Thailand faces significant challenges in addressing educational inequalities, particularly among economically disadvantaged children. Currently, around 8.5 million students aged 3 to 14 are enrolled in early childhood and compulsory education across the country. Of these, approximately 3 million come from families living below the poverty line, with 1.3 million categorised as extremely poor. The most severely affected provinces include Mae Hong Son, Narathiwat, and various provinces in the northeast.

The Equitable Education Fund (EEF), Thailand, was established under the Equitable Education Act 2018 to address educational disparities and provide equal learning opportunities for underprivileged students. Recognising the urgent need for focused support, EEF strategically prioritised the extremely poor student group, extending assistance to 1.3 million students through continuous scholarships, attendance monitoring, and individual progress assessments over three consecutive years. Through close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, this approach successfully retained 97.88% of these students within the compulsory education system.

Despite these positive outcomes, only 13.5% of students from this group completed secondary education and pursued higher education—a rate still significantly below the national average. Additionally, another 1.1 million students from households below the poverty line remained without targeted support. EEF’s experiences demonstrate that financial support alone is insufficient to fully address educational inequality. Effective strategies must include complementary mechanisms to tackle broader life challenges that significantly impact students. For instance, some extremely poor students have caregiving responsibilities for elderly, disabled, or chronically ill family members. Even when financially supported, these students struggle to fully concentrate on their studies or enjoy a typical student life due to the significant emotional and physical demands of caregiving.

Furthermore, creating supportive environments that promote holistic learning and development is crucial. Such environments must adopt a genuinely student-centred approach to effectively nurture and support these children.

Data shared between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Interior indicates a slight reduction in the total number of out-of-school children aged 3 to 18—from 1.02 million in 2023 to 982,304 in 2024. However, it is important to acknowledge that 590,557 children have been out of school since 2023, and an additional 391,747 new cases emerged in 2024, highlighting the ongoing and unresolved nature of this issue.

Addressing these complexities demands inter-agency cooperation involving multiple ministries and local government bodies. EEF has proposed two strategic policies to sustainably resolve these educational inequalities:

1. Integration of data from various agencies to guarantee educational opportunities until the age of 20, accompanied by comprehensive government support in health, social welfare, family stability, employment, and education. Efforts should also focus on reducing barriers to educational access for extremely disadvantaged students.
2. Establishment of a “Learning Passport” system, enabling students to flexibly choose and transfer credits among compulsory education, local, or informal education systems. This system aims to facilitate future employment opportunities and educational continuity. The integrated 13-digit national ID and PromptPay systems will streamline financial transactions efficiently, allowing direct financial assistance to students while conveniently tracking and storing educational credits for future academic and employment purposes.
3. Decentralise resources to provinces and local areas, empowering all local sectors to take ownership of educational equity. Local administrative organisations should be equipped with sufficient knowledge and robust mechanisms to effectively tackle educational inequalities. They should be able to initiate targeted programmes addressing the needs of disadvantaged, disabled, and out-of-school children, and to mobilise local resources effectively. Additionally, establishing local education equity funds with tax incentives for private-sector and individual contributors can help foster innovation in financial resource mobilisation and budget management, creating sustainable community-driven solutions.

This article is based on information provided by the Equitable Education Fund (EEF). For more details, visit their official website at https://en.eef.or.th/.