Thai students in north east being left behindStudents in Thailand's north-eastern provinces, known collectively as Isaan, are well behind the rest of the country in their academic scores, according to the recently revealed results of a national test conducted last year.
The disappointing results underscore a chronic problem in the Isaan region - Thailand's poorest - that experts attribute to poverty and a blend of environmental, social and economic factors. They say this complex web traps Isaan children in a cycle of underachievement.
"There are multiple deprivations at work that are linked to poverty," said Mr Andrew Claypole, a social policy officer at the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) office in Bangkok.
Heavy migration is one issue as people go in search of jobs, leaving many children without parental care. Other factors include poor access to health services and schools, and a subpar education system.
Iodine deficiency is also a major concern. It has been positively linked to low IQ, which in turn impairs learning ability. Surveys consistently show Isaan students have the lowest IQ scores nationwide.
Iodine supplements are needed, but only 35 per cent of children in the north-east have access to iodised salt, according to Unicef's Ms Pornthida Padthong.
The highest proportion of children growing up without parental care - 25 per cent - is found in the north-east, she said. Unicef calls them "left-behind children", whose parents have gone to Bangkok and nearby industrial areas to find jobs.
In terms of quality of life, there is a considerable disparity between Bangkok and upcountry rural areas. In these areas, one in 10 households is still poor, the UN Development Programme noted in a detailed 2009 report on Thailand.
"The poor are most likely to be in the north-east, upper north or far south," the report said. Poor families generally have a "high dependency ratio", with large numbers of old people or young children.
One example of the disparity: Bangkok has one doctor for 793 people; the north-eastern province of Si Sa Ket has a ratio of one to 19,006.
Writing last week in online journal The Isaan Record, lecturer John Draper at Khon Kaen University in the north-east notes that despite investment in teacher training, the lowest-ranked provinces have seen hardly any improvement.
Test scores in Isaan are comparable to those in the conflict-torn provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani in the south, where violence since 2004 has severely disrupted education, sometimes keeping schools closed for weeks on end.
Mr Draper notes that in 2005, in the Thai language, the highest-placed Isaan province, Udon Thani, ranked 46th out of 76 provinces, while the lowest-placed, Kalasin, ranked 73rd. Only Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani scored worse.
Four years later, Udon Thani took 43rd place, but Kalasin remained the region's lowest-ranked province, at 73rd.
"In plain English, what this means is that rural Isaan students graduating from secondary school tend to have difficulty reading the front page of a Thai newspaper," Mr Draper concludes.
Learning two languages - Thai and English - that are not their mother tongue is a hurdle for Isaan children, he says. They are left behind "not only because of a lack of resources or malnutrition leading to stunted growth, but because they're learning in the wrong language".
"Almost every one of the 19 million inhabitants of Isaan is from a minority," Mr Draper points out.
He argues that regional languages, such as Lao and Khmer, "must be given a place in formal education - and that means being taught in parallel with Thai in a way approved by the Ministry of Education".
In an interview, former education minister Chaturon Chaisang agreed that "international studies show that students do better if they learn first in their mother tongue". However, he also acknowledged that implementing such a policy was difficult given the "conservative" culture at the Education Ministry.
The underdevelopment of Isaan feeds into a cruel stereotype that has emerged more sharply in recent years in the context of Thailand's political divide, which has seen the "red shirt" movement enjoy wide support, especially in Isaan, as it challenges the authority of the old-money conservative elite of Bangkok.
Bangkok's upper middle classes often see Isaan as "slow" or "stupid".
"What keeps Isaan people from fulfilling their potential? They see the Thai media as portraying a stereotype of them as ignorant," Mr Draper writes in an e-mail message.
"This inevitably rubs off, persuading them that they are indeed ignorant (never underestimate the power of propaganda - or insensitive media), or otherwise causing a disinclination to respect or do well in the academic system, which in any case is complicated by having to perform in a gateway second language."
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