Education Scholar Urges Overhaul of Ministry Structure

An education scholar has called for the Ministry of Education to eliminate redundant provincial and regional education offices, arguing they duplicate roles, waste budgets, and create territorial conflicts without improving education quality. He has urged political leaders and decision-makers to undertake structural reform and reorganization to redirect resources toward student learning and school development.

Sompong Jittaradet, an education academic, commented on the cabinet's plan to abolish 11 support functions across the civil service. He said the operations of provincial education offices and regional education offices significantly overlap with education area offices and ministry inspectorates, and that these structures have failed to deliver meaningful benefits to national education quality in a cost-effective way, nor have they met their original objectives.

Sompong noted that while provincial and regional education offices were originally created to improve personnel management and streamline organizational structure, in practice they have only increased the number of civil servants and expanded staff positions. They have also created territorial conflicts, particularly competition for power between provincial offices and area offices, leaving regional agencies working without coordination.

He argued the structures are not cost-effective, functioning mainly as channels for career advancement, with most funding consumed by salaries and positions rather than benefiting students or schools. He described them as redundant bureaucratic fat within the education system serving only a small group.

He acknowledged that provincial and regional offices do provide some value in monitoring and implementing central policies and initiatives such as the Thailand Zero Dropout programme and tracking education innovation zones. However, compared to their staffing levels and budgets, they deliver insufficient value and fail to justify their expenditure.

Sompong said political leaders have long avoided addressing this issue. He called on political leaders and decision-makers to show courage in reforming and restructuring these offices, redirecting budget and resources toward genuine improvements in student and school quality.

He advised the Ministry of Education to seek consensus on structural and operational grounds, especially as it prepares for broader civil service reform aimed at reducing civil servant numbers and improving work efficiency. Without internal agreement, he warned, education decentralization efforts will stall further. He emphasized the urgent need to reform ministry structures and management systems to maximize education system quality and performance.