Thailand forever
The Bangkokpost(07-10-01)
STATELESS CHILDREN: Despite their precarious existence and sweltering schools, Burmese migrants'children living and studying in Thailand say there's no place they'd rather be
POONA ANTASEEDA in Ranong At 2 p.m. in a tiny room made of shabby wood and corrugated iron as hot as if it had been in an oven, almost 80 Burmese students are relentlessly concentrating on their lessons, oblivious to the afternoon heat and the billow of cooking smoke from the room next door. Jam-packed in a three-by-five metre room at the end of a shabby row of shacks located in the Burmese community in Pak Khlong near the fishing pier in this southern province, all 79 Burmese students look like they are enjoying their learning despite the discouraging conditions of their classroom.
Lwan Wail, the school's only teacher, has since 1996 turned his family's living place into a classroom during the daytime. The class runs from 12 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, with the tuition fee of between 100-150 baht a month paid by the parents of each student. Most of them are stateless children born in Ranong to illegal Burmese workers. They speak fair Thai and fluent Burmese.
Mr Lwan Wail teaches English, Burmese, and maths with the assistance of his wife.Thai language is taught by Mr Veera Rakangthong, a Thai teacher from Ranong's Non-Formal Education Centre. Mr Veera teaches Thai to these students three hours every Friday afternoon. He also teaches Thai to Burmese children in two other schools as well. Mr Lwan Wail's class, however, has been short of everything from learning space to learning materials: black boards, mathematics, Thai and English books, and even Burmese books.
Anyway, they make use of everything efficiently. Blackboards and learning posters hang around the room, even on the back of the door.Students' bags hang on the room's beam. Their notebooks, one for each of them, are used for all subjects studied, or whatever they are taught. Mr Lwan Wail has to handle all of his 79 students by himself. He manages this by dividing his students into three groups: aged 4-6, 6-8, and 8-12 years.
During Perspective's visit, the youngest group were seen busy with drawing and painting in the cooking area of Mr Lwan Wail's room, which was separated from the rest by corrugated iron.While Mr Lwan Wail was teaching the group of 6-8 year-old students Burmese language lessons on the black board, the oldest group was waiting for Mr Lwan Wail to teach them.
``I'm not feeling a bit tired having to handle these students alone. I am actually glad to have a chance to teach them,'' said the fisherman-turned-teacher. ``I like teaching children and I think I will continue my job as long as possible. I don't want to go back to Burma. I don't like the military junta government and I do respect Phor(the King),'' he told Perspective as he pointed to the picture of His Majesty the King hanging above his head.
Matamao, the 12-year-old class leader who was born as a stateless child in Ranong said: ``I want to live here forever. My parents can find jobs easier here than in Burma.''
The classroom is run with support from World Vision. It is one of three classrooms supported by World Vision's programme to educate Burmese workers, both legal and illegal, on Aids prevention. The other two are located at Soi Samakkee and the Vida,or Victoria area, which is located nearby.
Eleven-year old Zaw Thein, who studies at the classroom in Soi Samakkee, also said he wanted to live in Ranong forever, instead of returning to Burma.``Living here is better, it's much more fun, and I have a lot of friends,'' he told Perspective in very clear Thai.
Altogether, there are about 200 children, aged from 3-12 years, who attend the three classrooms. Usually, children aged over 13 stop studying to enter the workforce, in order to help their parents make a living. These children think they are too old to continue to join the younger ones in class.