Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2.25 The quality of education also remains a key concern. Even though innovative methods of learning such as distance learning, student-centered rather than teachercentered learning, as well as work apprenticeship have been experimented with, and mass education through satellite relays envisaged, these are exceptions rather than the rule. In addition these are mere techniques that may not translate into inspired curricula or learning processes. Rote learning is pervasive even in the best schools, and innovative forms of learning are confined only to small segments. Vocational schools lack equipment and teachers lack motivation. Moreover the improper targeting of beneficiaries has led to problems of regional disparity, inequality of access, and inefficient resource use. 2.26 The initial path of import substitution that Thailand pursued required little upgrading of the skills and capabilities of the general workforce. Industrial promotion favored the use of imported capital, and the indigenous labor utilized was mainly unskilled. The reversal of policy in the 1970s towards export promotion further depended on the country’s vast supply of low-cost labor, largely with low education. 2.27 The need to equip the workforce with upgraded skills as well as capability in science and technology had hitherto not been felt and was not a political agenda. For a problem to achieve the exalted state of a political agenda, a plaintiff is required. Unlike unemployment or inflation where people are directly affected and votes can be linked to policy success, problems with the quality of education (like a current-account deficit) produces no obvious victims. 2.28 Today the ability of the labor force to adapt to rapidly changing conditions of work and skill requirements has become ever more crucial as technologically-sophisticated sectors play a more and more prominent role and as the crisis takes its toll in further downsizing of government agencies and corporations alike. 2.29 Even before the crisis, educational institutions were in general ill-equipped to deal with the nation’s manpower needs. Constraints were felt both in terms of resources to keep up with advances in knowledge and maintenance of modern facilities, and in terms of retaining quality staff. The high cost of operating and keeping up with new technologies (new equipment, materials, and so on) and the much higher salaries for selected personnel in private industry during the boom years competed away qualified staff, and added to the difficulty of educational institutions in producing adequate manpower supplies, especially in science and technology. Inadequate research and development activity limits the nation's access to discoveries, technology and innovations developed everywhere in the world. This constrained the country's ability to adapt technologies, to draw upon and assimilate the world's scientific and technological resources, to support new productive activities, upgrade existing techniques, and accumulate the kind of knowledge that leads to sustained increases in productivity and international competitiveness. 2.30 Such capability is essential for the process of drawing upon indigenous knowledge and use of local materials, processes, and know-how. Because educational institutions were not able to produce an adequate supply of researchers and scientists, the ability to build up an expanding capacity for R&D within the institutions as well as in industry was limited. 166
2.31 Questionable quality of education and the low continuation to secondary school are a major hindrance in the first step towards production of a skilled and adaptable labor force, not to mention the creation of scientific, engineering and technical manpower to enhance Thailand's technological capability. 3. Access to Education: Demand Factors 3.1 Inequity of access to education has long been evident in Thailand. Students in urban areas tend to leave school at a higher age than rural students; in rural areas, the majority of children not in school (70.7 per cent) left at age 12-14, whereas in urban areas only 43 per cent left school at that age (NSO, 1993) 1 . 3.2 The supply side cause, namely the unequal geographic distribution of schools has long been one of the main causes of non-continuation and thus low secondary enrollment among the disadvantaged groups. The latest Education Statistics (MOE, 199..) show that, out of the total number of private secondary schools in the country, almost half were located in Bangkok, and none in the villages. For municipal schools, enrollment in Bangkok alone was almost equal to total enrollment for the rest of the country. All public kindergarten schools are located in urban areas, not to mention the heavy urban concentration of private kindergartens and schools. 3.3 But inter-related demand side factors are also at work. The Surveys of Children and Youth (NSO, various years) have always found that financial difficulties were the major reason for leaving school. The cost of education indeed imposes a disproportionate burden on the poor relative to their incomes. The total time and money cost to a village household of sending a child to a public lower secondary school in town can amount to an increase of almost four times the cost of his/her primary education. If the child fails to get admitted into a public school, which normally selects students by means of a competitive entrance examination, the cost of going to a private school would amount to more than half of their total annual income. Because of the sequential nature of the curriculum, if it is perceived that only completion of the higher level would make the lower level worthwhile, there would be no incentive to go to lower level if the total financial burden of completing the curriculum up to the highest level is prohibitive. Thus, low participation rates are mainly confined to the most disadvantaged groups: low income, rural households. And the problem is transmitted vertically along the education ladder since several screening examinations have to be passed. 3.4 Table 7 above also shows that among urban youth not in school, 41.8 per cent had attained secondary education and above. The corresponding figure for rural youth was only 13.6 per cent. This of course reflects the urban-rural differential in terms of availability of jobs requiring different qualifications, but also indicates the disadvantages of the rural population. 3.5 The question of quality can be seen as a question of equity and access as well. Large divergences in quality exist between schools in terms of input measures such as availability of textbooks, instructional materials, laboratory equipment, computer usage and teacher qualifications. Again access to better-quality schools tends to be based on region of residence and socio-economic status. The marked differences in quality 1 The latest Children and Youth survey was in 1998, and the results are not yet available. 167
Page 1 and 2:
- Volume II/3 - Educational Finance
Page 3 and 4:
Table of Contents A. Executive Summ
Page 5 and 6:
Table of Tables Table 1 Adjustments
Page 7 and 8:
Figure 18 Figure 19 Figure 20 Figur
Page 9 and 10:
Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony.
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124: mission and operations. The term
Page 125 and 126: The information requirements for fi
Page 127 and 128: Table 1: Continued Dept. Flow of Re
Page 129 and 130: Table 1: Continued Dept. Flow of Re
Page 131 and 132: Description and assessment of compu
Page 133 and 134: Table 3: Existing computer systems
Page 135 and 136: Table 3: Continued Current existing
Page 137 and 138: Description of flows of financial i
Page 139 and 140: (teachers, facilities, etc) if data
Page 141 and 142: Table 4: Continued. Content of curr
Page 143 and 144: Table 5: Assessment of information
Page 145 and 146: An assessment of information system
Page 147 and 148: general administration, these syste
Page 149 and 150: Recommendation for IS Most involved
Page 151 and 152: 6. The nation wide implementation.
Page 153 and 154: References Office of the permanent
Page 155 and 156: Office of private education commiss
Page 157 and 158: Interviews 10 September 1998, 9:00-
Page 159 and 160: Appendix 2 Projections of Costs of
Page 161 and 162: Projected Cost Increases for Expand
Page 163 and 164: Identification of Schools for Sampl
Page 165 and 166: 8. Please place an X in a box below
Page 167 and 168: enrollment as a whole growing at an
Page 169 and 170: Figure 1: Thailand’s Development
Page 171 and 172: Table 5: Crude transition rates of
Page 173: and level of education, 1993 and 19
Page 177 and 178: income inequality between agricultu
Page 179 and 180: 4.1.4. The percentages calculated f
Page 181 and 182: Table 11: Public and Private sector
Page 183 and 184: 4.3.8. As would be expected, unempl
Page 185 and 186: 5.7 The dilemma is to balance the s
Page 187 and 188: Table 14: Unemployment and Underemp
Page 189 and 190: there any activities that would be
Page 191 and 192: References Chalongphob Sussangkarn
Page 193 and 194: Appendix 6 BMA Voucher Policy A. Lo
Page 195 and 196: Appendix 7 Finance Allocation Metho
Page 197 and 198: Appendix 8 Program Structure of the
Page 199 and 200: Not all possible flows are show, si
Page 201 and 202: Appendix 11 Results of Regression A
show all

Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?