Bridges: Participatory Action Research on the Future of Migrant Education in Thailand
Migrant children’s educational prospects in Thailand have brightened greatly since 2015, when Save the Children and World Education conducted the last comprehensive research project on migrant education. Government-recognized education has now become accessible for many migrant children and many legal obstacles that had prevented migrant children from enrolment in Thai schools, have now been eliminated.
Despite these gains, more than half of all migrant children in Thailand are still out of school and estimates account for 200,000 children. Many challenges still threaten the access to education of the most marginalised groups.
In 2019, Help without Frontiers produced the research "Bridges" in collaboration with TeacherFocus Myanmar, Mecc Tak Pesao II, Migrant Teachers, Burmese Migrant Workers' Education Committee, Marist Asia Foundation, and Youth Connect Foundation - Thailand. Bridges reports on a large-scale Participatory Action Research project that sought the perspectives of parents, teachers, educational leaders, and children at both Thai Formal Government Schools and Migrant Learning Centres. The survey included 1,763 participants in 47 locations: 32 Migrant Learning Centres and 15 Thai Formal Government Schools, in 5 districts in Tak Province as well as Ranong Province.
