Illiteracy rate high among Mon children in Thailand and Burma

(Kaowao, January 15, 2006)

The lack of proper education and poverty for Mon in Thailand and Burma has contributed to the rise of Mon illiteracy.

There are over 30,000 Mon migrant children under the age of 15 living in Samut Prakan province of Thailand with the majority missing out on their primary education according to a Mon community source. About 90% of migrants living in the port city are Mon and only about 300 Mon children can attend the only school available to them which is run by a Mon volunteer group and some Thai non governmental organizations. 

Mon parents in the province who work in the fishing industries often work overtime to earn extra money and cannot look after their children. 'So what happens is that many youngsters wind up working alongside their parents, to kill two birds with one stone, to help pay the bills and to watch over the kids' says Nai Gongsakar, a migrant worker from Maharchai. 

'We have 80 children in our school' says Nai Lun a member of the school committee. Mon volunteers led by a young nationalist also teach Mon and Thai languages to adults on the weekends. 'One problem is that we need more volunteer schools, to help combat the problem in offering education' says the community leader. 

In Mon State, a source from Mon Relief and Development Committee said that just about 20 percent of children in the internally displaced camps, under the control of the NMSP, can attend the school free of charge. 'Their parents and teachers do not encourage them to attend school' says, Charn Lun, a staff member of the Mon NGO. The volunteers worry for their future since the Mon children do not attend even primary school. 

In Thailand in the many hundreds of migrant worker camps, including the construction, fishing, and rubber plantation industries, migrants live in poor housing with either no electricity or education available. 'Many thousands of young people cannot read or write in their mother tongue and most cannot converse in Thai either' says a human right's activist. 'Those who can speak Thai are able to secure better employment, such as in the tourist industry in Thailand, especially in Phuket and Ranong' she added. 

Most Mon children in the rural area in Mon State leave school before they finish middle school.  'Only a few go on to finish university,' sources estimate. Many young Mon in the southern part of Ye and Yebyu township cannot read and write in Mon or Burmese, sources say. 'They stop going to school before they finish primary school,' says a former Mon school teacher. 'Many families are hard pressed to send their children to school, mainly because of poverty in which they are unable to pay for their children's education, but also because of the lack of an educational infrastructure in Burma' the source explains.