nationality.
Internationally, the crackdowns portray Thailand as a hypocrite. How could it be seen as otherwise? On Aug 30, Thailand withdrew its longstanding reservation on Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), finally guaranteeing the protection of refugee children. Yet a few days later, the ministry began cracking down on learning centres for children in Surat Thani, with plans to extend the crackdown to other provinces.
This crackdown followed a viral social media video showing migrant students in Surat Thani singing the Thai national anthem, followed by the Myanmar national anthem, during a flag-raising ceremony.
The clip sparked strong reactions from nationalistic netizens, who slammed it as an invasion by Myanmar, a national security threat. This reaction stems from ultra-nationalistic textbook history, which perpetuates animosity towards Myanmar.
In a knee-jerk reaction, Education Minister Pol Gen Permpoon Chidchob ordered an investigation not only in Surat Thani but also in other provinces.
The ministry then swiftly shut down the Mittayeh Learning Centre, where the video originated, and arrested Myanmar and Thai teachers, the principal and the landowner.
As of today, six migrant learning centres in Surat Thani, serving over 2,000 students, have been closed. According to the Migrant Working Group, a national network on migrant workers' rights, there were 78 learning centres in nine provinces, serving 23,090 students as of June. They all now fear that they will be the next target.
In the past 2–3 years, intense fighting in Myanmar has driven hundreds of thousands of refugees, including tens of thousands of children, into Thailand, all in need of education.
Banning new learning centres and raiding existing ones on the grounds of national security is not only inhumane and unreasonable but also a regression in Thailand's education policy.
Education is a basic right of all children, as established by the CRC, which Thailand ratified in 1997. The cabinet and ministerial regulations in 2005 institutionalised the "Education for All" policy, providing 15 years of free education to all children in the country.
However, due to rigid bureaucracy and insufficient policy enforcement, many schools still refuse to enrol migrant and refugee children. Meanwhile, newly arrived youths lack the Thai language skills to study in Thai schools. In addition, Thailand's policy of pushing refugee children back to Myanmar makes them feel the need to continue the Myanmar education system.
While provincial authorities label the learning centres as illegal, the reality is that these centres seek to operate legally.
Surat Thani officials claimed public schools could accommodate all the migrant students from six closed learning centres. Ranong officials made a similar claim when they shut down 10 centres with over 3,000 students in 2019, but they could not and eventually allowed those centres to reopen.
The National Human Rights Commission has urged the Education Ministry to halt the crackdown. The Migrant Working Group has also called on public schools to admit migrant and refugee children without exception, as required by ministerial regulations.
The government should listen. To ensure policy enforcement, violators must be punished, such as the regional education office in Tak which prohibited local schools from accepting undocumented children.
Given the ministry's limited resources, it should support learning centres in developing curricula for migrant children rather than shutting them down.
If national security is the concern, the government should work with the centres to develop a collaborative system. Shutting them down and driving underprivileged youth into the hands of the criminal underworld undermines rather than protects national security.
The Education Ministry's mission is to promote, not suppress, education. For decades, Thailand's "Education for All" policy has earned global praise.
If the crackdown on migrant learning centres continues, this reputation could be lost under the current Pheu Thai-led administration.