Girls' and Women's Education in Thailand.

Overview & Synopsis

Statistically, Thailand has eliminated gender disparity in access to education. Reasons that four women's conferences made very little impression on education reform could be no significant or overt discrimination against girls' enrollment and employment; education opportunity as more an issue of class (affordability) than gender (culture); and royal patronage of girl's education from the beginning. The Master Plan of Action for Education for All giving special attention to women has been implemented. National governmental offices seem unable to see anything for them to do for girls' education due to almost equal enrollment of boys and girls at all levels and the National Commission of Women's Affairs and women activists who take care of women's issues. Thai authorities--men and women--tend to ignore gender issues because of impressive statistical data on education enrollment. In fact, girls have less chance to enter education from the beginning, but tend to remain while boys tend to drop out gradually. Women's participation rate in nonformal education is high. Recommendations address teacher quality, integrating women's concerns, enhancing nonformal education's status, teaching style, gender issues, horizontal collaboration among governmental agencies, incorporating gender planning in the project cycle, safeguard against monopoly, promote transparency, and monitoring process. Appended is a chronology of education. (Contains 20 references.) (YLB)