Value and Benefits

Evaluation and follow-up studies on program usage revealed the following benefits of the television programs provided through the Distance Education via Satellite Project. The programs:

1. Increase students’ learning competency. The programs enhance the students’ understanding in topics, which are difficult complicated or abstract, concepts remote to the experience of students and events that occurred in the past through the use of engaging teaching techniques and media.

2. Improve teachers’ skill and experiences in teaching materials procurement. Teachers could observe and apply teaching techniques demonstrated by experts in the programs to their own classes.

3. Reduce personnel shortage problems, especially in schools of small size and in such subjects as mathematics, sciences, English, physical education, music and classical dancing.

4. Generate development in the production and development of educational media at all levels. For example, the production of educational videos by private companies, the production and systematic distribution of educational media services through satellite technology.

5. Promote the quality of life of the people. General education television programs on law, politics, administration, music, art and culture, and vocational knowledge provide information, which can be directly applied to promote quality of life.

6. Improve work efficiency of personnel both within and outside of the Ministry of Education as well as of other target groups, significantly saving time and financial resources as a consequence.

Overall, the merit of the project lies in its economy of scale. The average per head cost of the project continued to decrease between the 1995-1999 fiscal years. Fixed capital cost for materials and equipment reduced the average operating cost to 6.62 baht per head in 1999. Even recurrent expenses for the production of new television programs continued to decrease between the 1995-1999 fiscal years. Educational programs can be re-broadcast at the average cost of only 1.61 baht per head in the 1999 fiscal year. Details of per head cost ratio appear in Table 7.

Table 7

Project’s expenditure by ratio of fixed expenses and program production expenses per viewer during the 1994-1999 fiscal years.

Notes:

• * 1994 was an experimental period, no data on number of viewers, no budgets set.

• ** 1999 data are projected from basic information of viewers in the second term of 1998 as data for the first school term of 1999 was not available at time of reporting