KIDS ON THE EDGE OF A CIVIL SOCIETY

Eva Maria, education programme manager of the European Union-funded Help Without Frontiers (HWF), and Kyar Htae, co-ordinator for The Step Into Education project under HWF, said an unknown number of children in Tak province have no access to education or quit school due to their family’s economic condition.

Children in marginalised Muslim communities are among the most vulnerable in Tak province. Moreover, the stress in migrant communities due to the lack of documents for legal stay especially affects this group, since they have more challenges to obtain household registration from Myanmar and thus the Myanmar National ID card.

Life talks with them about the situation facing these young Myanmar Muslim migrants.

Do all Myanmar Muslim migrant families have equal opportunities to send their children to study in Thai schools?

Thailand has adopted an Education for All policy in line with Unesco recommendations, meaning that all children have the right to access basic education. Once enrolled, the students are given one uniform set per academic year as well as everything that the government supports all students with: milk and sometimes lunch (depending on the school) as well as stationery.

Transportation is not included in government support, and remains a major hindrance for many children from poor families.

The main obstacle for a Myanmar Muslim family to enrol their child is the complicated and time-consuming enrolment process in addition to costs such as additional uniforms, transportation and stationery.

Could you suggest ways on how to tackle these issues in both shortand long-terms goals?

Caregivers need legal status and increased job opportunities, especially female caregivers.

Raising awareness of the importance of education is crucial since many caregivers have themselves had a short education period. Many dropped out of school after Grade 2.

Caregivers need to be provided with information on educational pathways for further education and future careers.

Has EU funding has played a big role in enabling NGOs to collectively support education for migrant Myanmar Muslims children?

Without this co-operation, funded by the European Union, it is highly likely that the majority of these students would have continued to be unschooled and would face uncertain futures.

Results come in the increasing number of students that are being helped. Below are two such projects.

The STEP project, in co-operation with the IOM, supports the education of 191 students from marginalised Myanmar Muslim communities. Out of 191 students, 172 students are enrolled in Thai government schools and 19 students are enrolled in migrant schools.

In the REACT project, 548 students are receiving support for the 2018-2019 academic year. Of these students, 444 are enrolled in Thai government schools. Thus, HWF supports 616 migrant students enrolled in Thai government schools.