Educational Finance in Thailand - UNESCO Bangkok

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Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony. Cresswell: Educational Finance UNESCO-PROAP TA 2996-THA Education Management and Finance Study July 1999 b. This procedure for budget allocation represents a major departure from the current budget allocation process. Under this system, once implemented, the government revenue received by each school would be determined by simply multiplying the number of students enrolled by the per-head amount for each level. Under the present budget system, by contrast, allocations to the schools come in a complex mix of allocations. The largest single allocation to Government schools is of staff, whose salary is paid directly by the Government. In addition schools receive subsidies, funding for equipment, buildings, supplies, special projects, lunch programs, and several other categories. Private schools do not receive staff directly, but receive subsidies and support for a variety of projects and programs. So it would appear that substituting a student-count driven system for the current process could lead to substantial shifts in actual allocations. c. However this appearance may be deceiving. While the current budget allocation is complex in terms of the number of categories and controls, much of the actual allocation is based on or strongly influenced by a school’s enrollment. The number of teachers to which a government school is entitled is based largely on enrollment (class size standards), as is the size of budget for many routine expenses and lunch programs. Subsidies for private schools are on a per head basis as well. Funds for special programs, quality improvement, capital investment, etc. are allocated on more of an ad hoc basis, but these make up a relatively small proportion of the budget overall. In fact the largest current variation in Government allocations per head may be caused not by budget decisions at all, but by the tendency of more experienced, higher paid teachers to gravitate to more desirable schools. The discussion of student count allocation mechanisms in the later section examines the linkages with current budget allocation mechanisms more closely to assess the extent of the differences and implications for overall administration. d. The student count driven system also has potential to shift attendance patterns among schools, with resulting budgetary and administrative impacts. The operation of such a system implies some additional opportunity for choice making by parents and students as to where children attend. Students could seek places in a more desirable government school, or if they are included in the system, a private school which the parent could not otherwise afford. Of course, the opportunity for choice may be illusory if no actual choices are available within an acceptable distance, due to lack of places in other schools or the absence of an alternative school altogether. As part of this review a study was conducted of parent references with regard to school choices under a possible system that provided a choice of any school, public or private, without charge. e. The degree to which this allocation mechanism will affect actual budgets will also depend on the way the per-head calculation is made, and the way students are counted. The largest single cost factor in basic education is salaries. If salaries are included in the per-head calculation, the implications for teacher allocations and local budget control are quite important. These are discussed in some detail in the section on budget recommendations below (Section 10.2.1). Similarly, a number of schooling expenses are borne by parents, such as tuition, fees, uniforms, transport, etc. The Education Bill language calling for basic education to be “free 36
Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony. Cresswell: Educational Finance UNESCO-PROAP TA 2996-THA Education Management and Finance Study July 1999 of charge” could be interpreted to include these expenses as well. This would greatly reduce the household expenditure for education, adding 10-20 per cent to the Government education budget. 1.4.3. Decentralization a. Current reform efforts include a number of decentralization initiatives. The SSPL conditionalities (Table 2 above) include seven provisions for increasing budget or administrative autonomy in schools or higher education institutions. A major component of this project is a review of existing decentralization proposals and recommendations for policy and implementation. b. The budget allocation based on enrollment or attendance is linked to decentralization and the teacher personnel system as well. A student count driven finance system suggests potential decentralization. While not specified in the current bill, the concept implies that the allocation to schools based on student count will be a lump sum, rather than the existing mix of in-kind and categorybound allocations. If the allocation includes staff costs, then staff may no longer be allocated to schools, but rather hired at the local level using the local budgets. This would, of course, alter the entire teacher personnel system (as referred to in the conditionalities above). Even if staff costs were not included, the student count allocation would mean a shift in the control of local financial decision making from the Central to the local levels. This has very important implications for the staffing and function of education administration at the Central and Provincial levels. These implications and policy changes are treated in relation to finance issues in this review and in further detail in the report on decentralization. 1.4.4. Teacher reform A major analysis of teacher reform issues is currently underway as part of this larger project and a comprehensive reform of teaching is underway as a separate Government activity under the auspices of a special Commission. Therefore there is not detailed treatment of teacher reform and development in this review. Instead, where financial issues have significant implications for teachers or the personnel system, these are noted. The primary ones included below are discussions of the implementation of a student count driven budget scheme, concerns for equity in allocation of educational resources, and improvements in information resources and systems for administration and policy analysis. 1.4.5. Efficiency and equity initiatives a. Some additional reform and development initiatives are aimed primarily at improving efficiency or effectiveness in some component of the system. These include initiatives to develop improved monitoring capacity, performance based management systems, and overall increasing budget autonomy. These do not receive separate attention, but are addressed as parts of related finance issues. The monitoring and management systems are discussed in the context of improved information resources for management. The increases in budget autonomy and discretion are treated in the sections dealing with the overall budget process. 37
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mission and operations. The term
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The information requirements for fi
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Table 1: Continued Dept. Flow of Re
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Description and assessment of compu
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Table 3: Existing computer systems
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Table 3: Continued Current existing
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Description of flows of financial i
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(teachers, facilities, etc) if data
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Table 4: Continued. Content of curr
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Table 5: Assessment of information
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An assessment of information system
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general administration, these syste
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Recommendation for IS Most involved
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6. The nation wide implementation.
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References Office of the permanent
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Office of private education commiss
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Interviews 10 September 1998, 9:00-
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Appendix 2 Projections of Costs of
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Projected Cost Increases for Expand
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Identification of Schools for Sampl
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8. Please place an X in a box below
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enrollment as a whole growing at an
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Figure 1: Thailand’s Development
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Table 5: Crude transition rates of
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and level of education, 1993 and 19
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2.31 Questionable quality of educat
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income inequality between agricultu
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4.1.4. The percentages calculated f
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Table 11: Public and Private sector
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4.3.8. As would be expected, unempl
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5.7 The dilemma is to balance the s
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Table 14: Unemployment and Underemp
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there any activities that would be
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References Chalongphob Sussangkarn
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Appendix 6 BMA Voucher Policy A. Lo
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Appendix 7 Finance Allocation Metho
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Appendix 8 Program Structure of the
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Not all possible flows are show, si
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Appendix 11 Results of Regression A
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