Episode 1 Script:
For a country to develop and grow, people need things like education, health care, and infrastructure. The most successful countries are ones that make sure people have access to these services across the country, regardless of where they live. How does Thailand compare? Let’s take a look.
ImagineThailand as a motorbike. On its way forward, as it drives towards development and growth, it needs to find balance between the front wheel, which is where most economic activities are concentrated, and the rear wheel, where the rest of the population lives. Without this balance, the bike cannot move smoothly.
If government spendingbecomes too concentrated in some areas rather than others, the result can be differences in access to and quality of public services provided by the state to serve people’s basic needs – things like healthcare, infrastructure and transportation, or education. Let’s focus in on education.
Education is a key public service because it helps the country build a smart and capable labor force. By providing relatively comparable, quality education across the country, we can ensure that more citizens are able to reach their potential and contribute towards Thailand’s national development goals. However, the areas of Thailand with more economic activity also have a higher concentration of government spending. For example, spending on education in Bangkok is about 65,000 baht per student on average – while spending on a province like NongBualamphoo in the northeast of Thailand is only 20,000 baht per student. This creates differences in quality - while students in Bangkok perform well on standardized tests, students in NongBualamphoo score more than 10 percent lower on average.
Why does this matter? Differences in the quality of public services like education can lead to inequality both in people’s standards of living, as well as their economic opportunities – which is one of the biggest development challenges Thailand faces. It can also lead to a number of different social problems!
As you can see, for the motorcycle to continue to drive forward smoothly, we need to think about how to balance the wheels. In other words, there needs to be reasonably comparable access and quality of services across the country – whether you live in Bangkok, or Ban Chiang. Let’s continue to think about this motorbike so we can be informed about the way public services are delivered, the challenges we face, and how we can be part of the solution!