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 indicative of the general response to a free choice scheme, it will not have the often-argued effect of increasing demand for private education. Considering the low quality reputation of many private schools (so-called “second choice” schools for those who cannot obtain seats in high reputation public schools), greater choice will have the short-term effect of increasing pressure on already oversubscribed public schools. Parents are concerned with reputations for quality, which develop slowly. Therefore removing or lowering financial constraints will not necessarily change preferences that are controlled by the supply side characteristics. e. Of course in the longer term, the free choice scheme can allow more subsidies to flow into private schools. Any private schools opened after 1974 do not receive direct subsidies, and the older schools have limits on what they can receive in subsidies or charge for tuition. With a free choice-driven increase in funding, private schools can develop higher quality programs and facilities, and compete with the currently better-funded public schools. But this process will not show major quality improvement in the short run. Instead, the availability of subsidized attendance at private schools may simply provide a windfall for wealthier parents who are paying tuition in the private schools. The data reported here (see Table 7) show that the family income of private school students is on average much higher than public school parents. The availability of a free choice for all private school parents, regardless of income, would simply lower the cost of private education for the wealthy as well as lower income families. This aspect of free choice policy is reflected in the BMA voucher pilot program, which makes vouchers available only for families with annual incomes below a set ceiling (120,000 Baht in the current version of the program). f. The capacity constraints in the school system can limit the degree to which a free choice scheme can reduce inequities. That is, the positive effects of consumer choices can only work in a situation where actual choices exist. These choices are most likely to exist at meaningful levels in urban or more densely populated areas. Therefore families in rural and remote areas will not be likely to receive the same level of benefit from a free choice scheme. Since these families and students are often disadvantaged in other ways as well, this weakness in the potential of free choice schemes can limit its positive impacts in some areas most in need of assistance. 2.6. Information systems for financial management and policy a. Financing an efficient and effective education system requires high quality information resources for management and policy decision making. Therefore this review of the finance system includes attention to the information systems and resources involved in providing finances for education. The review considers two related questions: a.1. Is there adequate information and information technology for effective financial management and policy making? 82
Final Report, Volume II/3 Anthony. Cresswell: Educational Finance UNESCO-PROAP TA 2996-THA Education Management and Finance Study July 1999 a.2. Are the organizational arrangements and analysis resources adequate to make effective use of the available information? b. In suggesting answers to these questions attention is given primarily to the central government, where the major finance and management operations currently reside. However, in light of the decentralization initiative underway, some attention must be devoted to the information resource issues at the lower levels of the system. This review did not include an extensive study of provincial and local administration. But there were sufficient visits and interviews at lower levels to for a useful impression of the issues and prospects for development in a more decentralized system. 2.6.1 Strengths of the current system a. The overall picture of information resources for educational finance is positive one in many important respects. The volume and timeliness of financial information are both generally adequate. Considerable resources have been invested in systems and procedures to collect, store, and process financial information in the various Ministries and Department with responsibility for financial allocations and management. The Ministry of Education has a functioning school census operation that collects annual data on school enrollments and operations for central reports. Considerable progress has been made in automating this collection process and using electronic reporting procedures and network connections to improve data flows. Monthly accounting reports are required from all schools and administrative units to monitor expenditure flows. Though not all in electronic form, these monthly reports appear to be processed in a timely manner. There is an extensive system of monthly reports for other financial tracking and program monitoring produced for other management levels: program operations and statistics to Department and Ministry Planning Divisions, financial reports to the Ministry of Finance, staffing reports to the Personnel Division, and so forth. In the Ministries of Education, Interior, and University Affairs, computerized databases and networks have been developed for managing much of this routine information flow and reporting. So in terms of sheer volume of information and routine collecting and reporting capacity, the various components of the education system have developed adequately. b. The development of these basic information resources appears to be accompanied by fairly large numbers of competent staff as well. The administrators responsible for the information systems and operations were highly trained and showed good grasp of the development issues discussed. Several had ambitious plans under way for improvements in their own unit’s capacities. In some cases, staff had developed sophisticated applications for specialized analyses, such as a geographic information system for school mapping in the Ministry of Education. There was also a relatively high percentage of desk-top computers in the offices of higher level administrators, indicating a familiarity and involvement with information technology at management and policy levels. This was true at the provincial, university, and school levels visited as well. In fact, some of the most detailed and well designed financial reporting we found came from a primary school in one of the northern provinces. As long as these human 83
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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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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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