Thailand to fight south insurgency with education

MUSLIMS in Thailand's restive south will be given educational opportunities as a means to combat extremism and violence, according to the country's top official responsible for civilian affairs in the provinces.

Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) director-general Pranai Suwanrath said education was an important tool to stem violence in the provinces which had so far, claimed more than 3,000 lives.

"Through education, people will have more hope which is very important in this region. The SBPAC will provide more educational opportunities for Muslim students in the provinces to enable them to achieve their dream," he said during an interview in Pattani province recently.

Pranai was speaking to a visiting Malaysian media delegation on a week-long familiarisation trip to Narathiwat, Pattani, Bangkok and Chiang Mai organised by the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Pattani has long been regarded as the heartland of Muslim and Malay-speaking Thai community.

According to Pranai, Muslims living in the southern provinces preferred to enrol their children in religious schools like the pondok and madrasah, rather than government-type schools.

More than 70 per cent of students in the Muslim provinces studied in religious schools while the rest are in government schools, he said, adding that presently, there were about 6,000 religious schools in the country's southern provinces.

"This is very different with the other provinces in Thailand, where 80 to 90 per cent of students are enrolled in government schools. Nevertheless, we cannot force the parents,' he said.

Because of that, Pranai added, the percentage of university entrance among Muslim students in the five southern provinces was still among the lowest in the country.

To ensure Muslim students in the south were not deprived of tertiary education, he said the SBPAC had been giving scholarships to qualified students to study abroad. As many as 1,000 scholarships were given last year. Bernama