Management Crucial At All Small Thai Schools: Education Experts

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'Management crucial at all small schools'

Chularat Saengpassa,

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

Experts also want Obec to assess proposed mergers

BANGKOK: -- As more and more small schools are merged, management of them is crucial, if they are to deliver a proper standard of education, experts said recently.

They also urged the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) to assess the school mergers to ensure they are carried out effectively.

Obec has been conducting 16 research projects since last year - looking into the needs of small schools, an Obec official said.

"Every government has focused on cosmetic improvements - such as increasing teacher salaries and tablet distribution, but they have failed to look at the way the schools are run," Chainarong Ind-harameesup, a member of the

second decade education reform committee and former board member of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment, told The Nation in a recent interview.

He said school directors and educational service area office directors had to take responsibility for managing the business of small schools and fulfilling their needs.

"I believe that management is the answer to upgrading the quality of small schools after merging," Chainarong added.

"Directors and parents should join together and discuss how schools in their areas can be better managed so their quality of education improves."

A teacher from a school in Khon Kaen's Ban Phai district said her school had more than 200 students, which was more than a nearby

tambon school that had only 100 students. With numeracy and literacy guaranteed for all her students, more parents had their kids enrol with her school. The parents also helped her school with financial support.

According to Obec's records during the 2012 school year, 123 schools under Obec had no students; 14,693 schools had 1-120 students; 10,824 schools had 121-300 students; and 5,476 schools had more than 300 students.

Lots of small schools in convenient transport areas are found in the Northeast and Central region.

The Education Ministry began merging small schools in 1997. Some 705 schools have been closed since 2009.

Chainarong said scores of Ordinary National Education Test (O-Net) and the Programme for International Student Assessment clearly showed that students were not up to standard.

Without merging of poor small schools in transport available areas so they can share resources and provide more suitable ways of learning, quality of students and education would continue to decline.

In a separate interview, Derek Pornsima, a former member of a committee on the basic education quality assessment system development also said school size did matter.

He has urged that a primary school have at least 300 students and said a study in the US found that a primary school should provide education to 300-500 students, whereas a secondary school should take care of 500-800 students.

The schools are able to provide enough teachers for every class and the necessary equipment needed - including learning activities, such as science and language laboratories, music practice rooms and sports zones.

Moreover, Chainarong said this number of students was enough to do the activities together and learned from each other during the activities. He wants the Education Ministry to use national standards to assess all sizes of schools to see their improvement and problems, and try to help ones with poor standards meet such standards.

Amnat Wichayanuwat, director of Policy and Planning Bureau at Obec, said the 16 research projects on small schools were studying quality of students and education, external quality assessment, school mapping, management of small schools, the worth of small school investment, contentment towards school merging, important factors for quality small school existence, supportive and obstructive factors for merging or closing down schools and personnel management models that support small school management in the future.

"We expect to tell the public findings of some projects during this fiscal year (before October)," he added.

Meanwhile, the Thai Alternative Education Council Association recently proposed a list of relevant people to Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana for possible inclusion on a joint committee working on the issue.

The list includes two small school directors from each of the four regions, representatives from communities, local administrative organisations and the association, plus alternative education experts.

The association threatened to stage a big rally to voice opposition to Phongthep's school merging policy if he does not allow such people to work with him because they want all stakeholders to take part in educational development.

Late this month is the deadline for service area offices with small schools (under 60 students) to give details about such schools under their supervision to Obec secretary general Chinnapat Bhumirat so Obec can consider which should be merged.

-- The Nation 2013-05-27

[bangon04]

"According to Obec's records during the 2012 school year, 123 schools under Obec had no students"

Perfect management strategy - smooth running. Did they get a full allocation of tablets? And a salary raise?

Amusing Thailand