The Ministry of Education on Thursday guaranteed that all ethnic minority children at Thairath Wittaya 6 School in Ang Thong province are eligible to attend school despite their stateless status.
The assurance followed a ministry probe into claims that the children were relocated from a border town near Myanmar in the north to the Thairath Wittaya 6 School in Pa Mok district against their will.
Locals had filed complaints with the authorities about a large group of ethnic minority children being enrolled in the Thairath Wittaya 6 School, which only has two teachers, one director and one administrator, said provincial governor Rangsan Tancharoen.
However, Education Minister Treenuch Thienthong said on Thursday that she had received reports from the Office of the Basic Education Commission that all 124 students had been relocated from the North to Ang Thong to enrol in Thairath Wittaya 6 School.
According to the Ang Thong Primary Educational Service Area Office, a screening found that seven of the children held Thai citizenship, while the rest did not have proof of civil registration, she said.
The office has offered to help the children, she said. They will now reside in a school building and the Wat Sa Kaeo Orphan Aid Centre and continue their lessons until the investigation is complete, she said. “The Education Ministry guarantees that all children in Thailand are eligible to enrol in schools despite their race or nationality, a universal practice [under] to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
To verify whether the children had entered Thailand legally, related agencies were assigned to investigate, she said. Reports showed that the smuggling of ethnic children involved people in various sectors, she said.
Authorities are probing possible human trafficking as all of the children were taken from Akha village on Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai province, a hill separating Thailand and Myanmar.
Pol Col Sakchai Kraiweeradechachai, superintendent at Pa Mok station in Ang Thong, told the press that the children could not speak Thai.