Since 1956, Thailand has celebrated National Children’s Day with fun activities and impressive speeches about how important kids are to the country’s future.
But as this year’s Children’s Day approaches, academics say urgent action is needed to boost kids’ care, protection, and education otherwise Thailand risks suffering a “lost generation”.
“The current environment is damaging children,” warns Prof Sompong Jitradup, an expert at the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) and former education lecturer at Chulalongkorn University.
Toxic environment
Sompong said nearly half of Thai families are either damaged or broken from grappling with issues like poverty, debt, domestic violence and other conflicts. Faced with these challenges, many parents are failing to provide their children with a nurturing environment to grow up in.
Sompong also pointed to serious deficiencies in…
