Traditional Islamic schools in Thai Deep South face uncertain future

On her first official trip to Thailand’s Deep South as prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra chose to visit the Thamma Witthaya Foundation School, a former “Pondok” school which her father, then-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, had visited 20 years earlier.

“[E]ven sitting here for a short time has helped me better understand the culture and environment in which these young people grow up,” Paetongtarn said during her Jan. 16 visit to the school in Yala, one of the provinces that make up the insurgency-wracked southern border region.  

“All religions teach people to be good and provide spiritual support in all dimensions that humans encounter,” she said, pledging that her government was “ready to support education in the southern region in all dimensions.”

Paetongtarn’s visit underscored the complex ties between Thailand’s government and traditional Islamic schools, known as Pondoks, and the challenges they face in providing a faith-based education to the border region’s Malay-Muslim majority while operating separately from the Thai educational system.

“Just as salt preserves the sea and everything that flows into it from decay, the Pondok preserves society from deterioration,” Ruslee Dorlohsae, a student at one of those schools, told BenarNews, quoting one of his teachers.

Ruslee, 40, a student at the Padae Pusu Pondok school in Yarang district, Pattani province, began his studies when he was 23. The schools have no age restriction for students – many of whom enroll at age 15.

RELATED STORIES

Faces of the Deep South

Thai Deep South: Old ‘Commando’ School Could Become Islamic Learning Center

Thai Deep South: An Elusive Leader, an Enduring Narrative

However, the Pondoks, which in the Deep South date back more than 400 years, are caught between security concerns, government regulations and changing educational preferences.

The school that Paetongtarn visited transitioned in the mid-1960s from a traditional Pondok to a private religious school. In the early 2000s, it became entangled over allegations that some of its teachers were linked to the insurgency and its dean was a “spiritual leader” among separatist rebels.   

The Pondok, derived from the Arabic word for “hut” or “shelter,” has long served as a pillar of Malay-Muslim identity in Thailand’s southernmost provinces. The Education Ministry reports that 402 Pondok schools had 35,000 students enrolled in 2024, down from over 550 schools two decades ago.

“These schools, which provide religious education beyond mainstream schooling, emerged during the Patani Kingdom around 1584 to 1616, a period of commercial prosperity,” Ismail Benjasmitr told BenarNews. He heads the Center of Conservation for Local Culture and Environment Southern Border Provinces in Pattani.

In Pondok classrooms, students wear sarongs and thobes and sit on the floor where they are taught in Malay using Jawi, a script similar to Arabic. Most schools charge minimal or no fees and their curriculums center on essential Islamic subjects including reading the Quran, Arabic grammar and Islamic jurisprudence.

“Pondok education is about religious learning and spiritual refinement, covering the fundamentals of being a good servant of God and the continuous pursuit of deeper knowledge according to Islamic perspectives,” Abu Sufian Sa, 32, a Pondok teacher in Yaring, told BenarNews.

Ruslee said the schools “teach everything from basic linguistics to large volumes of religious texts, going through books page-by-page, to ensure students truly understand the intentions.”

He reported paying 1,500 baht (U.S. $44) as a one-time accommodation fee, plus 200 baht ($5.88) weekly for food and electricity at the boarding school.

Sakiyah Madabu, 40, whose son studies at a Pondok, spoke about the benefits.

“One day my child came home asking to study at a Pondok. As a mother, I was happy and ready to support religious education as a provision for the afterlife,” she told BenarNews.

“The initial cost was just around 3,000 baht ($88) for textbooks. The Babor provides free accommodation and other expenses are only about 300 baht ($8.83) weekly,” she said about her son’s education.

Security concerns emerge

The Thamma Witthaya Foundation School, which was established in Yala in 1951 as a traditional Pondok before becoming a private religious school in 1965. Under the leadership of the late Sapae-ing Basor, it expanded to serve thousands of students.

Considered “a spiritual leader” among the region’s separatist rebels, Sapae-ing, who died in 2017, fled to neighboring Malaysia in 2004 when Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for alleged insurgent-related activities. That same year, four of the school’s teachers were issued arrest warrants as suspected insurgents.

The year 2004 was when the insurgency reignited.

Thaksin was prime minister at the time and by 2005, his government proposed closing Pondoks that taught only religious subjects.

“They should incorporate ordinary subjects taught in Thai alongside religious subjects, because young people who don’t learn ordinary subjects cannot advance to university education,” MP Wichai Chaijitwanichkul said at the time.

Wichai, a member of Thaksin’s former Thai Rak Thai party, was responsible then for addressing southern border issues.

Raids and suspicions

Since the reemergence of the southern insurgency, government security forces have viewed Islamic religious schools with suspicion.

In April 2011, authorities claimed they found a high-level nitrogen fertilizer and picnic gas canisters, which could be used to make bombs, at the Ma-ahad Islamiyah School in Raman district, Yala.

A similar raid occurred in April 2012 at the Pondok Al-Yameeah Islamiyah School in Panare district, Pattani.

“The challenge is that Pondoks are viewed as important incubators of Malay resistance ideology by security agencies,” teacher Abu Sufian said. “The state tries to regulate them, control their educational culture, requiring licenses or integration of other curricula.”

Beyond security challenges, Pondoks face declining enrollment as parents choose other educational options.

“Pondok students have decreased considerably. Of every 10 primary school graduates, only one will continue to be a Pondok. The rest choose private religious schools because there are more options nowadays,” Abu Sufian said. “But the importance of Pondoks lies in providing educational alternatives for children who drop out of the system due to poverty or other problems.”

Despite the challenges, many in the Deep South view Pondoks as essential to preserving Malay-Muslim identity and providing accessible education.

For Muhammad Afdol, 15, who enrolled at a Pondok after completing sixth grade, the focus remains on religious knowledge rather than future career prospects.

“I’m not thinking about how many years I’ll study here or what job I’ll do. I just want to understand religion better, there’s no end to that learning,” he told BenarNews.