Questions have been raised over attempts to educate teen detainees and help them correct their behaviour as nearly half of them re-offend after release from remand centres, according to statistics collected by the Juvenile Observation and Protection Department
ML Panadda Diskul, assistant to the justice minister, spoke of his concern at learning that 40% of young convicts who "graduated" from classes they attended during detention fail to leave a life of crime behind them.
The crimes that landed them in remand homes were generally drug-related, with most offenders coming from the northern provinces which account for 48% of all detainees, he said.
Authorities hope to eliminate this behaviour by providing them with career training courses, but the efforts have not yet borne fruit, he said.
The number of repeat offenders among Thai teens is similar to many foreign countries where rates of reoffending swing between 50% and 60%, ML Panadda said.
The former deputy education minister yesterday took aim at education programmes, casting doubt over whether they are "right", or fit for purpose.
In his view, education reform is not only needed in all levels of education, but schools run by the department also need an upgrade to deal with thousands of young detainees from widely differing educational backgrounds.
According to the department, up to 2,070 teen offenders, the majority of all detainees, went to elementary schools. Some 951 finished reached lower secondary level while 576 had not received any formal education.
At present, the detainees are encouraged to attend career development classes in a range of fields from carpentry to electronics and computing. More than 1,300 detainees aged 18 years old are in these programmes.
Some are allowed to study with students in classes at normal schools, according to the department.
ML Panadda stressed that core courses like maths, social studies and general education subjects are not enough. Thai children need to spend more time studying morality-related subjects.
"These subjects are offered only in small numbers. We need to increase their proportion," he said.
Yet it is not the quantity that matters. Authorities and teachers must devise how to improve their quality, he said.
Studies have shown that many Thai students who find themselves on the wrong side of the law struggle to concentrate in a formal environment and often suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, he added.
This fact suggests that lessons must be more carefully tailored to their needs, with ML Panadda suggesting that "they must not be boring".
The department also needs to enlist psychologists, he added.
However, according to the department, each teacher is responsible for between 50 and 80 detainees and must also monitor each offender's general behaviour.
