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
implicit in these arguments. Those assumptions must be examined in detail. The
success of a family choice finance scheme also depends on the capacity of the
system to implement it in a way that is likely to produce the desired results. This
capacity should also be carefully examined and tested to ensure feasibility. An
approach to both of these tasks is outlined as part of this review. It begins with a
discussion of the assumptions and details of the arguments for educational
vouchers.
2.5.1.1. The Equity Argument
a. The basic premise of the equity side of the argument is that giving poor parents
a free choice of schools to attend will allow them to obtain greater educational
opportunities for their children by choosing the best available school, public or
private. It is therefore necessary to examine the degree to which a child’s
educational opportunity is likely to be affected by allowing a free, or heavily
subsidized choice of schools. There is, in fact, a large body of evidence, from
research in many countries, that the financial inputs to schooling have very little
independent effect on children’s achievement (See, for example, Levin, 1997).
This generalization is less accurate in developing countries, however, where the
availability of books has been shown to be quite important. It has also been shown
fairly consistently that students in private schools do not perform appreciably
better than those in public schools, after a number of social and economic factors
have been taken into account. These include the parent’s education levels, overall
income, occupation, and the social makeup of the school. These tend to be much
stronger influences on student performance than those under the control of the
school. And it is these other factors that are not likely to be strongly affected by a
finance scheme that allows greater choice, particularly parent’s education levels
and overall income.
b. The best approach to an analysis of the equity argument for this finance scheme
is based on the premise that inequities in educational opportunity arise from
different, but interacting sources. To be successful, a choice policy must recognize
and deal with these sources effectively. Therefore it is necessary for a choice
scheme to have some effect on the sources of the variations that underlie inequity
in educational opportunity. One source, perhaps the most important, is variation in
the family’s ability to pay for education. Another is variation in the family’s
ability to provide non-financial resources necessary for their children to profit
from schooling. These include their genetic endowment, health and nutrition,
parent’s ability to participate and assist learning, their enthusiasm and
encouragement for achievement, discipline, willingness to provide a rich learning
environment in the home, etc. Other factors involve the characteristics of the
educational and external environment which affect educational opportunity, but
which are outside the direct control of individual families. One group of these
factors includes the social and educational climate of the school, and the technical
quality of the school itself. The other reflects the community’s and society’s value
for education. For convenience, these four groups of factors will be referred to as
family financial factors, family non-financial factors, school factors, and context
factors.
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