Promises of education for Thailand’s children
This year is the 10th Anniversary of ‘The World Day Against Child Labour’, a day which aims to address and take action to prevent child labour in high risk regions. In a ceremony held in Mae Sot, a district in Tak on the Thai-Burmese border, the Thai Deputy Education Minister Chaiwut Bannawat announced that the government will introduce a new policy which will allow all children equal education opportunities, including those considered Internally Displaced Persons.
The Deputy Minister stated that in Tak province alone, there are 20,000 children who have never been offered education, as opposed to the 23,816 who are receiving an educaiton in various public schools and training centres. What a statistic.
Last year in October, I had the opportunity to personally travel to Mae Sot in Tak and visited a school which Help Save The Kids partners. I painted classrooms, played games with the children and assisted with training teachers for the next school year. This school which was an open air building was divided into three classrooms, all which were over capacity, but the children were so happy to be able to attend.
I was only at the school for a few days but wanted to do so much more to help. The school receives support from a few small groups including Help Save The Kids however it isn’t enough to cover food, stationary and learning aids for the kids. Nor is it enough to pay give the teachers a small salary, but because of their dedication many of them go without in order to help their community.
