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Sukho Thai

  1. Sukho Thai Learning Center

Sukho Thai Learning Center is located in a mountain range 35 kilometers from Mae Sot city in the Phop Phra District. The region is full of Thai plantations, rose fields and seasonal crop fields, with thousands of migrant workers from Myanmar living and working there. The school was initiated under the leadership by the teacher Min Min Thein with 60 students and 2 teachers in February 2012. One reason it was established was to prevent the growing number of child workers in the region due to the lack of access to proper educational institutions for migrant children. The school began as an act of kindness and consideration with the goal of teaching these migrant workers’ children their mother language of Burmese along with basic English and Mathematics.

In its early days, Sukho Thai faced some hurdles with local authorities. It was very isolated due to its remoteness and had very little infrastructure. The school was basically a bamboo shack back then. However, over time, due to the developments in the surrounding region, it became less isolated, and the school complex was improved considerably. Things were looking bright for the school.

Unfortunately, however, this positive development did not last. After 10 years of operation, the land owner sadly chose not to extend the rent contract and asked the school to relocate. Thankfully, the teachers have managed to rent a new plot of land near the old school location. The old school was demolished over 3 days starting on 6th October this year. It was a collective effort of teachers, students, parents and workers, the landowner employer and hired workers.

The new school has not yet been built, and the school organizers are currently seeking assistance from potential benefactors to cover the costs. In addition to the financial challenge, the headmaster is worried that since the migrant schools in Mae Sot region has been closed for almost 2 years now due to the pandemic, children might be out of touch with the school learning environment. Older children are also working outside since the schools cannot be opened yet, and it is very likely that some might not be motivated to return to school once schools are able to reopen. Thus, the main priority for headmaster Min Min Thein right now is getting the school built as soon as possible, preferably in time to reopen for the next school year of 2022-2023. However, at an estimated cost of 300,000 Baht for construction along with the land rent cost of 20,000 Baht annually, the situation looks bleak for Sukho Thai School.

In the 2021 – 2022 Academic Year, there were 171 students and 8 teachers at Sukho Thai Learning Center. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Thai Authority was not allowed the learning center to reopen the school with onsite classes and they could not bring the students to the learning center. So all the migrant learning centers have to use on-hand and online methods to teach the students. Therefore, Sukho Thai teachers performed the Home Based Learning (HBL) method for the whole academic year. Teachers went to the students in the different communities to teach the students. Teaching Home Based Learning (HBL) to the students was not easy because teachers have to travel to the students in many areas. It took our teachers strength so much. So Teachers wanted to have school buildings and bring back the students to the classes. Students will have chance to learn comfortably in the safe environment.

In month of March 2022, Sukho Thai, Sukho Thai got a contact with a donor for the school building. Then the donor came to see the new land that Sukho Thai rented. Due to the donor budget limitation, the donor said they would some classrooms for the sukho Thai. The donor has built one building for the school office but the donor was not able to build the school classes room for the school because the donor was not able to find the funding for the school building. According to Sukho Thai Head Teacher, when she contacted to donor, the donor said that they were not able to find the funding yet so they don’t know when they can build the school buildings. But Head Teachers needed the class’s room as soon as possible because they plan to reopen the school in this 2022 – 2023 Academic year. According to Head Teacher, she really needed help and classes room as soon as possible.

For the land situation, they already rent the land. There new land is closed to the one land. There is no problem to rent the land. They can extend the land annually. They can get water and electricity easily.

To reopen the school, all the migrant schools have to follow and prepare the school according the Covid-19, 20 guidelines. After they prepare their school and completed the guidelines, schools has to inform the Thai community public health and community leaders. Then they will come to check and observe the school. If the school passed the 20 guidelines, they will give approval for the school opening. Then school has to inform the MECC that they got approval that they can reopen the school.

While other learning center preparing their centers, Sukho Thai still does not have the school buildings. Thus, Sukho Thai really need the school buildings to reopen the school in this 2022 – 2023 academic year. If Sukho Thai cannot reopen the school within this academic year, many children from Sukho Thai areas cannot access the education and they will lose the opportunities of getting the education. Moreover, the students drop out rate will increased and students will work in the farm instead of attending the school and getting education.

As the education is foundation for the successful life, if the students cannot attend the school and learn this year, they will lose opportunities and they cannot have the successful career and they have difficult career in the future. Therefore, Sukho Thai really need to school building and bring back the students to the school class’s room and teach them with onsite methods. In this 2022 – 2023 academic year, the estimate number of the students are 107 students according to the student’s registration and 5 teachers.

Despite facing many ups and downs due to reliance on donations from benefactors, the teachers of Sukho Thai are resolute in their mission and are prepared to sacrifice what is needed to in order to ensure the continuation of education for the children in the region. The headmaster is imploring anyone who is willing to aid them to step forward.

According the Sukho-Thai Head Teacher, she wanted to request 6 classrooms for the school. Six will be enough for all the students. One classroom will fix 15 to 20 students. According the budget estimated, one room will cost around 50,000 THB including labor fee. So, the total budget of the school building is around 500,000 THB for 6 classroom. (6 classrooms x 50,000 per classroom = 300,000 THB for all 6 classrooms)

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