According to the National Education Act (2542/1999) the government of Thailand is responsible for the provision of nine years of compulsory education and twelve years of free education — six years at elementary (Arabic: ibtidai, Thai: prathom 1–6), three years at middle (Arabic: mutawassit, Thai: mathayom 1–3), and three years at secondary (Arabic: thanawi, Thai: matayom 4–6) levels. The move to increase the number of years of compulsory education from six to nine years was welcomed in some circles but also met with reservation by others. The Malay-Muslim community, in particular harboured concerns that increasing the number of years of compulsory education meant that their children would have to spend more time in government schools before they could transfer to Islamic education institutions. Since 2006, the Ministry of Education has worked to align the standard of Islamic studies by bringing its various levels on par with those of government schools. Correspondingly, ibtidai has been standardized with primary schools (six years), mutawassit with secondary schools (three years), and thanawi with upper secondary school/high school (three years).

Despite the fact that southern Thailand has a mix of Islamic and secular national schools, it has been estimated that as much as 85 per cent of Malay- Muslim students attend Islamic schools. This figure is striking and makes abundantly clear that, despite the overwhelming forces of modernization and secularization, and years of pressure to assimilate, Islamic education and Islamic teachers continue to have pride of place in the collective sociocultural consciousness and historical memory of Malay-Muslims in southern Thailand. The figures in Table 2.1 and 2.2 illustrate the continued popularity of Islamic schools in the southern border provinces (see Table 2.1 and 2.2).

While marginally different from the estimate of 85 per cent highlighted above, the following figures compiled by the Ministry of Education for the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani, along with Satun and Songkhla, of Muslim students and the types of schools they were enrolled in for the year 2000, nevertheless indicate the considerable popularity of Islamic schools (Table 2.3 and 2.4).

On the other hand, it is glaringly obvious that national schools in the southern provinces have among the lowest attendance rates of any in the country.