Coping with the Crisis in Education and Health
July 1999
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Preface
This second issue of the Thailand Social Monitor focuses on the education and health
sectors, from two perspectives: did the early expectations of severe impacts actually
materialize in education and health; and what are the policy lessons to be drawn from
how Thai families and the Thai Government coped with the crisis impacts? Other
important crisis impacts, such as unemployment and breakdown of social capital, will be
analyzed in future issues of the Thailand Social Monitor.
At the turbulent outset of the crisis, many expected the worst, and this was especially true
for education and health. The Social Monitor examines the best available data, on a
national scale, to measure actual results. Did education and health outcomes decline
during the crisis, as predicted? Did use of services, such as school enrollments and visits
to public health facilities, go down during the crisis, as was expected? Did families cut
back on vital social expenditures so they could spend their reduced incomes on other
priorities? Did the Government cut back on education and health budgets and thus
reduce the quality and availability of education and health services?
The answer to those questions is encouraging: overall, on a national scale, the
expectations of dire consequences have not materialized. However, This conclusion
needs to be qualified: there are areas where crisis response was inadequate, poorly
targeted, or ineffective, and some families and some Government programs have suffered
unduly. Indeed, the crisis is still being felt in health and education, and impacts could
worsen if the economy does not recover. However, the available data show that Thai
families and Thai policy makers have cushioned and in some cases eliminated expected
negative consequences of the crisis in health and education.
These results have many interesting implications for the future but none more important
than these two: first, Thai families, including the poor, are more resilient and
responsible than many anticipated; and two, Government and local officials in particular
have proven more adept at crisis response than many predicted. At the outset of the
crisis, Thai leadership at the highest levels called for self reliance and mutual self help as
a way to survive the crisis. Those guiding principles seem to have found many adherents
among the Thai people.
We would like to express our thanks to the many experts from Government, development
agencies and civil society who provided generously their information and their
perspectives for The Social Monitor. I would like to single out the cooperation of the two
government ministries concerned – Education and Health; as well as the NESDB and the
National Statistical Office. The Asian Development Bank has provided particularly
valuable inputs. We of course remain responsible for any errors in fact or interpretation. J. Shivakumar
Country Director
World Bank Thailand Office
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