Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

Figure 1: Thailand’s Development Diamond
2.9 With the sole exception of Vietnam, the secondary enrollment ratio is the lowest of all
the ASEAN countries, and well below that of the Republic of Korea many years earlier
(Table 3).
Table 3: Gross enrollment ratios: selected Asian countries
Primary Secondary Tertiary
Thailand (1992) 98 37 19
Republic of Korea (1988) 104 87 37
Singapore (1988) 111 69 12
Hong Kong (1988) 106 74 12
Indonesia (1992) 114 43 10
Malaysia (1990) 93 56 7
Philippines (1993) 111 79 26
Vietnam (1993) 111 35 1.5
Brunei (1992) 105 69 6
Source: UNESCO (1995)
2.10 In 1990 almost half of the children who completed primary school did not go on to
receive secondary education. The low rate of continuation to the secondary level has long
been seen as one of the most important impediments to economic and social development,
that could derail the then-buoyant economy (for example Sirilaksana, 199..). The
enrollment ratios for lower and upper secondary in 1986 were estimated to be as low as
41 per cent of those aged 14-16 and 28 per cent of those aged 17-18 (NEC, 1986). This
ratio was the lowest among all comparable middle-income countries, and shows that more
than half of the Thai children in the age group 14-18 were out of school.
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