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The Status of Development and Child
Care Policies Ms. Duanpen Sankhariksha 1. Country's General Background In the last decade, Thailand had been praised as one of the Asian miracle countries in asmuch as her consecutive growth. Among many economic achievements, the total exports, for instance, had significantly skyrocketed based on export-oriented strategy, which had been first promulgated in the Fifth National Economic and Social Development Plan (1982-1986). Concomitantly with this impressive trend, all facets of Thai society have to be modified to fit this internationalized approach. The major evidence might be viewed from several governmental attempts to accelerate human development to keep abreast with the year-long economic growth. As such, the Eighth National Economic and Social Development Plan along with Eighth National Education Plan (1997-2001) try to strike a balance between those two national goals which will presumably result in sustainable development. Unfortunately, the preceding tasks had been interrupted by a gradual phenomenon, the decline of foreign investment, first signaled in the mid of 1996. A year later, the economic jolts sequentially wake up all Thais by a sudden shutdown of a throng of financial institutions, Baht devaluation, and IMF-package loan. From that moment, both public and private sectors have to live with belt-tighten situations ranging from budget austerity programs to massive lay off. In terms of educational development, it might not be clear about how real impacts from this economic crisis would be because the governmental commitments in terms of budgetary and personnel allocation have been steadily. Nevertheless, policy makers as well as practitioners have all agree that we should convert this immense crisis into a good opportunity to launch educational reform in 1997, which attempts to introduce child-center learning, streamlined and decentralized education administration, and resource reallocation to educational arena. To focus more on the success of educational provision, Thailand has been praised for her continuous growths measured by numerical standards especially steady decline of illiteracy (6.2 percent in 1998) and increasing enrollment of all levels of education. Student Enrollment Classified by Level of Education ( thousand students) i
However, some researches and empirical data have shown certain quality drawbacks and inefficiency ,which have to be improved in order to make national development sustainable and effectively. In the past twenty years, the concept of early childhood development has been raised occasionally due to its ambiguous status in educational pipeline. The more we provide this kind of services, the more we realize that the scope has to be adapted in order to serve increasing number of target groups as well as to catch up with the theoretical movement. Moreover, the current economic downturn also creates another worry that the needy in rural areas might get insufficient services or are simply unable to bear service fee. In short, Thailand pre-primary education needs a systemic plan to service the market effectively as well as to replace traditional public perception on nature of services from a narrow approach to well-accepted international standards. 2. Type of child care arrangements There are several socio-economic variables that should be taken into account before illustrating genres of pre-child arrangements in Thailand. The first and foremost factor must be how to range the targets' age group. Since the drafting of National Education Bill in 1998, the age group, which could be eligible for early childhood services, would be between 0 and 5 while those at 6 to 12 years old are categorized into targets of primary education. As such, policy setters as well as practitioners have elaborately tried to separate early childhood targets into two groups; 0-3 and 3-5. In details, services available for the first group will be focused on physical cares ranging from full-fledged immunization to parents' education of child rearing. ii The other group, 3-5, thus would be of interest for the inception of child learning development ,which basically takes place in both formal and informal learning institutions. Secondly, urbanization would be the next variable differentiating types of service arrangements. In the past thirty years, boundaries of various major cities and their satellites ( i.e. Bangkok and five neighboring provinces ) have been rapidly expanded. Along with this phenomenon, some social characteristics brought with urbanization such as in-bound labor migration, nuclear family, and two-sided work, a family in which both mother and father have to work, have dictated services for each target group. On the other hand, rural areas, which are estimated to be residence of 11 million households still preserves some types of early childhood nurturing, especially in-home cares. In short, urban-rural differentiation plays a big part for service characterization. iii Along with the preceding variables, parents' occupation and family roles would be the next marked factor taken into account. From various researches, those who earn their livings from agriculture need different types of services compared with well-educated industrial and service careerists. Moreover, long tradition of maternal-dominated responsibilities for offspring upbringing always indicates that mothers or grandmothers are assumed to be pillars for this home function. A survey taken in 1994, for instance, implies that 15 and 8 percent of urban and rural-dwelling mothers respectively point out that their husbands have never collaborated in child rearing iv. As such, this Eastern family culture, along with other socio-economic factors, have formed nature of service arrangements as follows; 0-3 age group 1. In-Home Care Maternal role in this category is mixed depending on socio-economic factors. In cities where nuclear family and two-sided work serve as a way of life, mothers can take care of their children only in the duration of leave code. For instance, they can legally take 90 days off with pay while additional 60 days without pay is optional.v As such, urban-dwelling household might opt for other kinds of services such as hiring personal nurses in the well-to-do or maids in the middle income families, sending kids to be taken care by their grandparents or relatives during daytime, or availing of out-of-home care. On the contrary, rural-dwelling families that earn their living from local agriculture still preserve this traditional format. However, labor emigration to big cities benefiting from economy robust or emigration for temporary employment tends to end up deserting children to be under the care of grandparents or relatives. To confirm this situation, a survey taken by Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) in 1995 indicates that 15 percent of parents have to leave their offspring more than 3 months. 2 Out-of-Home Care Urban families, as implied in the preceding paragraph, have tended to rely on various types of out-of-home care. While the majority still depends on grandparents' and relatives' assistance due to personal love and care, nurseries and child care centers would be the next alternative of service arrangements. Under a regulation for nursery service, potential entrepreneurs have to apply for licenses from Department of Public Welfare (Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare). In 1998, 1,340 nurseries have registered with this agency and delivered their services to 85,013 children. However, 33.78 percent (443 nurseries) has steadily clustered only in Bangkok. In terms of service sufficiency, only 1.1 percent of age group is serviced..vi Because of this, it is believed that unofficial or illegal nurseries ranging from neighborhood services or family daycare in villages are universal. Additionally, limited financial capacities of middle-income families also contribute to the flourishing of this alternative. Number of Registered Child Referral Units / Nurseries and Number of Children in 1998
To explore the services further, another choice to enhance balancing mothers' responsibilities at work and home would be challenging. However, a negligible number of workplaces have tried to launch in-house or adjacent child care centers to help their staff in this matter, yet its up-and-down outlook is too premature to gauge its effectiveness and sufficiency..vii In general, residential vicinity as well as derivative socio-economic factors such as size of family, occupational background, or income capacity will form types of physical care for early childhood. 3-5 age group 1. In-Home Care As mentioned earlier, urban-dwelling families will barely be able to keep their children in residences during the daytime because of work commitments and family type. Their rationality will be much more complex if taking public views on services necessity at this age group into account. As a crucial moment of capacity building for children learning skills, Thai parents have deemed types of service arrangements more institutional and official. Moreover, sending offspring to child care centers does not only make theirs children so familiar with peers, but help parents have much more time for other business.viii. As such, in-home care seem to be less attractive than that of the previous group. The rural people still maintain traditional ways of nurturing , only if villages' day care centers are not available, until their children are eligible for compulsory education at the age of 6. 2. Out -of Home Care To respond to this public perception, wide range of government agencies hand in hand with some non-governmental agencies and private schools have served the targets both in and out of towns. In 1998, it is reported that 85 percent of 3-5 age group has received some types of services broken down as follows; Characteristics of Pre-Primary Educational Provided by Different Ministries and Departments in 1998 .ix
3. Legislation and Policies The above information on service arrangements for both groups has reflected one main conclusion of pre-primary education in Thailand. That is, the notion of early-age nurturing has mostly been interpreted simply as a phase in the formal education pipeline. From the demand side, parents especially rural-dwelling ones always presume that early-childhood development is a kind of education symbolized by sending their offspring to some types of formal learning institutions (i.e. kindergarten or child development centers) while viewing the earlier period as only physical care, not including learning preparation. As such, this mainstream terminology vividly reflects that another main reason and program of child care at the age of 0-3, parents' education for child development, is problematic and needs to be enriched in Thai context. Half of the story why child care for 3-5 age group has rapidly increased in terms of number of units as well as targets can be winded up into the impracticable policy implementation in the past ten years. Set by narrow public perceptions as earlier indicated, past governments tended to invest all resources to pre-primary education for this age group. Because of disunited national policy, as much as 14 agencies have shadowed the market share in this genre and sometimes lead to single out potential private sectors in some areas. In short, even the government has succeeded in terms of expanding target areas and numbers especially in the rural and underprivileged zones, the notion of educating parents on early child cares and promoting private contribution and services to this kind of services would be emphasized in the near future. The policy adjustment began in 1997 with the introduction of the Eighth National Economic and Social Development Plan (1997-2001) and the Eighth Educational Development Plan, which pay much attention to human resource development. In terms of early childhood development, the emphasis of physical and behavioral development at the age of 0 to 3 is explicitly addressed for the first time and connected with the existing mainstream believe, which is called education and care. From then on, a clear-cut range of age group for this target has officially established. x Fortunately, this new philosophical evolution is once again reflected by the inception of the Thai Constitution of 1997 and the National Education Bill, the first legal manifesto for educational management in Thailand. The Bill stipulates that child care for 0-5 must be included in Basic Education yet falls short to be eligible for a free-of-charge exemption. Moreover, this educational philosophy that tries to enunciate child-center orientation and right of parents to learn more on child upbringing also connects the bridge between mainstreams and avant-guards of service arrangement, ones who emphasize the continuum of physical care and learning skill development at the age of 0-5. 4. Training There are two types of personnel responsible for early childhood services. In case of child development centers, which has mostly been provided by Department of Community Development (MOI), the staff directly responsible for taking care of children are called caregivers while those working in kindergarten schools will be teachers. Due to the fact that the notion of teacher licensing has yet been in effective, they do not need to enter any kind of professional qualification examination. Caregivers : this type of personnel should be approximately 15 - 45 years old with at least lower-secondary education qualification if they do not receive pre-primary education degree from any higher education institution. In the prior category, the regulation requirs that personnel has to take a 54-hour training course provided by any institution approved by Ministry of Education. The quality control of staffing and performance assessment have been found only in government service providers when limited-term contracts have been adopted in order to preserve good children caregivers and awarded with in-service training ( 5 days/35 hours ). Kindergarten teachers : those who qualify to be kindergarten teachers should at least receive teaching certificates. If it is not the case, they should get trained in kindergarten courses provided by related agencies under the supervision of Ministry of Education. In terms of training providers, a wide range of public, private and not-for-the-profit agencies and organizations serve for professional development, which will intensively focus on theories of learning development in the early childhood, inventing instructional and recreational materials, children's readiness evaluation and assessment, and providing learning experiences. 5. Curricula The curricula for pre-primary education is separately developed by each agency in accordance with the principles and guidelines stated in the National Scheme of Education, considered as a document of long-term educational strategies. Normally, the provision of learning experience mainly emphasizes on physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development through everyday activities. For example, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development , Ministry of Education, has developed and issued a Curriculum and Guideline for Pre-Primary Education 1997 for 0-3 and 3-5 years to be beneficial to both executives and practitioners for experience and classroom setting, as reflected in Major Program 1 ( Education for All) in the current Educational Development Plan (1997 - 2001). 6. Future Plans and Directions Due to the fact that both political and educational environment has been reformed by the promulgation of Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 1997 and the forthcoming National Educational Act, many strategies and action plans have to be developed to meet high public expectation and the time constraint. Even though the bill has stipulated that early-childhood cares will not be free-of-charge as a 12 year-basic education, i.e. primary and secondary education, the government , by a cabinet resolution, grants full support for this service due to the fact that this stage is a crucial period of child development. Based on this resolution, policy formulation process being initiated by Office Of the National Education Commission and related agencies will follow the guidelines of these two policies, those of National Education Bill and governmental policies toward objectives attainment. The future policy will lead to two focuses of operational strategies for pre-primary education as follows; Operational Strategies for 0-3 age group In the future, state of the arts for any service arrangement would highly emphasize children's physical development along side with intellectual advancement. Method of brain development, for instance, has to be take into account with other services ranging from personal, behavioral, and health education for parents, relatives, and practitioners. Moreover, service deregulation reflected by streamlining the process of nursery licensing to make it more flexible for any potential entrepreneurs and philanthropists would be initiated. Finally, decentralization of educational management ,which will gradually grant much of educational authority to local education authorities and schools , will allow these autonomous bodies to have free hands on their own educational objectives and management to serve the targets in the area. In short , the government hopes that public perception that once neglects the necessity of parents' education for child upbringing would be replaced by high awareness and local response to create sufficient service units and quality improvement. Operational Strategies for 3-5 age group Pre-primary education in this stage must be contingent with the first stage, at the age of 0-3. However, both formal and informal setting would be balanced. In terms of informal ones, every type of service should be of high standard and better quality than at present. Besides enhancing private roles as service providers, standardization of child care centers at both national and local levels must be balanced with more parents' participation in learning institutions. Much more than this, parents will have important roles in developing learning skills at home along with the close assistance of experts available in local vicinities due to the fact that they will legally be allowed to take care of their children through wider options such as home schools or other alternatives indicated in the Bill. In short, parents will seek more roles in early child development because of the change of public opinion regarding service arrangements, improving formal learning institutions as well as more private roles in service delivery, and ,hopefully, the refinancing of public resources for existing service units.
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