Accountability, capacity-building and enduring dilemmas: policy initiatives to improve primary education in Thailand, 1980–1988

Abstract

This chapter examines the conceptual framework underlying a series of reform initiatives implemented between 1980 and 1988 to improve primary school quality in Thailand. The two approaches used (accountability and capacity-building) led to increased test scores and a greater focus on the academic purpose of schooling. During the latter part of the decade, however, tensions between the two approaches surfaced which threaten future progress. These tensions derive in part from enduring dilemmas in the Thai educational system between centralization and decentralization, participation and passivity. Continued improvement in primary school quality may depend on new ways of conceptualizing policy choices to address these dilemmas.