A bilingual education program teaching in Mon and Thai languages near Sangkhlaburi, Thailand was recently featured as a model example during a meeting of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in Bangkok.
The bi-lingual education program is located at the Wat Wang Wiwekaram Primary School in Wangkha village, a primarily ethnic Mon community near the Thai-Burma border. Since 2008, kindergarten students at the school of 1,200 students have been taught primarily in Mon. Students in grades 1 through 3 are taught mixed in a mixture of Thai and Mon as a bridge to later Thai-based schooling.
“When they held the meeting for bilingual education, the Thai education department chose the school in Wangkha to be their best example and other people agreed with this choice,” Nai Sunthorn Sripangern, chairman of the Mon Unity League, told IMNA. “This is a new model. That is why at the meeting they chose this bilingual program.”
The SEAMEO meeting was held on February 28th and attended by over 70 people, mostly from ASEAN member countries. The showcasing of the Mon school follows two years after a statement from SEAMO announcing that ethnic children should learn their mother languages first.
There are at least 50 other bi-lingual schools in Thailand, Nai Sunthorn said, who added that schools serving predominantly ethnic populations have been visiting Wangkha to learn and observe.
“Now is better than before. In the past, we could only teach in Thai by reading from the book,” said Mi Mon, who teaches grade 1 at the school in Wangkha. “Now students can learn practically with Mon and Thai. Before, students could not speak as much with their teachers.”
Maintaining ethnic Mon identity has long been identified as inextricably linked to keeping the language alive. Inside Burma, government operated schools do not teach Mon. Though there are a few schools where the New Mon State Party (NMSP) has been able to negotiate permission for after-school Mon classes, students wishing to learn Mon are forced to either learn at home or in monastery-based summer Mon literacy courses.
The Mon National Education Committee, which operates under the NMSP, also operates over 200 Mon National schools in NMSP controlled areas. The NMSP is the largest political party representing Mon people, and has had official control of a small amount of territory along the Thai-Burma border since agreeing to a ceasefire with the Burmese government in 1995.
“I am happy to hear children with the Mon tongue,” said another teacher, who arrived one year ago from Mon State. “Although we are not in Mon State, we can hear Mon reading and speaking. Teaching Mon in Thailand is different from in Burma. In Burma, they don’t have a special subject [to teach Mon] in the Burmese schools. For the kindergarten students, they already have materials to study with – this is different from Burma.”
