Meeting of Informal School for Burmese Migrant Worker in Thailand

Bangkok

Nai Chan Mon, Independent Mon News Agency

May 29, 2005

An officer of Thai Education Ministry and a group of Thai-Raman people held official meeting with government officials from Bang Kun Thieng District Informal Education Department and discussed for legal cooperation process for education of Mon migrant workers from Burma.

Thai Education Ministry officer, Mrs. Bussaba led the 4 Thai-Raman people as a group, representing the migrant workers’ school in Bangkadee Mon village, met 4 officials from Bang Kun Thieng District Informal Education Department led by the Departmental Director Mr. Nai Komkrit and discussed about creating textbooks, that need to translate from Thai Informal School textbooks to Mon language and the printing cost will be funded by the Thai Government.

Migrant workers school in Bangkadee village, Bang Kun Thieng Distirct of Bangkok, has operated for a year by Thai-Raman volunteers and it has 60 Mon migrant worker students and teaches English, Thai and Mon in every Sunday.

“Now, we cooperated with Government’s Informal Education Department for the education of migrant workers accordingly to Thai education system,” Nai Sunthorn, a Thai-Raman volunteer in the Bangkadee School, who joined the meeting said.

 “We wanted migrant workers to have graduated and obtain certificate from informal school in order to apply for jobs easily in Thailand.”

“Our process reached at translating Thai Informal School textbooks to Mons and choosing the appropriate textbook. Now we discussed to ask fund from the government for translation and publishing. But we have to apply that to the government step by step,” Nai Sunthorn explained.

According to Thai-Raman volunteers, the district Informal Education Departmental authorities agreed to help the migrant workers’ education and cooperation to reach the process of official operation of migrant workers’ schools.

Thai-Raman volunteers planed to meet with Informal School Director every week to discuss for their further processes and for the first time official meeting, they met them on May 18, 2005.

“We are quite happy that we get help from the local Thai education authorities. We planned a lot to do for our migrant workers. But how much goal we will receive, we have to wait for,” Nai Saha Mon, a teacher to migrant workers in Bangkadee, explained his expectations.

In Bangkadee village’s migrant worker school, they had divided three levels: primary, secondary, and high. In primary level, they only teach how to read and write. In secondary and high, they teach special subjects to educate workers in order to use in their daily works.

The similar informal migrant workers’ school is also operated by ‘The Light of Mon Education’ migrant workers group in Mahachai area of Samut Prachan Province, south-west of Bangkok, in order to provide education to children and adults who migrated from Burma.

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