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BANGKOK: A mild-mannered teenage girl with owl glasses, a bob haircut, and daisies painted on her nails is not your typical school troublemaker.
But in the eyes of Thailand’s ultra-conservative school system, Benjamaporn “Ploy” Nivas has been labeled a rebel for daring to speak out.
“Students should be able to think for themselves and be themselves,” Ploy told AFP during a recent protest at the Bangkok democracy monument.
The 15-year-old is at the forefront of Thailand’s “bad students” movement, which is planning a large demonstration in Bangkok on Saturday (November 21).
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Before the event, officers on Thursday issued a summons to her and two male students to report to a Bangkok police station for questioning.
Thai human rights lawyers say the trio has raised the count of young people facing legal proceedings for protest activities in Thailand to four, while a total of 175 protesters have been charged with the crimes of sedition or public assembly.
Thai schools have very strict dress standards, with mandatory ponytails and ribbons for girls and military-style cuts for boys.
But after years of rules being imposed, Ploy and his fellow high school activists have gone rogue, emboldened by the broader political protest movement currently sweeping Thailand.
Students want a cultural shift, a revision of the curriculum, equality, and a relaxation of rigid rules.
“We were brainwashed … as students, we are taught not to ask questions, but to study and memorize facts for exams,” he said.
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History textbooks are a bone of contention in a country that has seen a dozen coups since it became a democracy in 1932.
Schoolbooks overlook events like the massacre of pro-democratic college students in the 1970s and instead focus on promoting the work of the monarchy.
The campaign has had a mixed reaction from its teachers.
“If my teachers are (on) the same side as me, on the side of democracy, they will look up to me, but if they want (the status quo) those teachers will hate me,” Ploy said.
CHALLENGE OF HAZARDS
Youth-led demonstrations have rocked Thailand since July and, for the most part, have been peaceful.
But in a demonstration Tuesday, police used water cannons and tear gas against activists, and six people suffered gunshot wounds.
Despite the dangers, Ploy insists that protesting is her duty.
“We cannot afford to be afraid of anything, otherwise we cannot change anything,” he said.
Since August, the “bad students” movement has campaigned for the resignation of Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, and has even organized a mock funeral for him.
Student protesters carry a portrait of Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, followed by a simulated coffin and white cloth during a street march in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 14, 2020 (Photo: AP / Sakchai Lalit).
There have long been calls to reform the kingdom’s schools, but progress has been gradual, said Pumsaran Tongliemnak, an expert with the state-backed Equitable Education Fund.
The Thai government must shift its focus from granting access to education to improving its quality, he told AFP, especially for those who cannot afford expensive private schools.
“The gap between the haves and the have-nots is quite high,” Pumsaran said.
On international assessments, Thai students score lower than the OECD average in math and science.
They perform particularly poorly in reading, and a World Bank report in 2015 noted widespread “functional illiteracy” among students in all types of Thai schools.
The report said the problems included a chronic shortage of teachers, too many small schools with few resources and a focus on rote learning.
Corporal punishment is still practiced regularly in Thai schools, despite government efforts to ban it.
READ: Thai women use protests to challenge sexism
Teenage girls are the backbone of the “bad student” movement, which Ploy attributes to growing frustrations over the lack of gender equality in Thailand.
“I believe that girls and LGBTQ people are repressed by patriarchy both at home and at school. This has made me go out and fight for myself and for everyone,” she said.
Ploy and his fellow high school activists have turned rebellious, emboldened by the broader political protest movement currently stirring Thailand. (Photo: AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)
“SCHOOLS ARE DICTATORY”
At a demonstration in early October outside a high school in central Bangkok, dozens of students, mostly women, tied white ribbons to the door.
They taped over the student ID numbers embroidered on their uniforms and shielded their faces from the media crowd.
A young student leader gave a passionate speech about a truck outside the school, demanding respect from teachers rather than “preaching about the rules.”
It’s a sentiment that strikes a chord with Vegas, a 16-year-old transgender student forced to change schools due to discrimination and harassment.
Vegas, who declined to give his full name, describes the schools as training students to fit into the hierarchical society of Thailand, rather than questioning or questioning it.
“Schools are like little dictatorships, with all their rules.”
