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 c. The effectiveness of a choice policy on equity is linked directly to the ways in which the opening up of greater choices can counteract the other factors that produce inequity in educational opportunity. Access to otherwise unaffordable schools does of course ameliorate some family financial factors, since poor people’s choices of schools would otherwise be limited to those of lower quality than those available to rich people. By providing access to these better schools, the policy would reduce some of the inequities resulting from some school factors as well. These would include the quality of facilities, teachers, materials, etc., as well as a physical and social environment in the school itself that is more likely to be conducive to effective teaching and learning. d. But other factors would not be affected in significant ways. Some school factors are a consequence of the interaction of income and social advantages with geography. Higher incomes allow some families to live in areas with high concentrations of other high-income families. Thus the schools in these areas have higher concentrations of students from advantaged families characterized by higher parent education levels and occupational status. The overall composition of the student population is itself a school quality factor. Moreover, family nonfinancial factors are important as well. Parent’s education levels, provision of outof-school experiences and home learning resources, even health and nutrition are much more likely to be lower for children of poor families. And school choice policies will not have any direct impact in inequities resulting from parent’s lack of support for high achievement, poor student aptitude, or unwillingness or ability to participate in the child’s learning, or the community’s support or enthusiasm for education. 2.5.1.2 The Efficiency Argument The essence of the efficiency argument in favor of a free choice schools rests on the potential impact of competition. The logic depends on thinking of schools as businesses competing for customers in a competitive environment. If the competition is restricted in some ways, there is less of an incentive for the schools to operate efficiently, since higher costs or lower quality of the “product” will not drive customers to the competition. The possible effect of the such a scheme on increasing competition by increasing the purchasing power of the customer, and effectively reducing the steep price advantage of the public school. If the lack of purchasing power and a subsidized price structure were the only flaws in the competitive environment, the free choice approach could have a strong impact. But competition can be impaired by other factors. There may be a lack of competitors in the environment, due to barriers to entry (as seems to be the case in the regulations governing private education). Consumers may also lack adequate information to evaluate the alternatives, or even know about their existence. This may be a particular problem in families with low education levels, restricting their knowledge about schools and their ability to assess them accurately. If the efficiency effects of free choices are to be realized, the scheme must deal with barriers to entry to the school “market” for private schools or other competitors, and it must provide support for consumer s in assessing schools. This should include some provisions for improved information provision discussed in the section on recommendations. 80
Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony. Cresswell: Educational Finance UNESCO-PROAP TA 2996-THA Education Management and Finance Study July 1999 2.5.2 The Parental Choice focus groups a. To explore the possible impacts of a free choice scheme in Thailand, a study was conducted based on a small sample of parent focus groups. Since the concept of free choice is a complex one, it was felt that focus group-based discussion with parents would be the best way to explore the full range of their attitudes and potential responses to a free choice scheme. To help assess the effects of income and range of available choices on possible responses, the focus groups were formed in four districts, two in a high income province and two in a relatively low income province. The districts were chosen to reflect either a relatively high or low level of choice in terms of the number of nearby schools. Four schools were chosen in each district, one two each at the primary or secondary level, one public one private (one district did not have a private secondary school so the total number of schools chosen was 15). A group of 7-10 parents from each school was invited to attend a focus group discussion in an evening session, held off school property. The group discussion was recorded and summarized by the research team. (A detailed analysis of the parent’s comments is found in Appendix). b. The results of this focus group study reveal considerable complexity in parent’s views of school choice. The results also show that the impacts of a free choice scheme on the actual attendance patterns and parental choices will be very hard to predict. First, it was clear from the comments that parents have high expectations for their students and their schools. The comments reveal parents with a very high value for education, and a strong willingness to support education financially, and find the best schools for their children. As a result, the parents take into account more than expenses when choosing a school. The most frequently mentioned concerns were the reputation of the school, quality of teaching and school facilities, safety, closeness to home, attitudes and behavior of teachers, good discipline, and number and quality of activities and equipment. Of course the cost of sending children to school was mentioned frequently as well, but the cost factors mentioned extend beyond tuition and fees to clothing, transportation, food, and other incidentals. But it seems clear in the comments that financial considerations are only one, and not necessarily the major factor in this decision process. c. Because this is a multi-factor problem, introducing the free choice as away of alleviating the financial considerations does not by itself seem to produce massive changes in choices. All parents were asked what school they would choose if they did not have to pay for tuition and fees. Overall, only 38 of the 105 parents who responded (36.2%) said they would choose another school. In the districts with high choice (many alternative schools) the proportion who would change increased to 41%, a significant shift, but still well below half. And almost half of those who chose different schools (10/23) came from one primary school. d. The pattern of choice between public and private school alternatives is also illustrative of the importance of non-financial concerns. Of the 38 parents who would choose a different school, 33 (87%) chose public schools. The reasons expressed for these choices were predominately quality concerns, with convenience and safety mentioned frequently as well. If these results are 81
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- Volume II/3 - Educational Finance
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Table of Contents A. Executive Summ
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Table of Tables Table 1 Adjustments
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Figure 18 Figure 19 Figure 20 Figur
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Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony.
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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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