4.5.1 Education in the Four Southern Border Provinces
Educational attainment in the Four Provinces is low compared to other parts of Thailand. Most young Muslims enrol in the government primary schools and later attend the Islamic private schools for their secondary education or informal traditional Islamic schools called ‘pondok’. The main reason for this is that Muslim parents want their children to learn Islamic knowledge and preserve their Islamic identity. In addition, a small number of young people reach higher education. Thus, government and professional jobs seem out of reach for them. Many of these young people do not have proper jobs; some are involved in drugs and cause a lot of problems in the communities (Kersten, 2004, Madmarn, 1999, Narongraksakhet, 2006).
As shown in Table 4.7, around 13.0% of the population living in the Four Provinces have no formal education, which is much larger figure than that of the South (6.6%) and the national average (4.9%). The performance of the provinces clearly declines at the higher
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82 level of education. Only 10.8% of the population received upper secondary education compared to those of the South (13.1%) and the whole country (12.8%). The percentage of the population of the Four Provinces who obtained university education was 6.0% while the South recorded 7.4% and the average for Thailand was 8.5%. The Two Provinces performed much better than the Four Provinces in terms of educational attainment. Over 11.4% of the population of the Two Provinces gained university qualifications.
Table 4.7: Educational Attainment of Population Aged 15 Years and Ove r 2007 (%)
Area No education Less than primary Primary Lower second. Uppe r second. Diploma Uni. Whole Kingdom 4.9 31.8 20.4 17.7 12.8 3.5 8.5 South 6.6 27.6 21.8 18.8 13.1 4.2 7.4 Two Provinces 5.1 21.4 16.1 20.5 17.2 5.9 11.4 Four Provinces 13.2 23.4 25.6 17.5 10.8 2.7 6.0
Source: Calculated from Thailand’s Human Security Index 2009 (UNDP, 2010)
Average number of years of schooling and the quality of education of people in the Four Provinces seem to lag behind the population of other regions in the country. As illustrated in Table 4.8, the average number of years of schooling in the Four Provinces was 6.88 years in 2007, far below the national average (7.68 years). Furthermore, Narathiwat province was ranked among the bottom five provinces with an average number of years of schooling of 6.30 years. The quality of education in the Four Provinces was, therefore, neither encouraging nor up to the national standards. The average O-Net Score8 of the Four Provinces was 36.3 %, far below the national average (41.2%) and the other southern provinces (39.7%). In fact, the average scores of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala were the lowest three in the South and in the country in 2007. Phuket and Songkhla recorded an average of 44.1%, much higher than the national average. As a matter of fact, Phuket reported the second best score in the country behind Bangkok Metropolis.
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O-Net re fers to Thailand Ord inary Nat ional Education Test conducted by NIETS. The test is for grade 6, grade 9, and grade 12 students to assess their academic proficiency. It co mprises 8 ma jor a reas specified under the national education curriculu m inc luding Thai Language, Mathematics, Sc ience, Socia l Sc ience, Re lig ion and Culture, Hea lth and Physical Education, Art, Career and Technology, and Foreign Language.
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Table 4.8: Mean year of Schooling and Average O-Net Score 2007 (%)
Area Mean years of schooling of
pe ople age d 15 years or over
Aver age O-Ne t Score
Whole Kingdom 7.7 41.2
South 7.7 39.7
Two Provinces 8.9 44.1
Four Provinces 6.9 36.3
Source: 1) National Statistical Office (NSO) (2007)
2) National Institute of Educational Testing Services (NIETS) (2007)
4.5.2 Occupation and Une mployme nt
Economic growth in Thailand has seen increasing dominance by the manufacturing sectors at the expense of the agricultural sectors in at least four decades (Sarntisart, 2005). At the national level, the share of agriculture in GDP declined from 21.4% in 1981 to 15.7% and 12.7% in 1986 and 1991 respectively. It continued to decrease from 9.5% in 1996 to its lowest level of 9.1% of GDP in 2001. In 2006, the share increased to 10.8% and reached 11.6% in 2009. The share of agriculture in GRP of the South and Two Provinces followed a relatively similar trend to that of the national level.
Nonetheless, the process of industrialisation appears to be dissimilar in the Four Provinces. The relative dominance of agriculture, which involved crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, agricultural services and simple agricultural processing, in the Four Provinces increased while it declined in other parts of Thailand. The share was between 34.0% and 37.0% from 1981 to 1996. Then, it rose significantly to 39.6% in 2001 and reached 50.0% in 2006. After that, it slightly declined to 49.0% which was still much higher than the national average. It has been argued that the slow process of industrialisation explains the failure to reduce poverty in this region (Sarntisart, 2005).
Table 4.9: Percentage Share of Agriculture in GDP at Curre nt Prices Area 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2009
Whole Kingdom 21.4 15.7 12.7 9.5 9.1 10.8 11.6
South 37.1 35.0 36.1 30.1 29.9 37.9 36.6
Two Provinces 21.0 20.8 24.7 17.0 18.4 18.4 16.8 Four Provinces 36.8 35.7 37.3 34.9 39.6 50.0 49.0 Source: NESDB (2011a)
84 Another important issue for the southern border provinces is unemployment. The unemployment rate in this area has been high compared to the national average. As shown in Table 4.10, the unemployment rate was initially 2.3%, which was better than the national average (3.3%) in 2001. The rate had been reduced, but at a slower rate relative to the national average until 2007. It increased to 1.8% and 2.0% in 2008 and 2009 correspondingly. High unemployment implies that people in the Four Provinces do not enjoy the benefits of economic recovery in Thailand (Sarntisart, 2005).
Table 4.10: Unemployment Rate
Area 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Whole Kingdom 3.3 2.4 2.2 2.1 1.8 1.5 1.4 1.4 1.5
South 2.1 2.1 1.9 1.9 1.7 1.5 1.3 1.5 1.8
Two Provinces 1.4 1.6 1.5 2.6 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.8 2.2
Four Provinces 2.3 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.6 1.8 2.0
Source: Report of the Labour Force Survey, (NSO, 2010) Note: Based on population aged 15 and over
4.5.3 Natural Disaster and Crime
Living standards in the Four Provinces have also been affected by natural disaster and violent crime. Over 5.0% of the population of the Four Provinces was affected by flood in 2007. This was much higher than the national figure (3.7%). Narathiwat reported 9.9% of the population being affected while Pattani recorded 8.8%. Furthermore, the people in these provinces have been subjected to violent crimes. It was reported that 51 out of every 100,000 people in the provinces are affected by crime. This is alarming when co mpared to the national level (13 people). In fact, Yala (64 people), Pattani (63 people) and Narathiwat (57 people) were the provinces reporting the largest number of violent crimes in the country. Floods and violent crime damage land and agricultural prod ucts, and prevent people from pursuing their agricultural activities, causing poverty and life insecurity for the people in this area.
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Table 4.11: Population Affected by Flood (%) and Violent Crime 2007 Area Population Affected by
flood Violent Crime/100,000 people Whole Kingdom 3.7 13 South 2.3 32 Two Provinces 0.2 28 Four Provinces 5.1 51
Sources: 1) Thailand Disaster Statistics 2007 (DODPM, 2007) 2) Crime Statistics of Thailand 2007 (RTP, 2007).