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| Southeast Asia |
| Thailand PM backs Islam in state schools |
| 2007-01-28 |
| Prime minister Surayud Chulanont on Saturday called for Islamic religious instruction at all public schools in the majority-Muslim South. Gen Surayud, on his third visit to Narathitwat, Pattani and Yala since becoming premier, suggested seeking neighbouring Malaysia's help in setting up a suitable curriculum for primary through university schools in the region to meet the population's educational needs. "I've assigned the Foreign Ministry to coordinate with the Malaysian government and to study what educational syllabus is needed to be improved for primary education," Surayud told state-run Thai News Agency (TNA). The government was considering recruiting graduates in Islam to help teach in Thailand's state-run schools in the region, he added. Thailand's south was known as the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani before it was absorbed into what then was Siam about 100 years ago. A majority of the people in the three provinces are Muslim and speak Yawi, a dialect similar to Malay. Thailand's Bangkok-based, predominantly Buddhist central government has restricted Islamic studies and Yawi language instruction at public schools in the past, deeming it more important that the local population learn to be "Thai" and speak the language. A lack of Islamic studies at Thailand's state-run schools in the South has prompted many Muslims to place their children in private Muslim schools, where religious education is emphasised but instruction in secular subjects is generally poorer than in public schools. Education experts in the South note that the trend towards religious schools is further dividing the southern community into Muslims and non-Muslims. Security experts suspect the "pondok" (religious schools) of encouraging Muslim militancy. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Sounds like the Thai elites who put this Muslim PM into power are setting the southern provinces up for eventual secession. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-01-28 11:10 |