July 23, 2007—The resettlement program for the Burmese refugee community along Thailand’s border with Burma is having a negative effect on education in the camps, according to an official of the Karen Refugee Committee.
Schools were losing teachers, contributing to an increasing lack of interest among students, said the committee’s education coordinator, Deborah Htoo. “Exam scores of the students are lower than ever before,” she said.
This year, only 2,467 out of 34,000 primary and secondary school students passed the annual examination called the “border test.”
When high school students were included in the statistics the pass rate was 72 percent, still below last year’s figure of 80 percent.
Deborah Htoo said the loss of school principals, teachers, teacher-trainers and other staff due to the resettlement program was having a negative effect on teaching standards and student morale. Vacant positions were not easy to fill, and students found it difficult to adapt to younger teachers, she said.
Lay Thaw, a teacher-trainer in Umphiem refugee camp, said educational standards would continue to decline as long as the present resettlement program remained in force.
A recent report by the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand said a decrease in the quality and availability of teaching staff would have a negative impact on the education sector. Over time, the report said, the decline would have reverberating effects within refugee camps, because there would be a lack of qualified people to fill high level camp-based jobs.
From 2005 to early May 2007, 5,500 Burmese refugees from the nine refugee camps in Thailand left for resettlement in third countries. The proportion of educated refugees accepted for resettlement was higher than other camp residents.
Schools were losing teachers, contributing to an increasing lack of interest among students, said the committee’s education coordinator, Deborah Htoo. “Exam scores of the students are lower than ever before,” she said.
This year, only 2,467 out of 34,000 primary and secondary school students passed the annual examination called the “border test.”
When high school students were included in the statistics the pass rate was 72 percent, still below last year’s figure of 80 percent.
Deborah Htoo said the loss of school principals, teachers, teacher-trainers and other staff due to the resettlement program was having a negative effect on teaching standards and student morale. Vacant positions were not easy to fill, and students found it difficult to adapt to younger teachers, she said.
Lay Thaw, a teacher-trainer in Umphiem refugee camp, said educational standards would continue to decline as long as the present resettlement program remained in force.
A recent report by the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand said a decrease in the quality and availability of teaching staff would have a negative impact on the education sector. Over time, the report said, the decline would have reverberating effects within refugee camps, because there would be a lack of qualified people to fill high level camp-based jobs.
From 2005 to early May 2007, 5,500 Burmese refugees from the nine refugee camps in Thailand left for resettlement in third countries. The proportion of educated refugees accepted for resettlement was higher than other camp residents.
