- Thailand Zero Dropout initiative to bring 1 million out-of-school children back to education
- The initiative, driven by the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), addresses the significant dropout
- Achieving the zero-dropout goal is projected to boost Thailand's GDP by 1.7%
Thailand has initiated a mission to bring the 1 million out-of-school children back to school in a bid to eliminate poverty and catapult itself out of the middle-income trap.
The "Thailand Zero Dropout" initiative by the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) hopes to decrease the 1 million-plus out-of-school to 200,000 within five years.
Till the other year, Thailand had approximately 11 million children of school age, but 1.02 million were out of education, the Education Ministry has said.
Over one third of school-aged children (394,039) have no attendance on record whatsoever and over 94,000 are not registered in education at all. The overwhelming majority of these are either children whose parents are migrant workers or unregistered children in far-flung border regions. A third missing from school is unregistered disabled youngsters.
A study by EEF revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden increase in the dropout rate, endangering different facets of economic growth. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of families in Thailand are trapped in poverty since their children will not progress in education beyond their parents, it stated, noting that this cycle of poverty may trap Thailand in the middle-income trap for many more decades. Meeting the zero-dropout target is also estimated to nudge up GDP by 1.7%, according to government estimates.
EEF will schedule the first Zero Dropout meeting of 11 agencies of government Education, Digital Economy and Society, Interior, and Social Development and Human Security ministries for June 14
