The Social Background of Students and Their Prospect of Success at School.

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of a report prepared by the Thai Ministry of Education in response to an IBE questionnaire. Two sets of obstacles are blamed for Thai children's remote success in school--those preventing regular school attendance and those preventing efficient learning. The country's essentially agricultural economy and the low per capita income requires the assistance of children on the farm, cutting down their attendance, resulting in underachievement, and eventually dropping out. Learning ability is also impaired by health problems caused by poor sanitation and malnutrition. Also, Thailand is a multilingual country and added language barriers exist in schools in the Cambodian and Malay speaking regions. Early marriage is another obstacle to school. Low motivation exists because few rural areas have secondary schools, which may be attended by competitive examinations, so that the reason for elementary school attendance is not made clear. The Thai Government has started many projects to upgrade rural conditions by incentive to farmers and expanding rural education by supplying textbooks, meals, medical services to schoolchildren in need, and constructing roads in remote areas. The full report is available in microfiche (SIRE/036) from the International Bureau of Education, Palais Wilson, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland. (Author/GDB)