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
lower level staffs of the BOB and Ministry working in parallel on lower level
detail. This interactive process works from the "fixed cost" base through requests
for additional funds and programs, up to the eventual budget proposal. BOB is
also attempting to initiate a program of working more closely with Ministries to
hold hearings to set budget ceilings in a more open process. Previously, the ceiling
were worked up within the BOB and then given to the Ministries.
d. Allocations to the Ministry level are the main concern of the decision making
process at this level. The allocation to the Ministry includes guidelines and
standards for allocations below the Ministry level, but these standards are not
intended to control all the lower level allocations. The guidelines and standards
are set in a way that recognizes a certain amount of operational/political
adjustment is necessary in allocations within Ministry programs and units. If 80%
or more of the allocations are within guidelines, this is considered sufficient.
Ministries therefore will have approximately 20% leeway to allocate resources
within their domain, outside constraints and guidelines set by the BOB.
e. Additional modifications to the process are planned for 1998. Beginning in
Nov-Dec., the BOB officials will meet with ministries for a review of the budget
situation. These meetings will include Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and the
BOB Deputy Dir. Members of the BOB staff will work with Policy and Planning
Bureau staff in the Ministries, and the Office of Under Secretary. Separate
meetings are planned for the Ministries of Education, University Affairs, and
Interior. National government subsidies for municipal schools (primary and lower
secondary) are allocated through the Ministry of Interior, including the Bangkok
Municipal Authority, though the bulk of the education budget is allocated through
the Ministry of Education. The BOB will introduces any new policy constraints
and targets at this early stage in the process. Once the fixed cost budget is set, the
parties can negotiate new programs and adjustment to be added/removed.
f. The allocations within the ministries to departments and provinces, within
provinces, and within schools follow a similar general pattern. Much of the budget
decision making can be described as a mix of top-down and bottom-up processes.
Top-down processes are those in which decisions at higher levels determine
outcomes at lower levels. One of the most common top-down processes is one in
which a limit or budget ceiling is set for some categories of expenditure, thereby
limiting the amounts available for those categories at subordinate levels. Similarly
higher levels of government set formula or allocation rules which determine
amounts to various categories. Bottom-up processes are those in which the lower
level actions influence or determine decisions and actions above, for example
when budget requests from the provincial levels influence the amounts allocated
at the national level. Both processes were found at the school, provincial, and
national levels, as well as within particular agencies. At the school level, school
heads construct their budgets based on a mixture of limits imposed by allocations
and revenue limits from above, combined with shifting and mobilizing other funds
where possible to respond to the requests of staff and community as well as the
administrator’s goals. The same basic process could be said to characterize budget
decision making as described at the provincial and school levels as well. The
resulting budget at each level is the product of adjustment to constraints and
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