Container School: Opportunity and Social Equity for Marginal Migrant Children in T.T.S. Engineering (2004) Co., Ltd.’s Construction Site Camps

Abstract

The Thai construction industry plays an important role in drawing migrant workers from the neighboring countries of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar to work in Thailand. However, for a variety of reasons, these migrant workers are often forced to bring their children to the construction sites. As the Children of migrants, working at the very lowest level of the Thai economy, these children typically lack access to basic state welfare benefits. Sangsandek Foundation cooperated with contractors and construction project owners to establish a container school in the construction site camps of TTS Engineering (2004) Co., Ltd. This container school provided opportunities for children to access social equity in three areas: education, health and social protection with a work style that was consistent with the daily lives of children as well as allowing teachers to stay on the construction site close to the children. On-going challenges to the container school model of education included: responding to the parent’s need to move frequently with new construction jobs and dealing with insufficient funding and personnel. While a mobile vehicle was driven to this specific construction site in order to help the children on a more continuous basis, such a solution may be inadequate for other construction sites. This paper uses qualitative studies and in-depth interviews from 34 sample groups to report on one group’s creative response to this problem.