Abstract
Quality of life of migrants has gained increased attention in the last decade, especially amongst those with vulnerability, such as migrant children. Despite continuous efforts from the Thai government to expand education services to all children on the Thai soil, some migrant children are still left uneducated. Exemplary barriers to education services are miscommunication of national policies, implementation hardship, and problematic attitudes of parents of migrant children. The establishment of ‘Migrants Learning Centers’ (MLCs) in migrant communities helped increase access to education for children of migrants, however, the academic quality remains questionable and hygienic statusin MLCsis still below standard. All in all, this study aims to analyse current education and school health promotion services provided for migrant children through a case study of Ranong province. The objectives of this study are: 1.to assess and understand the management of education services provided for migrant children, 2.to assess and understand the school health promotion services provided for migrant children, 3.to evaluate migrant children’s academic performances, 4.to evaluatenutritional status and hygienic behaviour of migrant children, and 5 to exploreperspectives of parents of migrant children on the access to education and health promotion services. The researchers applied a parallel mixed method design. Objectives 1, 2 and 5 used in-depth interviews with policy makers, service providers, and parents of migrant children. Objective 2 used observation and school health policy checklist as the main data collection tools. Objective 3 used secondary data on student attrition rate. Questionnaire survey was used in objective 4. The study revealed that migrant children did not face serious hurdle inenteringthe Thai public schools. This observation coincided with the government policy that provided per-headcount financial subsidy to schools according to the number of admitted migrant children in the same amount as Thai children. Parents’ intention was a key determinant influencing school enrolment. Parents with the intention to permanently reside in Thailand tended to choose Thai public schools, whereas parents who sent their children to MLCs were more lineated to return to their home country some time in the future. Even though the Thai public schools opened rooms for free education services to migrant children, MLCs seemed to fit the preference of migrants in several angles, such as the provision of curricula currently used in Myanmar, the use of Burmese language in classes, and more importantly, the offering of opportunities for children to continue their education in Myanmar schools or universities (in some MLCs). These features attracted parents’significantly as evidenced by the fact that the number of migrant children in MLCs was almost three times as large as those in Thai publicschools. Nonetheless, many MLCs were facing operational problems. These included non-standardised curricula, limited staffcapacities, insufficient budget, shortage of school lunch and milk for children, and lack of school health surveillance. Besides, some MLCs were operating in poor hygiene environment. Currently, there wasclear official regulatory agency on MLCs and the academic degrees between the two countries (Thailand and Myanmar) remained unlinked.
