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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 002226 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; NSC FOR WALTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL PTER TH
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN THAILAND: CONFLICT, CONFLICTING GOALS 
HURTING EDUCATION AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT 
 
REF: BANGKOK 2149: NARATHIWAT BOMBING 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; please handle accordingly.  Not 
for internet distribution. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Issues of identity, language, violence 
against teachers, and quality of instruction are some of the 
key challenges facing the educational environment and its 
impact on life in southern Thailand, according to academic, 
government, and NGO interlocutors we engaged in southern 
Thailand in late August.  An exodus of qualified teachers 
after the separatist conflict began a more violent phase in 
January 2004 reduced the quality of education in state-run 
schools, and many well-to-do Buddhist families now opt to 
send their children to school outside the region.  The 
majority of Malay Muslim parents choose to send their 
children to private religious schools, most of which now 
teach both religion and the state curriculum while receiving 
state funds, though concerns about the quality of instruction 
and the sufficiency of vocational preparation remain.  This 
is the second of three cables reporting on key issues 
affecting Thailand's Deep South emerging from an August 16-19 
trip to Thailand's three southernmost provinces.  The first 
(reftel) touched on the lingering impact of the June 8 mosque 
massacre in Narathiwat; septel will address the nature of 
violence and perceptions of a lack of justice in the deep 
south. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Comment: While insurgent attacks against teachers 
grab the headlines, the problems with the educational system 
preparing (or not) the next generation of southerners to 
succeed in a modern economy run deep.  Central Thai 
authorities see education as a way of molding Thai citizens; 
Malay Muslim parents prioritize affirming their Muslim 
identity in their choice of schooling.  The different 
educational approaches are symptomatic of what many perceive 
as the RTG's resistance to accepting the Malay Muslim ethnic 
identity within what it means to be Thai.  End Summary and 
Comment. 
 
Education System Failing Southern Students 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) Our interlocutors emphasized the educational 
challenges many Malay Muslims face in the South.  Students in 
the three southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, and Pattani 
consistently score at the bottom of Thailand's 76 provinces 
on educational tests/indicators, Natthaphong Sirichana, 
Vice-Governor of Narathiwat for social and economic issues, 
with primary oversight of education, told us August 18.  Many 
Malay Muslim students finishing the first six primary years 
cannot read or write Thai properly, Natthaphong lamented.  He 
attributed the poor performance to two primary factors: 
students struggling with two languages; and frequent school 
closings due to the ongoing violence. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  The primary educational focus for most Malay Muslim 
families is reinforcement of their children's Muslim 
identity.  The chairman of the Narathiwat Islamic Committee, 
Hajji Abdullozak Ali, told us August 18 that education was 
the biggest issue for Muslims in the South, even more 
important than living conditions.  Vice-Governor Natthaphong 
asserted that only 20 percent of Muslim students in the three 
southern provinces attend state schools.  He noted that most 
parents send their children to private Islamic schools 
because of their strong emphasis on religious education. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Note: The vice-governor's figures do not appear to 
match official statistics from the Ministry of Education, 
based on our understanding of the Buddhist-Muslim population 
split in the three provinces; see statistics below in para 
¶12.  The private schools receive a per-student subsidy from 
the state, allowing students to attend for free.  Most 
schools now teach religion in the morning and the state 
curriculum in the afternoon.  Far fewer students attend the 
entirely private pondok schools which offer only religious 
instruction. 
 
 
BANGKOK 00002226  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) The ongoing violence, particularly the history of 
attacks against teachers since 2004, has weakened the quality 
of instruction in the South at the primary school level and 
the total attendance numbers at university level.  In 
addition to violence frequently interrupting school, 119 
teachers have been killed in the three southernmost provinces 
in the past five years, with 52 of the casualties taking 
place in Narathiwat province, according to the head of the 
Narathiwat Teachers Federation, Sa-nguan Intharak.  Fifty of 
the 52 in Narathiwat were Buddhist; the two Muslims were 
killed trying to protect Buddhist colleagues, added Sa-nguan. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Shortly after the surge in violence began, 
approximately four thousand teachers took advantage of a 
government offer to leave the Deep South and relocate 
elsewhere, thereby diluting the quality of instruction. 
According to Sa-nguan, presently 80 percent of Narathiwat's 
teachers are from the province.  Sa-nguan was pleased to 
report that no teachers were killed in Narathiwat in 
2008/first half of 2009, which he attributed to defensive 
driving and weapons training provided under the 
Queen-sponsored Village Defense Force project. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Buddhist families that can afford to are voting with 
their feet.  Sa-nguan said that Thai Buddhist families in the 
south who can afford to send their children to private 
schools in Songkhla do so, primarily out of fear of 
harassment by Malay Muslim students.  Sa-nguan,s own son has 
been picked on at school for not being a Muslim, but he said 
he felt the need to set an example for the Buddhist community 
by keeping his children in Narathiwat schools and not taking 
an offer to relocate elsewhere in Thailand. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Since the violence escalated, many fewer students 
from Thailand's mid-South attend university or tertiary 
vocational education in Pattani and Yala.  The mayor of Yala 
township, Phongsak Yingchoncharoen, told us that before 2004, 
Yala was the educational center of the South.  Over the past 
five years, however, overall enrollment has dropped by ten 
thousand annually.  Prince of Songkhla University enrollment 
has gone from a 70-30 Buddhist-Muslim mix ten years ago, to 
50-50 five years ago, to 30-70 currently, according to 
several professors, as Buddhists from elsewhere in Thailand, 
including the mid-south, looked elsewhere for higher 
education options. 
 
Ideas for improvement: technology, textbooks, language 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Vice-Governor Natthaphong and two local education 
officials with him in the meeting stressed that limited IT 
resources in Narathiwat schools would further handicap their 
students at the university level.  Natthaphong presented a 
wish list of requested educational assistance from the USG, 
mentioning USAID, student exchanges, and Peace Corps teachers 
to focus on scientific education, the teaching of English, 
and libraries.  He added: "the poor don't need money, they 
only need the opportunity." 
 
¶11. (SBU) Natthaphong's assistant emphasized that, to be 
successful, RTG plans had to comport with local traditions, 
because most Malay Muslim parents insisted on sending their 
children to Islamic schools.  Teacher Federation head 
Sa-nguan also believed that the government needed to change 
its view of education in the Deep South, notably by producing 
textbooks that accurately teach the Koran and the history of 
Pattani.  He said that most Islamic schools, including the 
pre-school/primary level "tadika" program, currently procure 
textbooks printed in Malaysia that offer, in his view, 
inaccurate instruction in fundamental tenets of the Koran and 
of local history that breed misunderstanding and mistrust. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Several of our interlocutors emphasized the impact 
of language on education for Malay Muslim students. 
Vice-Governor Natthaphong said that because most students in 
the south speak mostly Malayu at home, their Thai language 
skills are lacking, and this limits their educational and 
 
BANGKOK 00002226  003 OF 003 
 
 
vocational opportunities.  This sentiment was echoed by 
Pakorn Prichawuthideth, director of the Narathiwat Community 
College and member of the Narathiwat Industry Council and 
Chamber of Commerce.  Islamic Committee Chair Abdullozak Ali 
said that formal RTG recognition that the people in the south 
are Malay-Thai would be an important first step, coupled with 
a corresponding RTG decision to allow formal education in the 
central Malay dialect.  That in turn would broaden 
opportunities for study and work for southern students, as 
well as facilitate communication with Indonesia and Malaysia. 
 Currently, many southern students were forced to go abroad 
because they could not compete with students from Bangkok for 
entrance into Thailand's universities. 
 
Southern Private school statistics 
-------------------------- 
Type                schools  students 
State schools           921   209,482 
Private religious/state 287   167,998 
Private religious only  277    25,603 
Pondok                  398    25,000 (est) 
(Tadika centers         2014  230,656) 
 
Source: Thai Ministry of Education 
JOHN