Major factors affecting educational policy implementation effectiveness for the three southernmost provinces of Thailand as perceived by school directors

Abstract

This research study utilized policy implementation theories and models to test the factors affecting educational policy implementation effectiveness in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand; namely Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the level of educational policy implementation effectiveness, to study the major factors affecting this effectiveness, and among those factors to ascertain the most important as perceived by school directors. The unit of analysis of this study was the perceptions of school directors of both public and private schools. A mailed survey, along with in-depth interviews and secondary data sources, were used for the analysis of a conceptual framework which consisted of seven independent variables: policy objectives, implementing agency’s capability, resources, incentives, student’s family economic condition, the cultural factor of parental support, and concern for safety, and a dependent variable, educational policy implementation effectiveness. The research results revealed that the schools in these provinces have fulfilled their educational policy goals in terms of the improvement of student performance. In addition, the school directors perceived that all seven factors, especially concern for safety, affected educational policy implementation effectiveness. This research provides a theoretical contribution to the field of policy implementation in such a way that application of any policy implementation models should strongly consider the local conditions that might affect that implementation. his research study also found that the concern for safety factor, which has not been mentioned in any previous policy implementation models, had an immense impact on policy implementation in the studied areas. In conclusion, based on the schools’ executives’ perceptions, educational policy implementation in the areas investigated was effective in improving students’ academic performance, and all seven factors, particularly the concern for safety factor, were significant in implementing educational policy in those areas. Recommendations for improvement include improvement of safety measures for academic personnel, which would require close cooperation between academic personnel and security forces, increasing resources for schools, strengthening the schools’ capability, encouraging parental support of children’s schooling, and having clear and relevant educational policies and suitable incentives for all academic personnel.