Excellence-Oriented School Administration of Sawiwittaya School under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office Surat Thani Chumphon

Abstract

This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. The purposes of this research were (1) to study the level of excellence-oriented school administration of Sawiwittaya School under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office Surat Thani Chumphon, and (2) to propose guidelines for the excellence-oriented school administration of Sawiwittaya School under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office Surat Thani Chumphon. The conceptual framework was based on the Public Sector Management Quality Award (PMQA), consisting of seven components: organizational leadership; strategic planning; customer and stakeholder focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; personnel management; operational focus; and outcomes. For the quantitative phase, the population consisted of 92 teachers at Sawiwittaya School in the academic year 2025. The research instrument was a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with an Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) of 1.00 for all items and an overall reliability coefficient of .976. For the qualitative phase, purposive sampling was utilized to select 3 key informants who are school administrators under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office Surat Thani Chumphon, holding a Master’s degree in Educational Administration with at least 2 years of administrative experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed using percentages, mean, standard deviation, and content analysis. The research findings revealed that: (1) The overall level of excellence-oriented school administration across all seven components was at a high level (μ = 4.40, σ = 0.53). When each component was considered individually, the highest mean score was found in personnel management (μ = 4.50, σ = 0.53), followed by organizational leadership (μ = 4.48, σ = 0.46), while operational focus had the lowest mean score (μ = 4.34, σ = 0.57). (2) Regarding the guidelines for school administration, a total of 71 approaches were established and categorized into the 7 PMQA categories: organizational leadership (13 approaches); strategic planning (8 approaches); customer and stakeholder focus (14 approaches); measurement, analysis, and knowledge management (9 approaches); personnel management (8 approaches); operational focus (10 approaches); and outcomes (9 approaches). Key approaches included driving the organization with a clear vision and data-driven decision-making, implementing strategic planning based on potential assessment, developing customer and stakeholder services alongside complaint management systems, promoting knowledge sharing and staff participation, optimizing operational systems through technology to reduce redundancies, and regularly monitoring performance to ensure results are clearly reflected.