Thailand has been expanding flexible education and diverse teaching methods to cover more areas of the country in an effort to advance the “Thailand Zero Dropout” policy.

Speaking on 6 January 2026, Government Spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat stressed the Government’s policy to develop a flexible learning ecosystem that caters to the specific needs of children and youth in order to reduce dropout risks.

This initiative, he said, has successfully reduced the number of dropout children and youth on a continual basis. Statistics show that the number of out-of-school children and youth in 2023, which was 1.02 million, dropped to 0.98 million in 2024. As of 10 November 2025, this number fell to only 603,095.

Mr. Siripong said that the decline in the number indicated that more students were brought back into the educational system. Another reason was that the country’s education management has been adjusting for greater flexibility. Many students have fallen outside the educational system because of their limitations or life burdens.

The Thailand Zero Dropout policy aims to support out-of-school children across all districts in 77 provinces, covering 937 schools, as well as the “mobile school” platform, under the model of “1-School-3-Models.” It allows schools to offer formal, non-formal, and informal education, focusing on flexible learning that fits the real-life circumstances of learners and their needs and potential, with adaptive assessments.

In the latest developments, Mr. Siripong said that the Government had approved additional guidelines to implement this policy covering more target groups, aged between 3 and 18 years, who have been affected by various crises, such as natural disasters and fighting situation.

He said that all relevant agencies would create better understanding with local authorities to follow up on this policy and take care of the remaining 600,000 out-of-school children and youth for equitable and inclusive education.