18.11.2014 Views

Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

4.3.8. As would be expected, unemployment exerts a consistent negative effect on<br />

spend<strong>in</strong>g on education. In terms of the current crisis with ris<strong>in</strong>g unemployment as well as<br />

underemployment, it is important not to <strong>in</strong>troduce short-run crisis measures that run<br />

counter to the long-range efficiency and equity goals.<br />

Table 13 The “burden” of education: factors affect<strong>in</strong>g the proportion of <strong>in</strong>come<br />

spent on education: regression results<br />

1994 1996<br />

Regression<br />

Regression<br />

Independent Variables<br />

Coefficient t-statistic Coefficient t-statistic<br />

Number of household members 1.242 34.424** 1.230 36.665**<br />

<strong>Educational</strong> atta<strong>in</strong>ment of household 0.147 8.226** 0.226 14.015**<br />

head<br />

Household <strong>in</strong>come -0.000054 -14.118** -0.000050 17.767**<br />

Northeastern region -1.817 -8.328** -1.514 -7.422**<br />

Urban residence - - 0.433 3.530**<br />

Farm<strong>in</strong>g occupation 0.584 4.296** - -<br />

Southern region -0.484 -2.057** -0.529 -2.416**<br />

Northern region -0.857 -3.828** -0.844 -4.058**<br />

Central region -0.975 -4.415** -1.182 -5.710**<br />

Male household head -0.797 -5.546** -0.848 -6.460**<br />

Non-farm, non-professional<br />

- - -1.140 -7.937**<br />

occupation<br />

Professional occupation -1.401 -4.574** -3.378 -11.619**<br />

Unemployed - - -0.557 -3.268**<br />

Constant 1.370 5.296 1.446 6.558<br />

R-squared 0.052 0.064<br />

Adjusted R-squared 0.052 0.064<br />

Source: Estimated from unpublished Socio-Economic Survey household data.<br />

* Statistically significant at the 95% level.<br />

** Statistically significant at the 99% level.<br />

5. Policy Implications<br />

5.1 Even though private household expenditures form a fairly large portion (about 34 per<br />

cent) of the country’s outlay on education, this portion is less than the private<br />

contribution to health expenditures <strong>in</strong> <strong>Thailand</strong> (about 55 per cent). In addition the direct<br />

cost of many k<strong>in</strong>ds of public education <strong>in</strong> <strong>Thailand</strong> is almost entirely borne by the<br />

government. Fees charged, as a percentage of costs, range from 2 to 22 per cent for<br />

secondary schools, from 4 to 37 per cent <strong>in</strong> vocational education, from 30 to 42 per cent<br />

<strong>in</strong> teacher tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g, and from 7-14 per cent <strong>in</strong> public closed universities (Khoman 1996).<br />

Consequently, all calculations of the rate of return on <strong>in</strong>vestment <strong>in</strong> education <strong>in</strong>variably<br />

show private rates of return exceed<strong>in</strong>g social rates at all levels. Tuition fees at the tertiary<br />

level on average amount to only 3.5 per cent of the annual family <strong>in</strong>come of university<br />

students (NEC 1991). More recent <strong>in</strong>formation shows an even more pronounced pattern.<br />

The situation is slowly be<strong>in</strong>g eased by gradual de-control of private school fees, and<br />

allow<strong>in</strong>g “self-f<strong>in</strong>anc<strong>in</strong>g” programs to be <strong>in</strong>itiated <strong>in</strong> government <strong>in</strong>stitutions.<br />

Adm<strong>in</strong>istrative reform however is slow <strong>in</strong> com<strong>in</strong>g. Crises can provide the opportunity for<br />

reform, but at the same time obstacles may be compounded.<br />

5.2 Nevertheless, subsidies and f<strong>in</strong>anc<strong>in</strong>g need to be rationalized. For long-term<br />

efficiency, it is important to keep <strong>in</strong> m<strong>in</strong>d that pric<strong>in</strong>g is <strong>in</strong>timately l<strong>in</strong>ked to how services<br />

175

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!