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Published on August 1, 2007

Previous to that we only had the Compulsory Education Act. The Education Act was the first time that we tried to incorporate all of the hopes for the future in one single act, the main aim of which is to ensure 12 years of quality basic education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

We hope to achieve the decentralisation of education to educational-service areas. In order to encourage decentralisation, the Education Reform Commission chaired by the present education minister, would not permit the Education Ministry itself to draw up the blueprint for the reform. Rather the commission proposed that it be decentralised to local educational organisations.

Using a standard setting, the External Quality Assurance Board visits each school every five years to assess whether they meet ministry requirements. We are now combining school-based and centralised assessments.

Included in the act is a requirement calling for the professional development of teachers and education personnel. Additional bonuses offered to those who meet the criteria set by the committee provide a powerful incentive for improvement.

The draft constitution stipulates that every child be granted 12 years of free education, however, the government can provide only the tuition fee. In order for schools to develop, they need to mobilise the resources and participation of all stakeholders through committees. Decentralisation will mean committees of stakeholders at each level taking part in the decision-making process.

This is the essence of the Education Act. The present minister says that we have made progress in all areas except decentralisation. So his main thrust now is to accelerate decentralisation. We want to have unity in policy but diversity in our operations, as well as the ownership and participation of stakeholders. Government funding accounts for only about 40 to 50 per cent of the budgets of most good schools, making a feeling of ownership among stakeholders very important when it comes to mobilising resources.

We decentralise tasks to committees at the school and educational service area level. The first round of appointments was heavily criticised because we did not have very strict criteria on who should sit on the committees. All authority on the appointment of personnel was transferred down to them, and as a result we had many people who were driven by their own interests and in selecting experts to serve on committees, many educational service areas merely picked school directors to fill the posts. School directors became over-represented as a result. We are now submitting a revision of the law to the National Legislative Assembly to modify the act in such a way as to ensure that those who sit on the board represent their own people.

Decentralisation is the newest thing coming through the Education Act. Schools have now become legal entities, are capable of making contracts and can be held responsible for their actions. The minister is trying to assign a fuller set of responsibilities to those schools capable of handling it. The rest will be looked after for the time being by educational service areas.

Do decentralised schools operate in a similar manner to autonomous schools? They are not quite the same, they don't have complete authority to govern themselves. Whatever authority we have at the Education Ministry would be delegated to them, however there are many regulations that are the domain of other branches of government, including the Finance Ministry, the Budget Bureau or the Civil Service Commission, upon which we cannot intrude.

In terms of planning and budgeting, we allocate all funds directly to schools so that they can decide fully on the use of those funds. They have the full authority to manage the assets and income generated by themselves, but they also must report to the Auditing Commission. This ensures that they will be held responsible if they do something that is not in line with ministry policy or which is not transparent.

In terms of academic affairs, they have the full authority to modify or adopt new curricula as they wish because even though our curriculum is quite good, sometimes it's too rigid and inflexible and schools wish to explore other possibilities.

Personnel management is still somewhat restricted. Schools can hire, select and manage personnel using the funds they generate, but government officials still have to abide by criteria set up by the Education Ministry.

We now have 610 schools in the pilot project and hope to go up to 1,000 next year, and then we aim for 20 per cent, and later 50 per cent of all schools. But after discussions with schools that have gone through the training programme, it's not as easy or smooth as we thought. They have faced many problems and had staffing concerns within the new school concerning who would undertake the additional responsibilities.

The selection criteria stipulate that schools must have upwards of 500 students, are certified by the External Quality Assurance Board and have good governance records. All the schools not included will form a network to share resources and help each other, and they too can be assisted by educational service areas.

We have an intensive training programme as part of the development and empowerment process, which is divided into two parts. The first is the executive level, which comprises school directors and deputy directors. The second is for teachers and supervisors. Following the training programme, we have one-semester on-the-job development stays and follow-up workshops.

There have been many unanticipated outcomes of this large-scale training effort for 14,000 people. It was the first time that key people from different organisations under the Education Ministry had the opportunity to get to know each other and form networks to help one another and find out who the best people are from the key departments within the ministry.

The training curriculum itself consists of three units: the management of change, school-based management, and the reform of teaching and learning to upgrade the quality of education according to national standards.

Training programmes are developed according to the needs of each area and we will help them to develop these programmes. A knowledge management system is important for a country like Thailand which is in a state of political, economic and social flux.

Kasama Varavarn na Ayuddhya

Special to The Nation

Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayuddhya is the secretary-general of the Basic Education Commission.