Impact of decentralization on education expenditure and quality of education service delivery in Thai local government

Abstract

The objectives of this study were: 1) To investigate the impact of decentralization policy on municipal governments’ budget allocation for education; and 2) To investigate the impact of decentralization policy on the quality of education provided by municipal governments. The methodology for this study can be divided into 2 parts. Firstly, the study of municipal government budget allocation for education was conducted using secondary data from the previous local government budget law passed between 2007and 2013, and results of the first (2001-2005), second (2006-2010) and third (2011-2015) External Quality Assessment for Municipal Schools, Basic Education Level. Analysis in the second part is based on a survey conducted in 8 sample city and town municipalities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 53 respondents including 14 municipal government administrators (mayors, deputy mayors and education directors), 24 headmasters and deputies headmasters and 15 community representatives (from education committees). The study revealed the following: 1) Between fiscal years 2007-2013, the revenue of town municipal governments came mostly from local tax allocation and rescue funds, whereas the majority of revenue for city municipal governments was from local tax allocation and excise tax. When comparing the revenue from excise tax between city and town it was found that excise tax collected for city municipal governments was higher than for town municipal governments. When considering the average revenue of the town and city municipal governments, it was found that the level fluctuated because the majority of local government income came from tax that had common base with the central government. In addition, the general overview on average income for these municipalities was that city municipal governments had notably higher income compared to town municipal governments as they had better capacity to collect the tax while also enjoyed higher income from more allocation, more areas, higher population and better economic capabilities. 2) The educational budget of the municipal governments were mostly allocated as operational budget or as educational expenditure. This expenditure can be either allocated from the revenue of municipal governments or paid from allowance. So between 2007-2013, the overview of educational budget of both types of municipal governments would be more from general allowance than from their own revenue. 3) Each municipal government was independent to manage their own educational activtities but flexibility would depend on their revenue. As for the schools, they had flexibility in their internal management as they tend to use their good relationship with the municipalities to facilitate things. In addition, local educational budget was set in the local budget law which the school committee, community and school participated in drafting and provided input on the planned projects and activities which were submitted to municipal governments. Because of this, there was transparency and accountability in the process and operation. 4) The quality of municipal schools tended to have good trends and improvement. From the survey in all 8 municipal governments, it was found that the results of external quality assessment for municipal schools was similar to the general overview where good trends were observed. 5) The needs of parents and community from the schools were: 1) to provide knowledge to students and to teach their children how to read and write as well as shaping their morality 2) to teach students skills related to performing arts as well as to promote and support them to perform in appropriate events so they can provide service to the community and gain extra income and 3) to improve opportunity for students to further their studies by providing higher education for upcoming graduates.