Research

The aspirations and perspectives of grade 12 migrant high school students in Tak Province, Thailand, are explored through a short survey conducted at a local career fair. Their career interests, educational priorities, and digital literacy levels are disaggregated by gender and visualized with graphs.

Within the seven refugee camps administered by the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) on the Thai–Myanmar border, teaching is viewed as an act of service. For decades, refugee educators have lacked access to professional pathways that lead to national inclusion. Providing refugee teachers with accredited opportunities and a living wage stands to benefit teacher recruitment, retention, and the quality of education in refugee camps.

The COVID-19 pandemic and political turmoil in Myanmar severely impacted the education of Myanmar migrant children in Thailand. A 2021 research project, "Stepping Stones," delves into these twin crises, highlighting the resilience of educational pathways and the potential for recovery.

This report examines school registration options for MLCs in Thailand and the importance of providing education tailored to all children's needs. Arguing that MLCs complement the 2005 Cabinet Resolution on education for those without legal status or Thai citizenship, it calls on policymakers to enhance legal registration and recognition channels for teachers and students.

Teacher education in Myanmar and its borderlands, affected by prolonged conflict and disruptions, operates within both state and nonstate systems. While the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Myanmar's central government's teacher education, parallel systems adeptly adapted with decentralized, flexible strategies, potentially offering insights for teacher education in other crisis contexts.

This book examines the interplay between teacher education and comparative and international education (CIE), focusing on how they can mutually benefit in light of global socio-cultural and politico-economic changes. With contributions from global experts, it discusses topics like equity, social justice, and sustainable development goals, featuring case-studies from countries including Myanmar, South Korea, and the USA.

Myanmar has 117 living languages, with over 23 million people fluent in one of the major indigenous languages. Despite this linguistic diversity, the national language dominated school instruction until 2021, often unfamiliar to ethnolinguistic minorities. A study involving multiple organizations assessed multilingual education competencies, finding 94% of ethnic and refugee teachers met the requirements to bridge students from their mother tongue to a second language.

Since 2014, Migrant Learning Centres in Tak province have offered non-formal education pathways, benefiting over 3,500 students. However, challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Burmese political crisis, and the potential loss of accreditation threaten these programs, highlighting the need for swift action and investment to sustain them.

Under the recent democratic government, Burma underwent significant education reform, central to which was the Teacher Competency Standards Framework (TCSF). This study evaluated the competencies of Burmese educators from migrant learning centers on the Thai-Burma border, revealing a 15.34% improvement in teaching skills during a 10-month training program, especially when teachers were given options for enhancement.

In the wake of COVID-19 in Thailand's Tak Province, research highlighted prevalent physical abuse, emotional abuse, and child labor among migrant children. The report provides recommendations to ensure educational continuity and bolster child protection mechanisms in these marginalized communities.

This article delves into the global challenge of multilingual education, examining its importance in a world with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Dive deeper to understand the complexities of transitioning from mother-tongue to national languages and the benchmarks often used to assess the effectiveness of these educational programs.

Educators at Migrant Learning Centers (MLCs) on the Thai-Myanmar border, previously grappling with resource limitations, now confront amplified challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. With potential extended closures, financial strains, and rising concerns about student retention and well-being, the landscape of education is rapidly evolving.

Since 2015, access to recognized education for migrant children in Thailand has improved, with many Migrant Learning Centers adopting recognized curricula. However, with over half still out of school, a comprehensive Participatory Action Research project, surveying 1,763 participants, underscores the continued challenges and need for enhanced inclusivity.

This paper is a brief of “Children at the Center, Participatory Action

Research in Thailand’s Deep South”, a report written by Greg Tyrosvoutis, Watcharapon Kukaewkasem and Wirachan Sirisanti for Save the Children’s Local Engagement to Advocate for Peace (LEAP) project.

In Myanmar, traditional rote learning dominates high schools, ranking it 172nd in the CIA's educational expenditure. A study with Myanmar students in Thailand highlighted memorization's prevalence and the suppression of independent thought due to standardized testing and an authoritarian teaching style.