Education in Burmese Refugee Camps in Thailand
“If we had stayed in the village, we knew that our children could never attend school and I wanted my children to go to school to be educated people. We also didn’t have any house to stay in. We could only stay in the forest and we had to flee away when the SPDC came or patrolled around our area, so we decided it was better to go to the refugee camp.”
(Saw P—, a 47-year-old male from P— village, Papun District; KHRG, 2008, p. 58)
- Achievement
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). In terms of qualification, there is some progress towards certifying the learning in the camps. 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. In addition, work is being done to obtain certification for some subjects in the general education curriculum.
- Restrictions
However, there are broad and specific restrictions imposed by the Thai government on the education of the refugees, which has significant implications on burmese refugees' opportunities for personal and social development as well as the development of their community if they return to their home country in the future.
-------------------------
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,
higher education
there are limited opportunities for higher education, which also largely remains unrecognised outside the camps.
The issue for many young students is what happens after they finish a post-ten school, the highest level of education available in most of the camps. There are only a handful of schools on the Thailand-Burma border where these young students can apply for, leaving thousands of talented and dedicated aspiring university students with no means to educate themselves.
One of the most prestigious of the schools available for refugees is the Australian Catholic University (ACU), which offers a Diploma in Liberal Studies in Mae Sot as well as in Ranong. Other commendable 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. As these opportunities are only available to a few students each year, thousands of capable young adults are left with no means to pursue their dream of higher education. Many young people are determined to help their people and their country, but with no place to go for study, they often end up opening a shop or becoming a nurse or a teacher in the camp. Some leave to find factory work in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand while many others turn to drugs and alcohol, or even commit suicide, as they see their dreams crushed before them.
