Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony. Cresswell: Educational Finance UNESCO-PROAP TA 2996-THA
Education Management and Finance Study July 1999
experimentation and innovation. To meet these objectives, the private educational
sector should be relatively free of the framework of rules and regulations that
apply to the government schools, but at the same time be held to high standards of
integrity and performance. Consequently, a separate finance scheme is required.
b. The main rationale for a separate finance system for private schools rests on the
private nature of this sector, and the particular history of private education
development in Thailand. In any educational system, private schools emerge and
function in part to provide parents and educators greater autonomy in how they
operate a school. This autonomy extends typically to deciding who may attend,
what tuition and fees to charge, and what kinds of curriculum to offer. To provide
too much control and subsidy turns the private schools into little more than
government schools and discourages private investment. To provide too little
subsidy denies the interest of the government in supporting education, and too
little control invites schooling that can work against the policies of the
government and the best interests of the nation. The finance approach
recommended here is designed to strike a balance between these two undesirable
extremes.
c. The approach also would result in a change in the historical structure of private
basic education. This structure is atypical of private education in other countries,
which tends to serve mostly higher income families and emphasizes academic
prestige. Within basic education in Thailand, by contrast, there have emerged
other types of private schools. There is, of course, an echelon of high prestige,
elite private schools, as in other countries. They are characterized by high
selectivity, high tuition fees, and high expenditure per pupil. They receive most of
their revenues from private sources, tuition, and donations, but may receive a
government subsidy. These schools tend to be in urban areas. The second type of
private schools, most of which fall under the Office of the Private Education
Commission (OPEC), tend to be found in rural areas, serve lower income
students, are less selective, and have lower expenditure per pupil (see Table ?
above and the related discussion). These schools receive a government subsidy
and are subject to more regulation. Some of these are referred to as "second choice
schools" because they serve children who could not be admitted to more
prestigious schools. There are also so-called private owner schools that are
operated as proprietary businesses, and do not receive government subsidies.
These are also often "second choice schools," which parents find more convenient
or otherwise preferable to a low prestige ONPEC or government school. Quality
control for the high prestige schools is essentially the responsibility of
administrators and high status board members. OPEC schools are supervised by
the Commission and are subject to its regulations. Private owner schools are
largely outside the regulatory framework.
d. Given this diverse context, the best way to meet the basic objective for the
finance system is to provide subsidies through two mechanisms: equal perstudent
subsidies to all recognized private schools, at a lower level than for the
government schools, coupled with income-indexed scholarships to maintain
equity and access to private education for students from low income families. To
qualify for the subsidy, or to enroll scholarship students, the school would have to
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