2012年-世界发展银行全球_Thailand_School_Autonomy_and_Accountability___SABER_Country_Report_2012_11页_897kb

Summary of the SABER Country Report on School Autonomy and Accountability in Thailand

Core Content

The SABER Country Report on Thailand provides an analysis of the current state of school autonomy and accountability, highlighting the policies and practices in place across various aspects of education management. The report benchmarks these against high-performing education systems in East Asia and offers policy recommendations to improve Thailand's education system.

Main Policy Goals

The report outlines five key policy goals for school autonomy and accountability:

1. School Autonomy in Budget Planning and Approval
2. School Autonomy in Personnel Management
3. Participation of the School Council in School Finance
4. Assessment of School and Student Performance
5. School Accountability to Stakeholders

Key Findings

1. School Autonomy in Budget Planning and Approval – Established

• Schools have complete autonomy over non-salary expenditures.
• Budget management plans are submitted to the Educational Service Area (ESA) level.
• Budgets are decentralized to the ESA and increasingly to the Local Administrative Organization (LOA) level.
• The administrative systems are well-established.
• School principals have legal authority to manage non-salary funds, but salary decisions are centralized.
• Schools can raise additional funds from national, sub-national, and private sources.

2. School Autonomy in Personnel Management – Latent

• Teachers are hired at the ESA level, following civil service rules.
• The selection process is bureaucratic, and schools have limited influence over personnel choices.
• Teacher incentives and performance-based rewards are not well implemented.
• There is a need for reforms in teacher training and selection to improve accountability and quality.

3. Participation of the School Council in School Finance – Established

• Parents participate in school board committees and have a strong advisory role.
• They contribute up to 30% of per student expenditure in public schools, with 10% from the private sector.
• School councils do not have legal authority to approve the school budget, but they assist in its preparation.
• Operational manuals are used to guide the role of school councils in budgeting and monitoring.
• The use of two sets of books for government and private funds creates operational inefficiencies and transparency issues.

4. Assessment of School and Student Performance – Advanced

• Standardized testing is conducted in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 via the O-NET and A-NET.
• Yearly assessments are used to track the impact of administrative and pedagogical changes.
• School assessments are done every five years by ONESQA.
• The results are made public and used to compare with similar schools and previous years.
• Thailand participates in TIMSS and PISA, but needs to improve performance to match East Asian standards.

5. School Accountability to Stakeholders – Established

• School performance and learning outcomes are regularly made public.
• Financial audits can be requested by school boards, though legal authority is limited.
• There is a manual for using financial audits to evaluate school performance.
• Accountability is hampered by lack of parent influence over staffing decisions and weak links between student performance and teacher accountability.

Policy Recommendations

• Implement personnel autonomy to allow schools to select and retain teachers based on performance and quality.
• Deepen budgetary autonomy to enable schools to manage all funds, including teacher salaries, to improve efficiency and transparency.
• Enhance teacher accountability by giving schools more control over hiring and firing decisions.
• Improve the link between student performance and teacher accountability to ensure better educational outcomes.
• Strengthen the role of school councils in budgeting and decision-making to foster greater local cooperation and transparency.

Comparison with East Asian Countries

Conclusion

Thailand has made substantial progress in education access and quality improvement, but there is a need to strengthen autonomy and accountability policies. The current system supports budgetary autonomy and standardized assessments, but personnel autonomy and parental influence over staffing remain underdeveloped. The report emphasizes the importance of benchmarking and policy reforms to move towards high-performing education systems like those in Finland and South Korea.