ACCESS TO EDUCATION Official Thai government policy states that all children in the country have the right to access basic education without discrimination and regardless of legal status.140 The 2005 Cabinet Resolution on Education for Unregistered Persons explicitly obliges all schools and educational institutions to admit any child for education, regardless of their nationality, legal or documentation status. Under the policy, there are no restrictions on the level of education, and education up to secondary level is provided free of charge. Students are eligible for national exams, and on successful completion of their studies are given graduation certificates which enable them to apply for higher education. On paper, the policy is a progressive step towards ensuring education for all, and for the Rohingya who have settled in Thailand, it offers an important opportunity to create a better future for their children. However, for refugees, victims of human trafficking and migrant families, implementation can be patchy. Interviewees explained that this is largely because decisions on enrolment are left to the discretion of individual schools. In some cases, they explained, headteachers are unsure whether enrolment is permitted, while others may reject students on discriminatory grounds.141 Another challenge is that Thai is the primary language of instruction. While younger Rohingya children can find it easier to adapt to learning in a new language, for older children who speak little or no Thai, understanding lessons is virtually impossible, leading to frustration and apathy. According to UNICEF, while the policy has enabled some 150,000 migrant children to enrol in public schools, an estimated 200,000 migrant children remain out of school.142 3 COUNTRY BY COUNTRY SNAPSHOT to achieve.138 Under Thailand’s Nationality Act, children whose parents are irregular migrants are ineligible to acquire nationality.139 As a result, most of the Rohingya children born in Thailand are not eligible for citizenship and remain stateless, and grow up at risk of arrest and detention. The policy is also not applied consistently for child victims of human trafficking living in government shelters. For these children, education is generally informal and provided by NGOs, which run classes within the shelters. Such education is generally better for primary-level children, although there are some unaccredited vocational courses and training available to older children too. A major challenge, however, is that having been denied education in Myanmar, many Rohingya children (and some adults) who arrive at the shelters lack basic literacy PHOTO: SAVE THE CHILDREN 11-year-old Nora* is reading in a shelter for children in Thailand. She was intercepted by Thai police while attempting to flee from Myanmar to Malaysia to join her family there. 23