The “road map” was unveiled at the end of the three-day Asia Education Summit on Flexible Learning Strategies for Out-of-School Children, which took place in Bangkok last week.

Unesco had estimated there were more than 300,000 school dropouts in Thailand six years ago. Directly and indirectly, the former students’ lack of schooling has caused huge economic damage to the country. That amount adds up to between 1 and 3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product every year.

To reach out-of-school children, the plan suggests that relevant |parties must first embrace flexible learning strategies and innovation.

“This measure also covers curriculum revamp and the delivery of teaching processes that are great in variety and well-catered to each individual former school dropout,” it said.

It added that financial innovations such as an earmarked tax should be introduced to remove the problems that drive such children out of school.

The move, the road map pointed out, would be in line with Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and |promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

According the road map, the government, the private sector and the public should form partnerships to remove osbstacles to children |getting a proper education.

The plan also underlined the need to address seven factors that often drive children out of schools, such as gender inequality, physical disabilities and forced child labour.

Another proposed measure is to help out-of-school children develop life skills as well as occupational skills. With such measures, these children should finally have a chance of getting a secure job and a sustainable quality of life.

The plan also recommended that each government should submit |statistics about out-of-school children to the Unesco Institute for Statistics and publicly release the |figures every year.