Historic floods disrupt Thai education

Terra Daily via AFP: Thailand's university drop-out rate is likely to shoot up after devastating floods kept schools closed for weeks and affected hundreds of thousands of students, officials said Wednesday.

Thailand's worst floods in decades, which have killed more than 600 people, have also caused an estimated seven billion baht ($224 million) in damage to educational facilities, Education Minister Worawat Ua-apinyakul told AFP.

"Some 2,600 educational institutes -- both public and private -- and around 700,000 people (involved in education) have been affected," he said.

The floods have damaged millions of Thai homes and livelihoods and as a result are hampering students' ability to pay their fees, said Sukhum Chaleysub, who runs opinion polls at Bangkok's Suan Dusit Rajabhat university. "Because of the floods, they have told us they can't afford to pay their tuition and said they may have to drop out to help their families," he said...