One crucial problem of education in the Burmese refugee camps is inclusion, which comprises the access to schools, quality and relevance of the learning experience, and equality and diversity in management structures (Bush & Diana, 2000).

1. The access to School 

​Literacy rate in the camps is estimated as 60% (TBC, 2013). One of problems in educational access lies in the disparities of educational opportunities from one camp to another. Although in some camps, such as Tak camps, Mae La, Umpiem Mai, Nu Po and Mae Sot, students can the access to higher education, education is unattainable for students in the more remote camps such as Lae La Oon and Ban Don Yang. For example, the Australian Catholic University (ACU) in Mae Sot offers a diploma in Liberal Studies and some other schools include the Wide Horizons and Minmahaw GED Programs in Mae Sot, English Immersion Program in Umpiem Mai, and Global Border Studies Program in Nu Po. However, many young people have no means to get higher education in their remote refugee camps and many of them end up doing their family business such as working as a hairdresser in the camps. When things get worse, some of them turn to drugs and alcohol, or even commit suicide because of the loss of hope for the future (Purkey, 2006). 

Based on this definition, Oh and van der Stouwe (2008) conducted a study to identify inclusion problem in Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. Based on many ethnically and religiously diverse peoples living together in refugee camps, education plays a crucial role in ethnic and religious conflict. However, children in refugee camps cannot study outside, which results in the lack of exposure to different opinions, people and situation.

Recognition of Certifications

“These certificates are not recognised in Burma. As a result, we worry about repatriation.”
—a young Karen woman from the Mon State in Mae La refugee camp, January 2015

Nursery, general education, post-secondary schooling, and vocational and adult learning are available in the Burmese camps in Thailand with the assistance of the Thai government, local and international NGOs, and community-based organizations (CBOs) .
Based on UN report on refugee education, quality of refugee education is unusually defined and measured by ineffective standards, which greatly affects the extend to which refugee qualification are recognized (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). There is some progress towards certifying the learning in the camps. For example a framework of cooperation with the Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) under the Thai Ministry of Education (MOE) was signed with certification as one of the objectives. However, many certificates from the camps are not still recognized in Burma, which greataly affects their decision about whether they will return to Burma and whether they can better benefit from education in the camps after their repatriation. 






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• social integration----inclusion

  • living together: Where different groups are living in the same environment, the integration of services in education can create important possibilities for social integration, but only if the content of education is conducive and explicitly addresses issues related to causes of conflict, good citizenship, social cohesion, human rights, etc.

  • learning to be different; learning to mistrust; learning to accept aggression; learning to fear (pp. 65)\
    Many Burman refugees in the camps talk about problems of discrimination, exclusion, and suspicions of being government spies, often leading them to depart the camps in the end. Other camp residents, who speak Burmese, have also faced similar problems as they have been mistaken for being Burman. Refugees belonging to minority groups, however, say that the situation has improved in recent years and refugees are mostly not afraid to speak Burmese anymore.
     

• the number of student per teachers (goal: 40:1): but 70:1 in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province  (ratio is attached)

• the percentage of qualified/trained teachers (goal: >80%) (attached)
  Education in the camps is provided by CBOs such as the Karen Refugee Committee – Education Entity (KRC-EE) backed up by international NGOs such as World Education. Many schools, especially in the less remote camps in Tak Province, have foreign teachers and volunteers, majority of whom stay illegally in the camps as permits remain largely unattainable. These foreigners teach refugees English and other subjects while hiding from Thai authorities, risking fines or even deportation. After the Thai junta took over power in May 2014, however, it has become increasingly difficult to enter and stay in the camps without a permit.
   

• Challenge #5:     The inherently political nature of the content and structures of refugee education can exacerbate societal conflict, alienate individual children, and lead to education that is neither of high quality nor protective.

  • curriculum:                            

    • Where urban refugees are integrated into national systems, for example, they by necessity follow curricula of host countries, whether or not the most probable durable solution is local integration or repatriation.

    • The content of what is included in curricula shapes what children know and how they think about themselves and imagine the future both for themselves and their society. It can be difficult for teachers to cope with curriculum topics that are controversial, and recent conflict-related topics are often omitted from curricula

    • stereotypes taught in class                         

  • language

    • neither in their first language nor in the language in which they have previously studied.

negative influence: social development, and drop out
 

• ​Challenge #6: Lack of financial resources,