Legal Problems on Constructuring Personnel Management System for Teachers and Educational Personnel: A Study of the Basic Education Commission

Abstract

          This article aims to present legal rules relating to personnel management mechanisms, administrative action, and controlling and examining the administrative actions of government teachers and educational personnel. In the personnel management system that complies with the merit system, organizations will be established to perform personnel management duties in government departments or State agencies. There is a central personnel management organization that lays down personnel management policies. Such a central personnel management organization has the power to determine criteria, methods, and conditions for personnel management to be practiced by the personnel management organization in government agencies or State agencies, as well as control and examine the legality, supervise, follow up on, and evaluate the personnel management of government agencies or affiliated agencies with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. This article shall study the evolution, concepts, theories, and legal principles related to personnel management, administrative action, and controlling and examining the administrative actions of government personnel management organizations of other types of civil servants in Thailand and abroad. The study was done to know the problems and solutions to the personnel management system of teachers and educational personnel in Thailand. This is especially the case under the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

          When we consider the personnel management of teachers and educational personnel under the law on government teachers and educational personnel in Thailand, it can be seen that there are some provisions that are inappropriate. It is not consistent with concepts, theories, and legal principles related to personnel management, administrative action, and control and examination of administrative actions. Such provisions are not conducive to ensuring adequate fairness for civil servant teachers and educational personnel in some cases, namely the problem of delays in personnel administration of civil servant teachers and educational personnel under the Office of the Basic Education Commission and the problem of lack of equality; there’s an overlap, and there were inequalities in the personnel management process for educational administrator positions under the Office of the Basic Education Commission when compared to other government departments. Including that, there is a non-compliance with
the principle of impartiality in exercising the power of the central organization to control and examine the disciplinary actions of the said position.

          In the study of organizations controlling and examining administrative actions in government personnel management in foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, we found that organizations controlling and examining administrative actions in government personnel management in such foreign countries have many forms. What form of organization it is will depend on the needs of its role and mission for maximum efficiency and effectiveness within the social context at that time. The law of the United Kingdom provides
a committee under the Executive to lay down policy relating to the development of civil servants, and there is a committee independent of the government to protect the merit system. In addition, there will be a central committee with a mix of independent committees and agencies directly depending on the executive branch. In the case of the law of the United States, there is a form of committee that is independent and directly depends on the management. In the case of Japan, the independent committee model of the United States was adopted. This principle was used as a model for the establishment of an organization to control and examine administrative actions in the personnel administration of the public sector in Thailand, is the Civil Service Commission (C.S.C.), which is the central organization for personnel management of civil servants under the Executive, the Prime Minister is the chairman and there are the Civil Service Sub-commission (C.S.S.) of the Ministry, the C.S.S. of the Departmental, and the C.S.S. of the Province, which were established to decentralize power and act as management organization for the government human resource by separating the Morality System Protection Commission or M.S.P.C., as another commission. Therefore, the concept of controlling and examining administrative actions should be introduced in the personnel management of government agencies abroad, and a hybrid model that is an independent committee and a committee under the executive branch, including the civil service model of Thailand, should be applied in the establishment of an organization to control and examine administrative actions in the Office of the Basic Education Commission. It should establish a committee with the authority to control and monitor the discretion of supervisors or authority figures at the education area level and perform human resource management duties for the position of educational administrators under the Office of the Basic Education Commission by setting up the Sub-Committee of Teachers and Educational Personnel, or S.T.E.P., of the Office of the Basic Education Commission to make it appropriate and consistent with concepts, theories, and legal principles related to personnel management mechanisms, administrative action, and further control and examination of administrative actions.