BANGKOK • Wearing white ribbons, publicly hacking off their hair and making Hunger Games salutes - Thailand's high school students are doing their best to shake up the country's rigid education system.

As university students stage weeks of high-profile campus protests for democracy, their younger brethren are advancing their own rebellion against Thailand's establishment.

"There's a viral saying that 'our first dictatorship is school'," 17-year old Peka Loetparisanyu told Reuters at her apartment. "They are trying to instil in us that we are only the little people in an authoritarian society," Peka said. "This means that a lot of our rights have been violated."

The movement sweeping through Thai high schools has been dubbed Bad Student by its leaders.

Its namesake is a book written by university student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal about his experiences in high school titled A Bad Student In An Excellent Education System.

As well as supporting the broader aims of the anti-government protests, the high school movement is targeted at gaining self-expression for students via the abolition of rules they deem archaic.

Traditionalism runs through Thailand's education system. The royal anthem is played at morning assemblies, uniform and deportment rules are strict and students are expected to be unquestioning of authority.

Critics say the school system is aimed at compliance more than education.

Global scores compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for 2018 show Thailand far behind top performer Singapore and also lagging neighbouring Malaysia in reading, maths and science.

REUTERS