Free education budget not spent: study

By THE NATION

 

After chairing a meeting of education-reform committee at Government House, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha complains yesterday about redundancies created by the lack of IT resources in the education system.

 

OBEC finds that 20% of govt funds still held by schools as students wait.

 

AS MUCH AS 20 per cent of the state budget of Bt40 billion for the government’s free-education initiative remains unspent at schools, a study has revealed. 

 

“It is probably because schools lack adequate skills to manage the budget efficiently and because officials from central agencies check the schools just once a year,” Assoc Prof Dr Chaiyuth Punyasavatsut of the Thammasat University said yesterday. 

 

The university joined hands with the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund to conduct the study on spending related to the government’s project to provide 15 years of free education. 

 

The project offers free education by allocating a budget for tuition, textbooks, student uniforms, learning materials and student improvement. 

 

Obec deputy secretary-general Narong Paewpolsong said the project covered 6.2 million students. 

 

Conducted among 250 schools across the country, the study has detected several problems related to state spending. 

 

“The textbook budget arrives about 24 days after the new semester starts. Schools distribute learning materials long after the start of the semester, 17 days for the first semester and 37 days for the second semester on average,” Chaiyuth said. 

 

He added that by the end of the second fiscal year, the project had Bt8.2billion still remaining in the hands of schools. 

Obec allocated the budget based on information provided by schools, he said. 

 

“The lack of a proper checks-and-balances mechanism causes ethical issues,” Chaiyuth said.

 

The study recommended that schools release information on the budget and student performance to communities to promote greater transparency. 

 

Chaiyuth said the lack of an integrated educational-information database was also to blame for the budget problem and a redundant student name list. 

 

In a related development, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha complained that when the educational sector lacked an integrated IT system, there were problems with redundancies.

 

“Students may have already moved to a new school, but their old school still uses their names to claim a budget,” he said after chairing a meeting of the education-reform committee yesterday.

 

Established under the new constitution, the committee has been tasked with reforming the country’s education sector.

 

Prayut said there were several educational problems, including teachers’ production, and processes in teaching, learning and testing.

 

“We need to pay attention to budget usage. We need to find out whether the budget really goes to what it is meant for. We need to check if there is redundancy when we plan education budgets as well,” he said.

 

Prayut also said he hoped education reform would deliver tangible results within a year or during the remaining term of his government. 

 

The priority, he said, should go to a structural overhaul and serious problems. 

 

“Other parts of the reform may be prescribed in the country’s education master plan,” Prayut said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30321230

 

-- © Copyright The Nation -- xxxx 2017-07-19

Well done PM.
I think a year is to short a time frame.

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“Students may have already moved to a new school, but their old school still uses their names to claim a budget,” he said after chairing a meeting of the education-reform committee yesterday."

 

of course they do..... .....got to line the school's directors pockets somehow.....

3 hours ago, webfact said:

AS MUCH AS 20 per cent of the state budget of Bt40 billion for the government’s free-education initiative remains unspent at schools, a study has revealed. 

This country has too many hungry Mia Noi's to feed.

In 2003 I worked with a Science graduate to set up an EP. We were given a 40k budget and taken out for a day shopping in bookshops.

 

We actually found it very easy to spend 30k, but said 'that'll do for now - maybe we'll get more later'. We were then pushed by staff to pick books up from the shelves until the budget was completely spent. 

 

Spending the budget is the target, actual value is of no interest (we chose a few expensive books for our own tastes and completely useless to the school).

 

The next step was to lock up the books in glass cabinets in the EP rooms so that nobody had access.

Lord knows what they DO spend the money on? Certainly not the usual facilities. How many Thai state - and even fee-paying schools have science labs, workwork and metalwork rooms, or a gymnasium or sports field?

 

If I were a Thai parent and taxpayer I would be demanding a independent inquiry to find the black hole into which one of the biggest education budgets per capita in the world disappears every year.

Perhaps they could disperse the left over to the parents that have to spend all their money on extra classes, because the teachers are too lazy to teach. 

We are 6 weeks into term, with 6 weeks to go. The math teacher reckons he covered everything for this term so no need to learn anymore. The kids love him. 

In China, every university entrance student I taught really hated their teachers.
But ALL these students were very smart and so motivated. Whatever their teachers did it had the desired effect of producing driven students.

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22 hours ago, webfact said:

The lack of a proper checks-and-balances mechanism causes ethical issues

A universal truth about government in general.

 

22 hours ago, webfact said:

central agencies check the schools just once a year

A casual interest.

Will this cause a tumble of high positioned educationalists, with nice land holdings, to come crashing down from high condos?

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You notice that government agencies cannot or will not embrace IT systems. Everything is done manually with lots of paper shuffling. Compare that to a Global House, where everything is bar coded, cashier checked it 3 times, security checked it.
When I was in Indonesia and went to a talk by the past President and ministers, someone asked about corruption. I was surprised that the minister knew all about it and had the answer, and that was to make everything IT. No paper shuffling. Money credited to an agency, agency debits money spent, all there and can be easily audited in a database system.
Thailand has talented IT people, it needs to happen.
All of the local villagers know why all the money never gets to the kids, or why the new road only goes halfway.

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The last former PM is still facing legal actions over what is alleged to be ultimate responsibility for a failed rice industry policy. Dangerous precedent these chumps have set for themselves on a range of issues in their lust for punishment and revenge.