Educational Expenditures in Thailand: Development, Trends, and Distribution

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the trends of education expenditure policy during the past few decades, as well as the recent allocation and distribution of education expenditure in Thailand. It also focuses on the development of the substance of education policy in Thailand. Political connection with the education expenditure policy is also examined in this study. Both the trends in education expenditure and the distribution across provinces in Thailand can provide a landscape of the making of education expenditure policy in Thailand. It is evident that education expenditure in Thailand has increased significantly in the past few decades even though the relative figure to gross domestic product (GDP) and to total public expenditure illustrated slightly more volatility. The current distribution of education expenditure in Thailand is still somewhat uneven. In particular, a higher level of education expenditure should be allocated to the needy in the poor area.