Armed soldiers guard the road leading to Malatee Porsotee’s village school in southern Thailand while security volunteers with rifles keep watch over the classrooms.
Students gather in the morning sunshine to sing the national anthem, raise the Thai flag and take daily exercise on a grassy yard surrounded by flowering bougainvillea, as roosters peck in the dirt.
But the presence of guns in this otherwise tranquil scene underscores the danger that teachers like Malatee face every day.
Education workers are a top target for insurgents in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southern provinces, and her school has already lost one to a militant attack.
The Thai army says more than half of its troops in the region are deployed to protect educational institutions and teachers, some of whom carry their own guns for protection in case of an ambush during their daily commute.
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