Reform status quo

The Ministry of Education’s advertorial on educational reform on Aug 9 is encouraging. However, the article fails to point out one major problem that has been deterring the MoE, and in fact most bureaucracies in Thailand from reforming.

On the one hand, there is the MoE that dictates policies and drives the reform (MoE-Policy), but on the other hand we have the MoE that operates school systems throughout the country (MoE-Op).

Whereas the MoE policy wants to change direction and do things differently, it is in the interest of the MoE-Op to retain the status quo. As one cannot force the other, the whole programme stalled as it has been like this for the past 50 years.

Fortunately, there is one example that all reform-minded bureaucracies should follow — the national healthcare programme. Thailand’s success in national health care is a case study the rest of the world could learn from.

It is cheap. It is effective. And it is universal. Why is that so? It is because we have separate entities — the National Health Security Office (NHSO), which dictates the policy and controls the budget; and the Ministry of Health (MoH), which operates hospitals just like the MoE-Op.

Whereas the NHSO’s job is to ensure that the budget allocated to hospitals on a perhead basis is used efficiently, the MoH’s job is to deliver accordingly.

That’s why we always hear about fights between the two organisations.

As long as the operator is working under pressure, efficiency is at work. MONSON M