Access to education for children living in camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border has reached “breaking point” due to increased student numbers at a time of foreign aid cuts, Save the Children warned in a new report released 20 January.
Thailand has a long history of hosting refugees and migrants from neighbouring countries fleeing conflict, but children without identification documents have faced challenges in gaining admission to Thai schools and schools inside the camps which are heavily dependent humanitarian aid, the NGO says.
The report surveyed about 2,500 people including students, parents and teachers in Thailand between late 2025 and early 2026.
Aid cuts that began in early 2025 have severely impacted the nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border which are officially home to about 90,000 people, [1], the report shows, causing food shortages, clinic closures and reduced medical care for refugees.
Students and school-aged children make up one third, or 30%, of the camp’s residents [2] and student numbers in the camps have increased 33% from about 18,000 in 2020 to about 24,000 in 2025. The recent conflict in Myanmar has contributed to an influx of refugees and migrant families.
Classrooms inside migrant learning centres are also often crowded and some host up to 60 students at a time, while teachers reported an acute shortage of learning resources, including textbooks and science and IT equipment.
Many learning centres catering to migrant families also operate on rented land, leaving them without security, and teachers said they faced legal constraints as they are prohibited from holding teaching licenses which impacts their professional recognition.
Guillaume Rachou, the Executive Director of Save the Children Thailand, said:
“Education in the camps along the Thai-Myanmar border is at breaking point. Education can be life-saving and it is certainly life changing which is why we must collectively put resources towards education.
“We know that the camps operate with limited resources, that classrooms can be overcrowded and that there is a shortage of trained teachers and learning materials even as enrolment has risen in recent years following renewed conflict in Myanmar.”
Although Thailand’s Education for All policy guarantees free schooling for non‑Thai children, access in practice remains limited. Many migrant and undocumented children struggle to enrol due to legal, financial, and language barriers, leaving them at heightened risk of dropout and exploitation.
Save the Children is calling on donors to ensure that the education needs of children living and learning in the Thai-Myanmar refugee camps are met through diverse streams of funding.
Save the Children also urges Thai authorities to ensure that there are effective ways for migrant, undocumented and stateless children to enrol in school without fear of deportation.
Save the Children has worked in Thailand since 1979 and works to support children who are most impacted by discrimination and inequality through programmes on education, child protection, livelihood and child rights governance.
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