Roles of Local Government in Educational Administration A Case Study of Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Administrative Organization

Abstract

Between 2006 and 2009, the Ubon Ratchathani provincial administrative organization began to accept an assignment for 10 sub-district schools and 2 district schools transferring from the Office of the Basic Education Commission. School transferring have a goal to distribute the education opportunity for students in remote areas, ensuring that students earn an educational equality and travel less into the city school.

At present, the number of students who attend in the provincial administrative organization’s school is significantly growing. However, the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET) is still administered differently in different schools. This research, therefore, studies the role of the Ubon Ratchathani provincial administrative organization in strengthening educational efficiency. The finding will conduct to school’s planning, the educational equality and creating opportunity for students in remote areas in various districts. Qualitative research methods are documents studied, and four points in-depth interview from stakeholders.There are budgetary, academic, personnel, and general administration. The study collects data from a group of school which obtains academic O-Net scores that are the same as or close to the provincial average scores.

According to the findings, the provincial administrative organization has mainly role to support educational management, and budget but schools play an important part in academics, personnel management, and general administration. On the educational administration efficiency, therefore, the provincial administrative organization should improve budget allocation methods by collaborating with schools to set educational goals, academic activities, human resource, and financial plans. Furthermore, the provincial administrative organization which recognizes the local context and people’s need should play a significant role in supporting learners' life skills. As a result, learners have academic skills from school as well as practical life skills from the provincial administrative organization which leads to the educational efficiency.