Prime Minister leads celebration of Thai National Children's Day

(Part II Academe’s major influence on the governance of Thailand)

BANGKOK, Thailand — During the week of our Bangkok tour, the Thai dailies, specially the English newspapers, like The Nation and Bangkok Post, front paged four-column colored photos of the photogenic Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, dazzling an assembly of children and parents with a storytelling session or awarding smiling primary school children with special medals. The Nation reported “Government House was opened to the public for National Children’s Day yesterday, with kids getting the chance to meet the prime minister.” Caption of the PM with her 10-year old son read, “Yingluck’s son, Supasek Amornchat, sits on the PM’s chair, which is open for kids to try every year on Children’s Day.”

The gloom caused by the flood quickly evaporated as schools, youth associations, local governments and NGOs had various activities and fairs involving the families.

The PM’s theme for the children

It is a tradition that the prime minister offers a motto to celebrate the Children’s Day. This year’s theme reads: “Knowledge for Unity, Be Proud to be Thai, Focus on Technology.” Lest that the motto be forgotten after the celebration, the editorial of the Nation analyzed how much these three factors have been realized.

“We have failed on the first, Unity with Knowledge. Our children are growing up in a divided society that has been polarized because of our inability to listen to other voices and reconcile with each other. We certainly have not shown them how to accommodate differences via constructive reasoning and the sharing of knowledge. We have used emotion rather than reason to try to gain advantage. There has been little effort to bridge the difference.” (The truth is that the Thais believe in His Majesty King Bhumibol Aduljadej as the major unifying factor of the nation. Unfortunately, he is seriously ill.) 

“On Preserving the Thai Identity” We have done a bad job on defining what is it ‘to be Thai’ for the young generation. What children learn these days in school is from the media. It has failed to provide an environment to emulate their countrymen who are very creative and work tirelessly to be self-sustainable, thus inspire them to appreciate what kind of a people they are. Instead they grow up aspiring to be like certain movie personalities and even imitate their life style.

(An interesting panorama of the financial success of small entrepreneurs of Bangkok is visible day and night before our centrally located four-star Arnoma Hotel along Rajdamn Road, where Erawan and Intercontinental Hotels are a walking distance away along Sukhumvit Road. Right along the wide sidewalks are food stalls preparing delicious, home cooked Thai meals. Shaded by pink plastic tents obviously organized by the city government, they observe strict standards of order and cleanliness as they daily sweep away the litters and pack up their stores in the afternoon to give way to the souvenir stalls and different Thai food carts, doing brisk business with tourists in the evening. These day and night stores including the whole sale Pratunam market, which sell merchandise at 50 percent - 70 percent discount rates, are a big threat to the air-conditioned malls of Central World plaza, Isetan, Big C. Our tour guide Mr. Bank, noting our excitement at these sites, would always proudly point out “Amazing Thailand.”)

What about the significance of “Focus on Technology”? We have not shown the future generation what this truly means except for the populist promises to give them free computer. But the government’s campaign to promote technology in school is corrupted by the promise of gadget handouts to students, rather than the promise of a good science education that would enable them to use these tools to realize their potential. The school curriculum barely provides an environment to stimulate the Thai’s natural sense of creativity.

The Child Watch Project

During the same week the Bangkok Post editorial (Jan. 13) detailed analysis of the situation of children all over Thailand – “If children are the country’s future, what lies ahead could indeed be grim when one child in every three comes from vulnerable and high-risk groups. These are five million children under 15 years of age across the country.”

According to Child Watch Project, these high-risk children are school dropouts, abandoned and street children, child offenders, unwed mothers, young drug addicts, stateless children with no legal rights (coming from border countries of Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia and Laos), children with learning problems, handicapped children and those under severe poverty.

On an average, there are between 50,000 and 70,000 vulnerable children in each province. Without timely intervention, their angry alienation can push them into dangerous or anti social behavior.

The trend is worrisome. The number of child offenders rose from 34,211 in 2005 to 46,981 in 2009. The number of unwanted teen mothers also rose, from 42,434 to 67,958 in 2009. The circumstances of children in the Philippines, is exactly the same but the vital figures have not been accounted for by the cabinet men of past and current presidents.

The urban / rural education disparity

“The urban / rural education disparity goes back to the disparity in education budgets. The school curriculum focuses on screening students for universities. The number of dropouts is consequently high, particularly in the rural setting.”

“Already alienated from the farm sector by a pro-city education system, a large number of them leave to work in low-paying jobs in big towns. Those who stay back become restless trouble-makers. The “good” students also leave home to pursue higher studies, further robbing the villages of the next generation of community leaders. The resulting social and economic costs are enormous.”

Borrowing Negros Oriental, 3rd district Congressman Henry Teves’ favorite quote, “You think education is expensive, try ignorance.” “To reverse this trend, education reform to strengthen local knowledge, pride and life skills is vital.”

(We cannot blame the fisherman totally for the destruction of the coral reefs that cause the serious depletion of fishes nor the wanton destruction of the forests and farms, when the subject of Botany and Zoology are completely missing in the Basic Education curriculum. Hunger is an indication of poverty. Seventy percent of Filipinos are poor and hungry since they have not been taught that man’s survival depends on the responsible care of the biosphere. Our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are sourced from animal and plant life and minerals on the land (lithosphere), water (hydrosphere) and air (atmosphere).)

The Bangkok Post Editorial – “Decentralization of the curriculum and education administration is also necessary. Sadly, the biggest opponent of this move is the Ministry of Education, where clinging to powers is the name of the game, and where it does not matter if children are the ones who lose out.”

A pledge to the future – a National Children’s Day for the Philippines

We fill up our national calendar, celebrating the month of Culture and Arts, Indigenous People, Teachers’ Day, Earth Day, etc., even declare additional holidays such as Ramadan, Chinese New Year, but we have forgotten to give tribute to our children.

The first 18 years of life has been officially declared Childhood by the Geneva Convention of the Rights of the Child. Being the most important formative years, it marks Man’s Construction in four periods, matching his/her stages of development from birth to six years, six to 12 years and 12 to 18 years. The final phase, 18 to 24 years is adulthood. If the “hidden treasure” is discovered, then this adult would have become and will no longer be the victim of events, but will be able to fulfill one’s full potential as designed by God.

A National Children’s Day is an opportunity for families, communities and the government to do a serious reflection to turn things around and be open to children’s needs and concerns. This is our duty to our children. If we fail, the children’s future and that of our country remains bleak.

IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR YOU MR. PRESIDENT AND YOUR CABINET MEN TO FULFILL THE SOCIAL CONTRACT YOU MADE WITH THE FILIPINOS.