Newspaper Article Sheds Some Light On Why Many Thai Families

[brahmburgers]

Excerpts from Article titled 'Uneducated' By Ms Sanitsuda Ekachai , in Bkk Posts' Nov 6 2008 issue

full text: http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=131857

"Although the constitution ensures every child's right to a free 12-year education, many are still falling through the cracks. And that starts early; only 88 per cent of primary school pupils make it to lower secondary and a mere 69 per cent to higher secondary."

"The network's in-depth study of 1,200 households in 50 communities reveals only 51 per cent of these needy children are enrolled in primary schools, and only 33 per cent of them finish it."

"To start with, free compulsory education is only free in the letter of the law; the state schools are poorly funded and are in dire need of extra cash. Parents still have to pay for books, stationary, sports and scout uniforms, computer classes and the so-called "donations". The Education Ministry pretends this is not happening while the parents turn their anger towards the schools, believing that the whole thing means corruption. For many poor children, it means having to forego schooling altogether or dropping out mid-way."

> . . . . . . . . . . . . . - end of excerpts -

One commentator, 'Issan Ian', responds to the article, saying, "Who says education is free? Teachers here in Isaan do not teach the full syllabus. If you want your child to learn the full syllabus you have to pay for extra classes."

Poster adds his two satang worth: Without exception, all the write-in commentators were supportive of Ms Sanitsuda's article. It can't be overstated how decrepit the Thai government's stance on education is. Their lack of effective policy is legendary. Most despicable is the government's policy of not caring and/or not assisting families which are too poor to afford to send their kids to schools. Similarly, there is a policy of neglect which discourages disadavantaged children from going to school - children from hill tribes, or kids from families which are in Thailand, yet are just outside the margins of Thai nationality.

[Stephen Cleary]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

Edited November 7, 2008 by Stephen Cleary

[mellow1]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

Most of the members here would like it better, if you could get away from looking at thing in such a realistic way, and make up some benign excuse for these things. They find that upsetting their sensitive nature is very disturbing. Something along the line of " poor people they don't know what they are doing", or " their just children at heart" is much preferred, and draws lots of positive comments.

[Jingthing]

Children are at the mercy of their parents and guardians. If their parents are not capable or willing to pay for their schooling, it is certainly not the children's fault. So who is? Obviously the government. A decent government even of a second world economy like Thailand should be responsible to subsidize at least basic education for all their children. I am sure some ideologues would call that thinking socialist, I call it civilized and the Thai children deserve better.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Jingthing

[GuestHouse]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

Perhaps if you were to take the trouble to find out just how poverty impacts many Thais, or took the time to talk to a few Thais about how poeverty effected their life, the sacrifices they and/or their parents have had to make just to put food on the table, never mind for keeping children in school. You might then be a little less inclined to spout such horse <deleted>.

Even in the cases where the parents of a child fail to provide for his/her welfare and education this is no reason why the Thai government should not provide education for children who suffer for their parents' failings.

[bunnaag]

Children are at the mercy of their parents and guardians. If their parents are not capable or willing to pay for their schooling, it is certainly not the children's fault. So who is? Obviously the government. A decent government even of a second world economy like Thailand should be responsible to subsidize at least basic education for all their children. I am sure some ideologues would call that thinking socialist, I call it civilized and the Thai children deserve better.

The government is not interested in educated people it would lose voters.

[elkangorito]

I have a somewhat different opinion about "education".

"Education", as we foreigners understand it, equates to "getting a job". This means "earning an income" (money). Without "education", earning an income in this day & age can be incredibly difficult, if not impossible.

On the other hand, what does it take for a human to "prosper"? Does it take money or does it take other things?

Example:

My family ancestry clearly indicates that my family have "owned our plot" for hundreds of years. We have lived happily from the benefits of our land (food) & we have not wanted for much else besides the normal social contact with others. We don't have electricity nor do we need it since we have lived happily without it for a very long time. Nor do we need any other "mod cons" for the same reason. The only thing that we really desire is to be "left alone" (not interfered with) as we are quite happy in our situation.

Along comes somebody who says that we no longer own our land & we must buy the land in order to keep it. This person then says that the government has "acquired" the land as per new "legislation". <deleted> is "new legislation"? We were living happily for a long time & now this "legislation" happens!!!

Anyway, how can we pay? We have been living from "subsistence" for a very long time & do not have money. We only have ourselves, food & happiness.

I guess you can see to where this is leading.

Whilst I do not deny "change", some changes are for the wrong reason. Education is one of them especially if people have been living quite peacefully & plentifully for a long time.

IMO, "education" should NOT be about money...it should be about education.

"Flame away" at your hearts content.

[cclub75]

I think we are all wrong : a revolution is happening.... the education minister saw apparently the light. The crisis is over.

http://thaicrisis.wordpress.com/2008/11/07...ere-are-sparks/

Edited November 7, 2008 by cclub75

[jts-khorat]

A decent government even of a second world economy like Thailand should be responsible to subsidize at least basic education for all their children.

I really like how you snucked 'second world economy like Thailand' in there.

[slapout]

I have seen Thai parents bust their collective butts to send their children to school, usually the eldest.. Even Uni, but the monetary reward here for a uni graduate is very poor, in many cases. A niece has a 4 year uni degree, 8 years experience in hotel sector (Front desk) as she is English speaking and draws the princely sum of 6000 baht/mo. Needless to say her parents were not too keen to send the younger children on after seeing this.We promote education but until we can have gainful employement, it will be a tough sell. I sure dont have the answer with the present sytem and apparently neither does the Thai government. From my observation it would appear, present and past groups have not been too concerned with doing anything but giving lip service to the problem. There have been several times that I wondered if maybe the individuals who inhabit all of the government offices want to keep it this way. About all I hear is the need for , more money, more computers, more teachers, more training for teachers, smaller classes for the teachers, etc. I have heard little about what is needed for the student while getting an education and then what to do and expect with that piece of paper.

[geriatrickid]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

Maybe for some, but not the majority. Very unfair assessment. I just discovered one of my friends is semi illiterate after he was unable to sign our friend's birthday card. His family weren't drunks, but I do know that he had to help on the family farm. It would seem that help required missing school.

Another aquaintance can barely master reading and writing in Thai.

Neither one of these guys is a drunk, druggie, gambler or overly lazy. They've had hard lives and have never asked me to help them either.

I'd like to join the pissing match of blaming the victims, but I think it's <deleted> evident, eliminating poverty is not a priority

[Dakhar]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

Or the parties, such as the ones held for the "son" for getting religion for 2 weeks. I have seen some parties that the money spent for the party could have sent their children to college and graduate school.

I point this out to my wife, and she says "I will never understand." (and she is right)

[brahmburgers]

It's a mixed bag - re; why kids arent' getting their little butts to school.

Sometimes it's laggard parents, sometimes it's plain poverty. Let's look first at the family unit, so to speak: Most are headed by single moms, second most prevalent guardians are grandparents. The 3rd most common family unit is headed by a mother and a father. Asians have a lot of 'face' wrapped around everything. If all the other kids start the new school year with brand new shoes, backpacks, clothes and books, then any kid who doesn't have those things will stick out - likely be ridiculed.

Another major factor in keeping kids from school is parents using the kids to work - most often at vendor stalls. Plus, many parents, single or otherwise, would just rather have kids around to avoid boredom. If you've ever hired Thais, you know they love to work ensemble. If you assign a Thai a solo job, he/she might feel like they're being punished.

Another factor: Some Thais, especially those who never attended schools, don't appreciate the value of school. They think all you need to learn, you can learn running around the sidewalks, or frollicking around the muddy village.

I had a brief romance with a Thai woman. For the first 9 years of her life, she just wandered around her rural village. She'd get clothes and food from others, because her single mom was out of the loop. When she was 11, her stepdad (her mother's current lover) took her to Bangkok to sell her for Bt.1,500 to a sweatshop full of sewing machines. When she was 13, her stepdad showed up again, plucked her out of the sweatshop and sold her for Bt.6,000 to a Chinese owned restaurant (which doubled as a brothel)....She's not typical, but arguably represents a segment of the disadvantaged. If she becomes a single mom, can you imagine the educational prospects for her kids? There are hundreds or thousands of those types, but you don't hear much about them, because they don't show up on gov't surveys. The elite Bkk power brokers would rather sweep data about such people under the rug.

[slapout]

In scanning the Bangkok post today I noticed the Education Ministry is finding many schools still underperforming via a testing program started several years ago. There was no mention of additional funds to try to remedy this problem. Yet the same Post addition alludes to millions of baht in addition to the normal budget for the Departments of Tourism, Health. and the latest war on drugs. It was also noted that the spending of a lot of this money would not be monitored by Government heads but would be left up to the local graft committee, strike that last as a tiipeing errror, Correction ribbon not working too well. It was noted that many of the underperfoming school were in rural areas (farmers???) The farmers of Thailand seem to have the common complaint that they cannot make money on crops due to middle men setting farm gate price and they have to pay premium price for the expendables to raise their crops. I wonder how much of the mega projects, government rice program etc funds are dispersed with the same nonmontoring of spending mentioned for Health. Tourism and Drugs? This post runs off topic, but I think it points out that Education is not a priority of this nor past governments. They point out problems, put blame on some entity and go find another project to enrich themselves, family, friends and partners in crime.

[HorseDoctor]

Sanitsuda forgets to mention some other reasons why some families can't afford to send their kids to school.

They are;

1. Dad needs money for whiskey

2. Mum needs money for the government lottery

3. Gran needs money for playing cards at her neighbours house

4. Auntie needs a washer-upper at her noodle soup stall

5. Uncle needs someone to help peddle chewing gum to foreign tourists

If I said this I'd have the usual suspects, the " Just Go Homers" all over me like Stink on Sh*T

How can this country even pretend to call litself modern with these kind of numbers. No wonder grand pa needs a calulator to make change from a hundred baht note

[HorseDoctor]

There was an article last year about how 10 % of TESTED water dispensers at schools were contaminated with lead.

Explains a lot

[brahmburgers]

There was an article last year about how 10 % of TESTED water dispensers at schools were contaminated with lead.

Explains a lot

.....and an article awhile back about how many schools had inferior playground equipment - prone to breaking and/or causing injuries.

In sum, gov't priorities are badly mixed up. Children's potential achievements are not being given vent. Those who could be tomorrow's innovators and/or sage leaders - are not given proper opportunities to blossom.

[Jingthing]

A decent government even of a second world economy like Thailand should be responsible to subsidize at least basic education for all their children.

I really like how you snucked 'second world economy like Thailand' in there.

I wasn't aware I was being sneaky.