Education Foundation

The vision of MEII is:

“Building a migrant education system which provides accreditation recognized by Myanmar, Thailand, and ASEAN as equal to other national and regional educational standards, regardless of ethnicity, status, gender, age, or religion.”

Migrant Education Integration Initiative (MEII) is a community-based educational network among 17 organizations throughout 6 provinces of Thailand including Chiang Mai, Tak, Bangkok, Samutsakorn, Ranong and Phannga. The network was founded in 2013 to develop an accredited migrant education system enabling migrant children to continue their education wherever they reside. The network reaches over 700 teachers and tens of thousands of migrant students.

Since 2017, BEAM has supported MEII in creating their education quality assurance program, developing the inclusive student recruitment manual, building networks with the Thai and Myanmar Ministry of Education, and making policy recommendations. BEAM is also the Coordination Office for MEII. As a result, this project was able to assess and certify 1,575 students for continuing education at public schools in Myanmar upon their return.

The goals of MEII are to:

Connect and create an outlet for communication between migrant learning centers, Thai and Myanmar community-based organizations, and the Thai and Myanmar government;
Work with Myanmar and Thai officials to create legislation in both countries to protect the educational rights of migrants;
Achieve a standardized curriculum for all migrant learning centers;
Develop a curriculum that is relevant to the lives and cultural identity of migrants;
Establish a diploma for migrant students that are recognized by employers and institutes of higher learning in Thailand, Myanmar, and other ASEAN nations.

MEII takes roles in:

1. Creating our grassroots network to promote access to education for all migrant out of school children and youth;
2. Promoting our grassroots network to initiate or promote an accreditation system for migrant education;
3. Networking among working members of initiative groups, media, and private sectors for migrant education;
4. Developing a collaboration body with Thai and Myanmar community-based organizations and the Thai and Myanmar government and academics for the development of strategy, policy, and programing.

MEII achievements:

Migrant education review and need analysis for integration – MEII conducted research among 59 migrant learning centers and initiated advocacy activities for integration.

Research and analysis on curriculum and accreditation – In this phase, MEII senior committee and sub-committee members conducted research on curriculum and accreditation systems of Myanmar, Thailand, and migrant learning centers in order to see the opportunities for integration and address needs and differences.

Developing curriculum standards framework – MEII restructured committees into advocacy, technical advisory, and curriculum development committees, then conducted the curriculum standards framework development (or adaptation and addition) as well as need analysis workshops. The advocacy committee also initiated the bilateral discussions between the two countries together with migrant learning centers.

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