Funds for education must be better allocated, says MFP

But how the money is spent is coming under criticism, at least in terms of helping students.  “Like I said in the council meeting, I disagree with the Ministry of Education's budget. While 340 billion seems like a lot, 60 per cent of this figure goes to teachers’ salaries. Another 10 per cent is earmarked for building construction and other expenses and only 20-30 per cent is used for the students.

This is very small [..] The money Thai students get is in student grant aid. Firstly, it is not enough. Secondly, it is not working,” said Paramee Waichongcharoen, a party-list MP under the Move Forward Party
Student grant aid for Thai students differs according to each school level. In 2024, it worked out to between 290 and 520 baht per student.
The Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), which organises and promotes basic education from primary to high school, is responsible for the majority of educational institutions in Thailand. It pays salaries and covers infrastructure and educational programmes, and has historically received the largest share of the funding. In 2024, that amounted to 2.52 billion baht or 77 per cent of the ministry’s budget, and 2.5 billion in 2023.

Of the 2024 allocation, 1.84 billion baht, 73 per cent of the OBEC budget, went to personnel support. Details of the OBEC budget for fiscal 2025 have not yet been revealed.

So with budget allocation leaning heavily towards teachers’ salaries, can it be assumed that Thai teachers receive a good salary?

“The idea that teachers are poor is half right and half wrong. If one has been a civil servant teacher for a long time, like 25-30 years, the salary level is high,” Paramee explained. “Soon-to-retire teachers have high salaries, even higher than those of other categories of civil servants. After retirement, they still get a large portion of their salaries. But teachers’ salaries are low in the first 10 years of their working life.”

According to OBEC, between 2019-23, the number of schools under its care fell from 29,871 to 29,312. The number of students also decreased over the same period, going from 6,653,160 to 6,550,058.

Will this allow the education ministry to manage its budget better?

“The figures have not reduced as yet, mainly because of the huge proportion of funding that goes on teachers’ salaries. But the shrinking number of students is leading to problems in other areas, particularly in small rural schools,” Paramee said, adding that these small schools lack teachers, budget and other resources.

“These shortages result in educational quality that barely meets standards. We have around 28,000 small schools in Thailand. We need to merge some of them. Not stand-alone schools [schools located in distinct areas such as in distant mountains or on islands]. It cannot be done all at once but we need to start, little by little. The merger will bring better quality teaching and better resources.

“We need to find a way to attract teachers to small-sized and medium-sized schools. Maybe  by allocating an additional budget that could be used to reorganize the structures. As for the non-functioning student grant aid, MPF and I think it should be granted to groups of students instead of to individuals.  We need to look further into the details. Vietnam opted to follow the World Bank’s method, Fundamental Schools Quality Level [FSQL],” Paramee explained.

FSQL is a method used to measure schools to classify how much money is suitable for each one. It was introduced to Vietnam in 2004 and according to Paramee, Vietnam has improved inequalities in education.