Issuing Corporate Bonds to Raise Bt100 Million in Support of Equitable Education Fund, Combining Forces with Thais to Reform Thai Education for the First Time
in Asia! Sweeping National Changes Starting with A Zero School Dropout Rate
- Sansiri PLC highlights its mission of laying emphasis on children’s rights with sustainability over 10 years, unveils its national project, “Zero Dropout: All Children Go to School”, pledging support for Equitable Education Fund
- Sharing the same goal as EEF with powerful database, clear targets, combined with the determination of Sansiri as an organization that stresses the importance of children’s rights and promotes equitable education, the first in Thailand to create positive energies, drive fund raising to ensure children’s equitable access to education
- Launching a corporate bond sale worth Bt100 million for “Zero Dropout” project for the first time in Asia to create “Ratchaburi Model” that aims to achieve a zero dropout rate in 3 years to create a ripple effect through Thais’ collective power to reform Thai education
- The first corporate bond sale that’s more than an investment with a coupon rate of 3.20 % per annum paid every 3 months throughout the bonds’ term, the bonds represent an investment in the future of children to get all children in school with no school dropouts and no children left behind
- The bonds have a minimum subscription of Bt1,000, bringing together Thais to make history by reforming the Thai education system and bringing the number of out-of-school kids down to zero
- Joining forces with SCB to highlight the project’s transparency that can be inspected through an SCB escrow account named “Sansiri PLC” to support the project in conjunction with EEF
- The corporate bonds to be launched on February 15, at 8.30 am through SCB Easy App only
Srettha Thavisin, CEO of Sansiri PLC, has revealed that Sansiri’s business ethos is premised on its belief in social responsibility in a world where big people help small ones. The company is on a mission to reduce social inequity and promote social equity, with intent to help children in a sustainable manner. The company is honored to have been an official partner with UNICEF Thailand and a signatory for the “UNICEF-Sansiri Memorandum of Understanding” for improving the quality of life of children over the past 10 years. Both Unicef and Sansiri have engaged in projects for protecting and supporting children’s rights, developing their quality of life. These 17 projects include “IODINE PLEASE”, which successfully tackled iodine deficiency in children, one of the national problems for 50 years; and “Best Start”, which focused on the first six years of childhood as the golden years for children. “Best Start” later gave rise to the “Good Space” project that aimed to provide a safe space for children living in Sansiri’s construction areas. Other projects focused on development of quality of life, raising awareness of children’s and youth’s rights in Thailand (in such areas as health, education and sport) and providing help and support to kids both in Thailand and overseas.
In 2022, Sansiri is embarking on a big mission with the goal of supporting the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) that has been established by the Independent Committee for Education Reform in accordance with the latter’s proposal. When it comes to children’s rights, Sansiri shares the same vision and goal with EEF: to create equity in education and reduce inequity in education. Sansiri’s latest mission is titled “Zero Dropout: All Children Go to School”. This huge educational project aims to bring sustainability to the development of the quality of Thai education over a 3-year period. Sansiri is launching its corporate bonds worth Bt100 million in a bid to raise funds for the “Zero Dropout” project for the first time in Asia. The project will be piloted in Ratchaburi province where the presence of 10,000 school dropouts necessitates funds of at least Bt100 million. With its geographic location on the border with a neighboring country, Ratchaburi is currently facing problems related to inequity in education. With the province hosting communities existing side by side with a city and not far from Bangkok, it’s convenient for everyone to take part in this project. Most importantly, as Sansiri has no property development projects in the province and there’s no conflict of interest, the project should have a great deal of transparency. Besides, the project can be inspected through an escrow account with Siam Commercial Bank named “Sansiri PLC”. Through this account, Sansiri will provide financial support to EEF. EEF will come up with an annual action plan and withdraw funds from the account for use in the Zero Dropout project no more than three times per year.
The goal of “Zero Dropout: All Children Go to School” is to make a 3-year action plan to develop the quality of the Thai education system in a sustainable manner. The projects aims to bring sustainable development to all aspects of education, including equal access to education, quality of education, and sustainability. The project works towards a goal of keeping school-age children in compulsory schooling (grade 1 to grade 9) and 100 percent of children reaching school age must be ready to start first grade. The project will kick off in 2022 and be piloted in Suan Phueng, Chom Bueng and Ban Kha districts of Ratchaburi. Then in 2023, the project will be expanded into four more districts and in 2024 in three more districts to provide help to children in early childhood and 11,200 school dropouts. Aside from cutting the number of out-of-school children down to zero, the project aims to provide financial support to prepare preschool-age kids for schooling (Bt4,000 per person). Then, from the fourth year, a local state educational body in Ratchaburi will take responsibility for the project.
“Sansiri would like to inspire everyone to take part in reforming Thailand with “Zero Dropout: All Children Go to School”. The corporate bond sale has maximum worth of Bt100 million and aims to raise capital in support of this project. We also want to make educational history for the first time in Asia! The issuance of our corporate bonds aims to raise funds for developing the educational system of Thailand. The project is considered an investment with two-fold benefits: not only will the investors get a return on their investment, but they also will be able to make an investment in the future of children so that they are able to go to school, along the way helping to lay a key foundation for driving Thailand forward,” said Srettha.
Dr Kraiyos Patrawart, managing director of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) said that EEF is an effective support mechanism that forges cooperation between different sectors to take part in reducing inequity in education in a sustainable manner. The goal is to provide Thais with equitable opportunities to access quality education and develop themselves according to their potential so that they are able to break up the vicious cycle of poverty in a generation. EEF provides support to targeted students from low-income families within the lowest 15 percent of the population. EEF has developed innovations that can act as levers and a catalyst for systematic change, using data, research and other mechanisms of cooperation from different departments and sectors as crucial tools for bringing about change in a sustainable manner on both provincial and national levels.
“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Thailand had been held back by inequity in education. The inequity arises as a result of household economic factors, difficult living conditions in remote, rural areas, health factors and other factors directly linked to social deprivation being faced by children and youth. The situation about inequitable education was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic by rising unemployment and the downward spiral of household incomes caused by shutdowns of enterprises and temporary or permanent terminations of employment. There’s been a lack of access to electricity, Internet signal and devices necessary for continuous and quality online learning. These factors have combined to have an adverse effect on the tendency and the risk of children dropping out of school and on the learning loss in children and youth in the Thai education system,” said Dr Kraiyos.
According to database of the Equitable Education Fund, there are 1.9 million poor students nationwide who are at risk of dropping out of school with household economic health being one of the main factors. Poorest students are from families with the average income per household declining from the pre-pandemic level of Bt1,289 to Bt1,094 last year, which is very low. This shows an upward trend in the number of poor and poorest students in every semester that increased from 994,428 in 2020 to 1,244,591 students in the first semester of 2021. On a profound level, EEF has found that there are 43,060 students (out of 54,842 students, or 4.67 percent) who are poorest or out-of-school students. Most opt out of school at 9th and 6th grades and kindergarten respectively.
The major reasons for children opting out of school include the obstacles that prevent them from going to school. Reasons range from the need to work to support their family, the lack of basic necessities for everyday living and education equipment, lack of funds to cover transportation costs, inadequate funds to cover food costs, and the remote, rural location of their homes as far away from school. At a deeper level, data shows the main reasons that contribute to the poorest children dropping out of school during the Covid-19 pandemic are reduced household incomes (87.81 percent of out-of-school students), the need to shoulder and share the economic and other burden with family members (38.33 percent), and their parents facing unemployment or employment suspension. These factors explain the valid excuses for opting out of school among children: “helping with my mom’s work”, “reduced income” and “bad sales”. These were the key words founded during EEF’s focus group surveys. Data analysis reveals that there are 271,888 EEF scholarship students in 29 provinces who have experienced problems about online education. The reasons are the lack of TV, Internet and electricity. The kind of help that students and parents need most includes money to cover the cost of living and basic necessities (71.45 percent), breakfast/lunch (35.28 percent) and transportation fees (28.79 percent). It has been found that children and youth from poor and poorest families mostly opt out of school before getting to university and senior high school (or the equivalent). Up to 94.7 percent of poor and poorest students cannot get to university. EEF and Sansiri have high hopes of changing the future of children and the future of the country for a better one.
“EEF is delighted that Sansiri places importance on equitable education and wants to be part of the effort to resolve inequity in education with financial support to drive projects run by EEF in conjunction with state, local and private agencies in Ratchaburi. These projects provide direct support to measures directly affecting children, youth and schools and measures to raise awareness of inequity in education. The projects also offer guidelines for solving inequity in education in a sustainable fashion with area-based education (ABE). “Zero Dropout” represents a new innovation in cooperation that will result in systematic effects and sustainable solutions. This project will be a national model that can be scaled up and expanded in the future. Most importantly, there’s a need to create a channel where everyone can come together to help reform the Thai education system so that the nation’s youth have equal access to education. Ratchaburi is one of the provinces that has prior experience in education reform to bring an end to inequity in education together with EEF. The province has policies that place heavy emphasis on the issue, school models and alternative education units, personnel, volunteers that can deliver and expand results immediately,” said Dr Kraiyos.
Sansiri’s offering values of corporate bonds are worth no more than Bt100 million with a term of 3 years. The bonds have received a credit rating of BBB+ and are aimed to donate to Equitable Education Fund (EEF) under the “Zero Dropout” project with a minimum subscription of Bt1,000. The corporate bond sale aims to encourage Thais to make history by reforming the Thai education system so that the number of out-of-school children is slashed to zero. Investors will benefit from the bonds’ 3.20 percent coupon rate paid every three months through the bonds’ term of three years. But the bonds are an investment in the future of children so that they are all in the education system and no one is out of school and left behind. The funds worth Bt100 million raised through the bond sale will be donated to EEF in full to set up a Ratchaburi model as a prototype province that achieves a zero out-of-school rate in three years. The bonds will be launched on February 15, 8.30 am through SCB Easy APP only.
“The Bt100 million-worth capital raised from the bond sale may not be enough to help all children in the country, but it will inspire hopes for taking action. We hope that by taking action, we can bring about change. I hope this project will create a ripple effect on the public, private and other sectors so that they will come together to lend a helping hand. When that day comes, achieving a zero dropout rate is not too distant a future,” said Srettha.
Make history by reforming Thai education with the goal of achieving a zero out-of-school rate. For more information, please visit https://blog.sansiri.com/zero-dropout-main/ or Tel: 1685.
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