Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has expressed serious concern about a million Thai youths, aged 3-18, who have dropped out of school, for various reasons, and ordered all agencies concerned to address the problem, as part of the national agenda and under the “Thailand Zero Dropout” program.
Government spokesman Chai Wacharonke said four measures were adopted at the cabinet meeting yesterday and are to be implemented immediately in every province.
The first step, said Chai, is locating the dropouts, and the next steps are to assist and take care of them on a case by case basis and to get them back to school.
He said that the learning system for these youngsters must be flexible enough to match their potential, with the aim of helping them gain an education and develop that potential.
The final steps are to persuade the private sector to play a pro-active role in educational management and to design the “learning to earn” system.
Sompong Chitradab, a well-known educator and a member of the Fund for Educational Equality Committee, said that about one million Thai youths dropped out of secondary education last year, almost twice as many as in previous years, due to poverty, political and social problems.
He said that parents decided to take their children out of school abruptly, not just because of their poverty, but also for other economic, social and political reasons.
Citing the signing of a cooperation pact on June 28, between the Education Ministry and 11 agencies to bring dropouts back to school, Sompong said that the agencies must do more than just sign an agreement, but act now by locating the young people, visiting their homes to see their situation, providing them with welfare and educational funding and finding jobs for their parents, if they are unemployed and cannot afford their children’s education.
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the laying off of many people, he also blamed the previous Prayut government of not paying enough attention to the school dropout problem.
The educational system must be restructured and be more flexible to meet the needs of those who have dropped out, which are different from normal students, said, Sompong, the Education Ministry must also be receptive and broadminded enough to allow the private sector and local organisations to have a greater say in educational management.
