Thirteen-year-old Pon Thianthong has just become another school dropout statistic. His mother, who is separated from her husband, cannot afford the 2,500 baht (HK$460) it costs to buy him a new uniform and books. So, Pon makes a meagre living helping his mother's friend with her cows and household chores, in the northeastern farming province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
Pon is just one of the tens of thousands of children who fall through the cracks every year in Thailand's education system of 10 million students. That system is in the throes of change as an education reform programme is put in place to upgrade the country's largely rote-learning approach to one suitable for the 21st century.
It is not that measures to help poor children are inadequate, on paper at least. Siriporn Boonyananta, deputy secretary-general at the Office of the National Education Commission, said the reform programme is going well, although it is taking time to implement. In the new 'student-centred' system, the government offers free education for 12 years, nine years of which are compulsory.
Mr Siriporn said tuition was free, and there are scholarships and other grants for poor children, including books and a lunch programme. Financial aid is already in place.
But tell that to Pon's mother. She does not know of the support schemes. More to the point, she benefits from the small income Pon brings in. For her, it is not a matter of paying expensive 'under-the-table' school fees - a gripe of well-off parents who send their children to sought-after schools in Bangkok. It is simply about finding the money for a school uniform, books and lunch.
On the bright side, Pon is lucky. He has not joined the ranks of young drug traffickers in Bangkok slums. He is also lucky he is not a girl. Young girls from poor families are still sold into prostitution, according to social reform groups.