School, homes elude thousands
Families drifting in search of jobs, hope
By Supamart Kasem
The Bangkokpost (24-02-02)
Ma Thaunt Kya, 14, dreams of more than a factory job. The girl from Kaw Chaung village in Pa-an, capital of Karen state, wants to complete a university education and, if possible, become a doctor.
But the future looks bleak for the teenager after she stepped on a landmine and lost her right leg. She now walks with the aid of a crutch.She does not have a father and her mother is away.Mae Tao clinic, a non-governmental organisation for refugees and displaced people, looks after her.Her mother, Mu Baing, 34, left to work in Bangkok in 1999 and they talk on the phone once in a while.
Ma Thaunt Kya is not allowed to follow her mother toBangkok because she might not be able to take care of herself.Once, she lived in Bangkok for a year to help a relative raise a child. She went back home a year later to attend an ordination ceremony, when she stepped on a landmine near the village.
Ma Thaunt Kya may have her dreams, but in truth education opportunities are all but out of reach for children of refugees and displaced people such as herself.
Out of 101,335 refugees in seven camps along the Thai-Burmese border, 36,768 are children under 12.
Realising the importance of education, Mae Tao clinic came together with other charity foundations and Burmese workers to set up the Burma Migrant Workers Education Committee (BMEC).BMEC has set up 20 schools in Mae Sot and Phop Phra districts, serving about 1,000 children.
Ma Thaunt Kya studies in second grade at one of those schools. Students are taught Burmese, English and Thai. She is not sure whether she will get the chance to study at secondary school, let alone university. Some children do not have access even to basic education.
More than 10,000 children wander from province to province as their parents look for jobs, says Dr Cynthia Maung, who runs Mae Tao clinic.
``Although we can arrange education for them they do move around. Nobody knows how many children are out there,'' she said.
The Thai education system shares the burden. Almost 4,000 displaced children study at Thai primary and secondary schools, including 3,365 at primary schools under the Primary Education Office and 366 at private schools.
Veera Yomkerd, Mae Sot education chief, said the ministry tried to provide education to children of all nationalities. Private schools, however, did not qualify for funding if they took displaced children. At one private school in Mae Sot, more than half of the 420 students are displaced children whose parents cannot afford tuition fees. ``The Private Education Office has to absorb the expenses because funding is for public schools only,'' he said.
Mae Sot district chief Samart Loyfa, meanwhile, said he was worried about the future of displaced people. Even if they get access to education, they may not qualify for Thai citizenship.
A cabinet decision last August granted citizenship to people of nine tribes and displaced people in 20 provinces who arrived in Thailand before Oct 3, 1985. The provinces are Kanchanaburi, Kamphaeng Phet, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Tak, Nan, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phayao, Phitsanulok, Phetchaburi, Phetchabun, Phrae, Mae Hong Son, Ratchaburi, Lampang, Lamphun, Loei, Sukhothai, Suphan Buri and Uthai Thani. Applicants put in a request to a district chief. Requests are considered by a local 10-member panel before going to a provincial panel and the Interior Ministry.