An Educational Management Model of Small Schools Under the Kalasin Primary Educational

An Educational Management Model of Small Schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area Office 3 for the Excellence in Local Development

Peerapet Sirikul

ABSTRACT

The research aimed 1) to investigate the current conditions, problems and needs of small schools under the Kalsin Primary Educational Service Area Office 3 for the excellence in local development, 2) to develop an educational management model of small schools for the excellence in local development, and 3) to assess the effects of the model on the excellence in local development. Research and development approach was employed for the study. The research methodology was divided into three phases: 1) study of current conditions, problems and needs of small schools for the excellence in local development, 2) design and development of a modelfor the excellencein local development of small schools, and 3) implementation and evaluation of the model. The target school of phase 1 was DongbangnakaewWitaya School, Somdet District, Kalasin Province. The research results of phase 1were as follows.

1. The strengths of DongbangnakaewWitaya School were participatory administration, school based management, community participation in educational management, literacy development project, using technology for educational management.

2. The weakness of the primary school consisted of shortage of teaching materials, old computer room and library, few students of using computer room and library, insufficient classrooms and laboratory, lecture-based instruction, insufficient learning sources in schools, and bad school environment.

3. The opportunities of the school were good collaboration between the school council and the advisory board, available local philosophers such as specialists and monks.

4. The threats of the school consisted of poverty of their family, inconvenient transportation, low incomes of the parents, lack of skills and knowledge of information computer technology.

Keywords: Educational Management of Small Schools, Educational

Management for the Excellence, Local Development

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* a student of the doctoral degree program in “Educational Management for Local Development”, Faculty of Education, Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University

Introduction

The globalization has affected the global changes greatly and the changes have both positive and negative impact on local and national development for sustainability and balance of the country in the future. Human resources are the most important factor in both local and national development. Therefore, human resource development is necessary for sustainable development of the country. น่ามีอ้างอิง states that the well educated people are always in the developed countries. On the other words, the well educated people enable to solve the problems and develop the country greatly. Education is a key factor in human resource development for the future sustainability and stability of the country. It is obvious that the efficient educational management has affected life quality of people in the country such as Singapore, the Public of South Korea, and Japan, where the government of these countries have emphasized human resource development and educational reform.

The National Education Act of 1999 and the 2nd National Education Act of 2002 (2002) claims that the goal of education in Thailand aims at the full development of the Thai people in all aspects: physical and mental health, intellect, knowledge, morality and integrity.

Therefore, it is necessary to reform education in Thailand to achieve the goal. According to the evaluation of the educational reform in Thailand from 1999 to 2009, the report indicates that the extension of the educational reform is necessary for Thailand. There are many problems of educational qualities of students and teachers including the inequality of education. Consequently, the 2nd project of the educational reform of 2009-2018 has been conducted focusing on three major components: 1) quality of teachers, students, learning sources, schools, and administration; 2) educational opportunity of lifelong learning, and 3) participatory management: an opportunity of human resources in education. (Office of the Basic Education Teacher and Personnel Development, 2009: 1). Moreover, the primary schools have to reform three areas of the educational administration: students, teachers and administrators. (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2001: 5). The Educational Act of 1999 claims that the revolution of politics, economic, and administration affects the investment and free trade including technology for education, cultural mobility, international crime and mass communication (Kasem Watanachai, 2002: 4).

The 2nd educational standard of Thailand claims that School-Based Management: SBMis necessary to reform and improve the educational management in Thailand, and the school based management is currently a fascinating model for the excellent educational management based on the 1st Education Act of 1999 and the 2nd Education Act of 2002. Additionally, the National Act emphasized decentralization of educational administration in four areas: academic, personnel, budget and general administration. Additionally, the participation of all stakeholders is necessary for the excellent educational management.(Theera Runchareon, 2007: 183). Moreover, many countries as well as Thailand have improved and reformed the educational management for the quality of education in 21st century. The World Bank studied the educational reform in many countries around the world, the study indicated that the decentralization concept may be not appropriate to some countries regarding one major principle of the educational reform. The problems be caused by 1) the traditional centralization system of the country, 2) teacher based administration, driving private sectors for educational reform, and the successful administration focuses on output rather than input and process. (Rung Kaewdaeng, 2003: 30-31).

Therefore, the decentralization of the educational administration based on the National Education Act of 2007 emphasizes four main areas: academic, personnel, budget and general administration. The decentralization has been managed by the permanent secretary and the basic education commission. The permanent secretary assigned 17 responsibilities to school administrators consisting of local curriculum development, academic planning, school management, school curriculum, learning process development, assessment and evaluation and credit transfer, research on improving education quality, developing learning resources, educational supervision, counseling, education quality assurance, academic based community, academic cooperation with other organizations, and academic support, establishing regulations for academic management, selecting books and teaching materials, and use of technology for education. It is obvious that the decentralization of the educational management had a negative impact on the administrators’ responsibilities. Therefore, the successful educational administration based on the principles of the educational reform should be managed by professional administrators.

Office of the Basic Education Commission is currently responsible for educational management of 33,158 schools in Thailand consisting of 23,380 small school (70.51%). The recent study of educational management in 2008-2015, the study indicated that 1) the small schools encountered academic problems of learning achievement, critical thinking skill, Mathematic skill, teaching materials, learning resources, quality of teachers, and inappropriate school curriculum. 2) Administrative problemsare lack of students (1:8 a teacher per students), poverty of the students, and educational supervision. 3) Problems of school personnel include shortage of skillful and professional teachers, frequent movement of teachers, temporary teachers and lack of professional administrators. 4) Problems of building are old buildings, lack of laboratory rooms and library. 5)Problems of public participation in educational management consists of unclear roles of the Basic Education Commission, lack of the collaboration between public sectors and private sectors (Office of the Basic Education Commission: 2015).

According to the problems mentioned, Office of the basic Education Commission has improved the education quality of small size schools. However, the problems have not been solved completely. The small size schools in the Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area 3 have encountered the problems of educational management such as academic affair, personnel, buildings, and teaching materials especially low learning achievement, lack of critical thinking skill and mathematic skills (Office of the Basic Primary Education Commission: 2012).

Therefore, the author was aware of the problems of educational management and he realized the participatory management of all stakeholders for the excellent quality of education. The author conducted a research on the practical model of educational management for small schools under the Kalasin Basic Primary Educational Service Area Office 3, and the primary data will be useful for practical strategies and policy on educational administration of the small size schools.

Research Questions:

What are the current conditions, problems and needs of small schools under the Kalasin

Primary Educational Service Area Office3 for the excellence in local development?

What is a model of educational management for the excellence in local development of small

schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3?

What are the effects of the model of educational management for the excellence in local

development of small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3?

Objectives

To investigate the current conditions, problems and needs of small schools under the

Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area Office3 for the excellence in local development?

To design and develop a model of educational management for the excellence in local

development of small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3

To evaluate the model of educational management for the excellence in local development of

small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3

Scope of Research

Research and development approach was employed for the study onmodels of educational management for the excellence in local development of small schools.

Population and Sample

The population was school administrators, teachers and basic education committee members of small size schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area Office 3 in academic year 2016.

Sample

The samples were school administrators, teachers and basic education committee members of small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area Office 3 in academic year 2016. The Krejcie and Morgan method was employed to calculate the sample size and they were selected by the purposive sampling method.

The target population was school administrators of one small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area Office 3 where participated in the research project voluntarily.

Expected Outcomes

To get primary data for a model of educational management for the excellence in local development of small schools
To get a practical model of educational management for the excellence in local development of small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3.

Research Methodology

The research methodology was divided into three phases:

Phase 1: Analysis of current conditions, problems and needs for a model of educational management for the excellence in local development of small schools

Phase 2: Model design and development

Phase 3: Implementation and evaluation of the model

Phase 1: The study focused on contextual study of Dongbang Nakeawwitaya school in Somdet District, Kalasin Province under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3 for preparing useful primary data.

Sample

The samples were 113 research participants consisting of 2 administrators, one teacher, nine thee basic education committee members and 101 students’ parents of Dongbang Nakeawwitaya school in Somdet District, Kalasin Province under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3

Research Procedure

The research procedure of phase 1 consisted of:

Documentary study of administrative personnel development of small schools for

research framework focusing on research areas, educational management model for the excellence, local development, and research and development approach.

Field study of current conditions, problems and needs of the target population by

interview consisting of 2 administrators, one teacher, nine thee basic education committee members and 101 students’ parents of Dongbang Nakeawwitaya school in Somdet District, Kalasin Province under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3.

SWOT Analysis of primary data of phase 1 and SWOT Matrix management for practical

strategies of model design

Model design of educational management for the excellence in local development of small

schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3 based on the data of phase 1

Research Instruments

An interview form
An interview recording form
A camera and recorder

Data Analysis

Content analysis was used for contextual study by interviewing the target population, and SWOT Analysis was employed for the possibilities of educational management for the excellence in local development of small schools under the Kalasin Primary Educational Area Office 3.

Results of Phase 1

The research results were as follows.

3. The opportunities of the school were good collaboration between the school council and the advisory board, available local philosophers such as specialists and monks.

4. The threats of the school consisted of poverty of their family, inconvenient transportation, low incomes of the parents, lack of skills and knowledge of information computer technology.

References

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Chairat Laiwacharakul. (2004). Developing a Training Curriculum for Academic Leadership of Secondary School Administrators. Thesis of the Doctoral Degree in Education. Khon Kaen: Khon Kaen University.

Theera Runchareon. 2007). Professional Management and Administration in the Age of Educational Reform. Bangkok: Khoafang Company Limited.

Office of Basic Education Teachers and Personnel. (2009). A Training Curriculum for School Administrators in Thailand. Bangkok: Office of the Basic Education Commission.

Office of Basic Education Teachers and Personnel. (2008). The National Education Act of 1999. (2nd Edition). Bangkok: Teacher Council Company Limited.

Office of General Secretary of Teacher Council. (2009). Report of 9-Year-Education-Reform (1999-2008). Bangkok: Teacher Council Company Limited.

Office of the Basic Education Commission. (2007). Development Plan for Efficient Management and Administration of Small Schools. Bangkok: Division of Policy Development. Office of Plan and Policy for Basic Education.

Office of the National Education Commission. (2001). Professional School Administrators. Bangkok: Watanapanich Company Limited.

…………………..(2008). Improving the Quality Management and Administration of Small Size School. Bangkok: Teacher Council Company Limited.