In the Mae Sot area, community organisations are in touch with more than 100 schools. Many of these are informal, although an increasing number of schools are registered with the Thai Ministry of Education as ‘Learning Centres’. They range in size from 30 or so pupils up to nearly 800. There are probably between 10,000 to 15,000 children in total. About 3,500 live in boarding houses since their parents are absent, either still in Burma, working elsewhere in Thailand, or dead.