Surapong said the Education Ministry’s Information Technology and Communications Centre calculated from an online database of government schools that 14.882 million students did not have a 13-digit citizenship identification number. The ministry endorsed 92,919 of these students as the children of Thais living mainly in the borderlands without citizenship, and asked the registration bureau to grant the students 13-digit numbers, he said. Surapong said Chiang Mai has the most Thai students without citizenship ID – 17,423 youngsters – followed by Chiang Rai (12,824), Tak (9,332) and Kanchanaburi (5,896). Surapong said all government schools must accept students even if they have no ID number. The schools can then work with their local household registration office to secure citizenship ID.

Source: The Nation Bangkok May 22, 2018 04:52 UTC