Pregnant students should be allowed to continue their studies or take temporary maternal leave to deliver their babies before returning to school, an educational assembly agreed yesterday.
The proposal aims at providing an educational opportunity for student mothers who currently are restricted in their access to education.
A majority of 20 groups - around 200 representatives from government agencies, academics and civil society - also proposed pregnant students be allowed to choose for themselves whether to go back to the same institutions, try new ones, or go to non-formal and informal education centres instead.
This is part of Article 12, designed so young mothers can get a good job after graduation and reduce the impact on society.
All the proposals for a draft bill on reproductive health protection will be sent to a sub-committee responsible for drafting the bill for consideration next week.
Then the adjusted draft bill will be proposed to a committee on national reproductive health development chaired by Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit before being sent on to Cabinet for approval, said Dr Somyot Deerasmi, director-general of the Health Department.
Assembly delegates wanted students' mental health to be less affected by premature pregnancy, urging they not be punished or condemned.
However, participants expressed concern that should young expectant mothers remain in classrooms during their pregnancy other students would be encouraged to copy them and have babies. Delegates however, said from their experience this was not likely to happen.
To deal with unwanted pregnancy problems systematically, educational institutions were urged to report real figures about their pregnant students and how they were being assisted.
Some participants said they wanted male students to take responsibility in this problem also as they were husbands and fathers of the babies.
Other significant proposals involved promoting good care among mothers in private and government agencies, having local administrative organisations take part in sex education along with teachers, allowing those organisations and people from civil society to be members of a national reproductive health protection committee - the committee that would have authority on reproductive protection.
Article 9 orders employers of pregnant employees and heads of pregnant officers in government agencies to allow them to take maternal leave. The assembly participants also proposed the article allow husbands to take leave to help look after their newborns for at least two weeks.
To accelerate the committee's working, they urged the chairperson of the committee be changed from the Public Health Minister to the Prime Minister - because the PM could manage better collaboration among relevant ministries.
Apart from proposals from this assembly, the sub-committee will also gather and consider hundreds of related suggestions from questionnaires before adjusting the draft bill.
The assembly was held at the TK Palace Hotel in Bangkok.