TOWARDS A SCHOOL-BASED MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK OF A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN PHITSANULOK AREA 1

This quantitative research study investigated the extent of School-Based Management (SBM) implementation and the impact of the performance of an Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) on a primary school under the supervision of Phitsanulok Area 1. The study specifically focused on the duties and responsibilities of an IMC, whether government-supported IMCs, and whether IMCs encourage participatory decision-making. A descriptive-correlational research design was used to collect data from 37 respondents, and descriptive statistics, one-sample t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to analyze the data. Findings showed that IMC duties and responsibilities, government support, and participatory decision-making are implemented to a high degree in this example, as affirmed by mean scores exceeding the criterion value of 3.50 and by all respondents having homogeneous responses (standard deviations < 1.00). For example, as far as IMC duties and responsibilities were concerned, the most significant areas of demonstrated implementation were goals and targets, resource policies, and self-evaluation, while the most significant areas of demonstrated implementation of participatory decision-making were external assessment, student learning outcomes, flexibility, autonomy, accountability, and decision-making. Additionally, results from the ANOVA analysis indicated that government support was not a statistically significant predictor of IMC duties and responsibilities, but it did have a statistically significant moderating effect on participatory decision-making. The regression analysis also demonstrated that IMC-related variables accounted for 65.1% of the variance in participatory decision-making and 79.3% of the variance in IMC decision-making, confirming that the proposed models have strong predictive capabilities. Among the variables included in the models, resource policies were the most significant predictor of participatory decision-making, while curriculum policies, student learning outcomes, and accountability were each significant predictors of decision-making when evaluated separately. Taken together, the findings provide clear evidence of the importance of IMCs in improving participatory governance and informed decision-making within the SBM context. Therefore, the results yielded recommendations for a school-based management framework, grounded in the principles of autonomy, accountability, stakeholder participation, and ongoing government support, to enhance effectiveness and continue to improve primary education in Phitsanulok Province.