The Thailand constitution guarantees children a free basic education for twelve years. However, it is not clear that the schooling is really free. We talked with the father of a high school student (one of the drivers we used for out-of-the-area trips) and he told us that he has to pay each year for his daughter to attend a government school. In addition to government-provided schools, there are a large number of private schools that offer some or all of the instruction on English. Children are required to attend school through the ninth grade. 

School days are officially Monday through Friday, and we also saw quite a few students at middle and high schools on Saturdays. The school year begins in May and ends in March. Students have a break in September.

Preschool through university students wear uniforms.  The color and style of the clothing usually identifies which level of schooling the student is attending: pre-school, elementary, secondary, or university.  Preschool and kindergarten boys and girls wear red/pink shorts and shirt with an apron over the top. Starting with first grade, the standard girl’s uniform is a knee-length dark blue or black skirt and a white or light blue blouse.  Boys wear shorts or pants that are dark blue, black, or khaki and a white shirt.

In addition to the standard uniform, students in elementary through high school also have 2 or three other uniforms that they wear during each week. These other uniforms include

• athletic (polo shirt and athletic/warm up pants) – worn on the gym/athletic day
• boy/girl scout type uniform – worn on the day that students spend a couple of hours of the school day working on scout badges/honors
• historic or cultural uniform – worn in some area. In northern Thailand the Friday uniform was in honor of the Lana kingdom.

University students have an accessory added to their uniform:  tie for the young men and gold or silver pins on their blouse collars for the young women.  One day on a bus I sat next to several female university students and noticed that some of them had one pin and some had two pins.  I asked them why they had different numbers of pins and they did not understand.  But they seemed to get a good chuckle out of my attempt to talk with them.

Even the teachers wear uniforms.  I noticed that at high schools the teachers were in military-style uniforms.  In elementary schools they all wore the same color shirt and pants or skirt with each day having a different combination of shirt and pants/shirt colors.