HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF INTERNATIONAL AND ENGLISH PROGRAM SCHOOLS, CENTRAL THAILAND

The aim of this study is to examine Human Resource Management, its practices, perceived organizational support and employee outcomes in International and English Program schools in Central Thailand. A survey questionnaire was answered by 153 administrators and teachers who participated in this study and examined the levels of HRM and Quality Assurance and their relationship with each other. Besides this, Quality Assurance in Thailand in the respective schools included was discussed using secondary data from the Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessments (ONESQA) third round cycle of external assessment. Results showed younger employees view of Human Resource Management significantly differed from their older colleagues. It was also found that Human Resource Management is not a determinant in Teacher Performance. The Quality Assurance of schools included was found to be at a good level. Results also showed that there is a weakly positive correlation between Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance which is not significant. An intervention program was recommended to increase the level of HRM practices and Quality Assurance of schools in Central Thailand.

The aim of this study is to examine Human Resource Management, its practices, perceived organizational support and employee outcomes in International and English Program schools in Central Thailand. A survey questionnaire was answered by 153 administrators and teachers who participated in this study and examined the levels of HRM and Quality Assurance and their relationship with each other. Besides this, Quality Assurance in Thailand in the respective schools included was discussed using secondary data from the Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment's (ONESQA) third round cycle of external assessment. Results showed younger employees' view of Human Resource Management significantly differed from their older colleagues. It was also found that Human Resource Management is not a determinant in Teacher Performance. The Quality Assurance of schools included was found to be at a good level. Results also showed that there is a weakly positive correlation between Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance which is not significant. An intervention program was recommended to increase the level of HRM practices and Quality Assurance of schools in Central Thailand.
Organizational innovation can also be increased as it has a direct relationship on Human Resource Management practices such as performance appraisal, career management, training, reward system, and recruitment (Tan and Nasurdin, 2011). Sing and Kassa (2016) also stated that there are several dimensions in the HRM practices that should support an organization such as human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and career development, performance management and compensation and employee relations. Effective Human Resource Management goes beyond just utilizing employees for organizational benefits; rather it is what gets things done (Koc, 2010).
Among the goals of Human Resource Management is primarily supporting the organization in achieving its objectives through strategies that contribute to high performance and ensure that the organization has the right people it needs-skilled, talented and engaged (Armstrong and Taylor, 2015;O' Riordan, 2017). HRM practices also pave the way for a smooth employer-employee relationship. Commonly cited reasons for poor performance directly points to difficulty in human resource management (Kokkaew and Koompai, 2012). Heathfield(2017) supported this idea with liking Human Resource Management to a balancing act that serves as a link between the stakeholders. Since the school is an organisation of complex activities which are carried out by people and are coordinated by different persons, (Allen, 2015), in educational institutions, the stakeholders are the parents, teachers, the employers or owners, administrators, staff and the students.
Human Resource Management strategies if effectively utilized may become a source of developing a transparent performance management system, a collaborative and cooperative environment in the schools and of promoting teachers' efficiency in the areas of knowledge, values, skills and development as professionals as well as enhancing a school's productivity and improving its overall performance (Hashimi, 2014).Likewise, Santiago and Benavides (2009) stated that the complex interrelationship of personnel and career development and school improvement requires that the evaluation, management, and improvement processes are embedded and integrated in a system of school quality assurance. Myung, Martinez and Nordstrum (2013) stated that to build a stronger teacher workforce, a thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes which work together in a human capital system is required. Likewise, Delery and Gupta (2016) found that HRM practices enhance organizational effectiveness, and provide support underscoring the value of theory driven methodological approaches.They also found that the HRM syst em which comprices practices that ensure selectivity in staffing, performance-based pay, and enhanced employee opportunity through participation in decision-making will eventually result in higher levels of organizational effectiveness. Additionally, the effects of other combinations of these practices varied, (Delery and Gupta, 2016).
According to Rurkhum (2011), Human resource practices in Thailand were started with an informal and simple approach, and are likely to adopt western knowledge because of the influence from globalization. Human Resource Management practices in Thailand vary, as in any other country or institution particularly on the management of foreign teachers. The necessity for schools to implement human resources management (HRM) is increasingly acknowledged. Specifically, HRM holds the potential of increasing student outcomes through the increased involvement, empowerment and motivation of teachers, (Runhaar, 2016). According to Loeb, Beteille and Kalodriges, 2012, effective schools emphasize the importance of quality teaching force. Henard and Roseveare, 2012, emphasized that a lot of processes point to the need of new teacher profiles such as the expansion of higher education, increased emphasis on students' learning outcomes and the advent of new pedagogical approaches -and new pedagogical opportunities afforded by technology. These include pedagogical competencies.With the kind of learners that we have today, teachers are expected to be so much more than the traditional. Teachers are expected to be engaged, knowledgeable, flexible, integrative in new technologies and multitasking in the discipline of teaching, all of which eventually point to what schools aim for-high student achievement.Teacher quality is an important factor in improving student achievement. As such, policymakers have constructed a number of different credentials to identify high quality teachers (Chu et al., 2015).Human Resource Management of foreign teachers in Thailand is no easy feat especially due to the nature of the job market. The management of foreign teachers has been approached in a variety of different ways, partly because of the different attitudes towards accepting foreigners that can be found (Walsh, 2013).
A study about competence development in Thailand by Sunthonkanokpong, Jitgarun and Chaokumnerd (2011) mentioned that developing competence among workers is integral to human resource development. This competence and adherence to standards delineates quality assurance which ties the differences of each institution. Human Resource is linked with total quality as explained in the AACC concept which is A-alignment, A-authority, Ccapability and C-commitment. Alignment is when employees know of the goals and visions of the organization; authority is when employees are given autonomy to meet the quality of work they need to achieve; capability is for enhancing and developing individuals and commitment is for the useful retention of employees for regularity inorganizational operations (VanDevender, 2011;Gul, et al., 2012). Bucki (2017) attested that quality assurance is indeed a methodology used in the development of products or services which in turn ensures a level of quality in production. According to Europaeu (2017), quality assurance involves the review of educational programmesin a systematic manner which includes processes to maintain and improve their quality, equity and efficiency. While the design of quality assurance mechanisms (tools, processes and actors) varies across national perspectives, their common objective is to improve teaching and learning. The ultimate goal of which is to support the best outcomes for learners. School systems and schools are all focused on this objective. Hassan (2010) emphasized that as organizations try to provide quality assurance from ISO certification, the importance of people management through better HR management assumes greater significance.As stated by Abu Teir and Zhang (2016), in order to reach high competitive advantage at national and international levels, the development of educational institutions requires the human resource development concerns to be institutionalized.
It is always educational quality which is the most important goal for managing the educational system of the nation that expects schools are proficient and prepared to evenly and thoroughly provide an educational service to its people. The education that they receive must be up to standard to be able to satisfy all requirements for people in the local community properly and effectively. This very reason made Thailand to reform its educational system for the first time (1999 -2008) with the aim of improving the system, (Ajprua, WongwanichandKhaikleng, 2013).Thus, a comprehensive program of quality assurance was launched which aims to draw and adapt the best international practices in education which will meet the particular needs of the Thai education system and Thai society (Harman, 2015). While private institutions enjoy a certain degree of autonomy, they follow the same rules for assessment set by the Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assurance and the Office of the Basic Education Commission under the Ministry of Education the same as those government institutions of education.This requires preparation of annual reports or self-assessment reports (SAR) to be submitted to parent organizations, agencies concerned and made available to the public for purposes of improving the educational quality and standards and providing the basis for external quality assurance (Chaisang, 2018).
The Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment was established in the year 2000 by Royal Decree to (1) help educational institutions understand and correctly operate the quality assurance system, (2) produce educational quality accreditation results and (3) raise the educational quality standards concerning outputs, outcomes and impacts rather than processes. These also take account of differences between educational institutions (Onesqa, 2013). Among the objectives, the mandates of ONESQA follow the provision of education in all levels as stipulated in the National Education Act. ONESQA reports to parent organizations under which a school operates within the Ministry of Education. A private secondary school operates under the Office of Private Education Commissionwhich envisions to have all private education institutions in Thailand to operate in the equivalent standard quality as those of in the international (Opec, 2018). ONESQA is also a full member of ASEAN Quality Assurance Network which means that is a national quality assurance agency responsible for external evaluations for quality assurance of educational institutions within the country. The third cycle of ONESQA's external quality assessment for basic education was completed in 2015. Upon completion of assessment, schools which have been assessed may beawarded a Quality Accreditation with a descriptive level of very good, good or fair with at least a score of 80 points or the 10 out 12 indicators rated as -good‖. Because of ONESQA requirements, schools file and complete Self-Assessment Reports on different areas of quality such as student or learner quality, administrative and instructional provision. Self-Assessment Reports (SAR) are part of the internal quality assurance measures which are regulated by parent organizations such as Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) for government schools and Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC) for international and English program schools.
The fourth round of quality evaluations of ONESQA started only in August 2018 after a two-year-delay due to the several internal problems which included the vacant directorship post for a year. Since heavy criticism was received due to the turn out of the last cycle which, to the education circle, provided nothing important to improve education quality and only burdened teachers in preparation of detailed documents resulting to missing school hours, a revamp in assessment is issued. There is no score or indicator to gauge educational institutions if they pass or fail. Under the new assessment system, educational institutions will be divided intofive groups which are developing, moderate, good, great and excellent, based on their resources and facilities such as the number of teachers working in the school, the quality of library services, internet speed, (Mala, 2018) to name a few.
There are three key points which will be determined in the new Self-Assessment Report which will be written by the school executives. The first point is the level the school thinks it is at; the second provides the evidences to support point 1 and the last key point is the development plan to allow the school to reach a higher level of quality. ONESQA maintains that the agency exists to assess for continuous improvement and has over the years signed memorandum of agreements between different international agencies to keep abreast of relevant processes to maintain educational quality protocols. It has also strengthened its basis for accepting and training assessors to enhance ethics, overcome limitations and maintain an amicable relationship among educational institutions and increase awareness of quality standards as a way of its response to the agency's social responsibility. These core values are illustrated in an officially released book A Glimpse of ONESQA in 2017. Other external international accrediting bodies which denote quality assurance of educational institutions include Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and Council of International Schools (CIS)which at a glance are among the most popular affiliations of international schools in Thailand based on the directory of International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT). Initially established in 1994, ISAT serves as a body that strengthens its members by promoting high standards of educational quality, ethical practices and student learning (Isatorg, 2018).International schools and English program schools have the option to undergo accreditation from an internationally recognized agency. According to Kuruzovich (2016), International schools in Bangkok began to appear at a rapid pace, and the Ministry of Education (MOE) has currently granted licenses to approximately 170 schools across Thailand. At least four to five new international schools continue to open annually, while existing schools expand with additional campuses and facilities. In short, Bangkok has become one of the largest international school markets in the world, and continues to be one of the most attractive destinations for expatriate teachers.The International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT), while not overseeing school curriculum, mandates all member schools to be accredited by ONESQA and highly encourages international accreditation such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) or Council for British Teachers (CfBT) (Haeg, 2015). Some accrediting agencies award levels of excellence such as the ISQM (International Schools Quality Mark) from CfBT in terms of bronze, silver or gold.
Although WASC is an accreditation initially intended for those located in the United States, this organization has extended its membership to a limited number of institutions that share those standards, values and qualities that define the WASC community. Schools intending to seek membership are expected to have met the criteria making WASC Accreditation status a milestone requiring extensive and substantive preparation. WASC gives a 6-year accreditation with mid-cycle visits and re-assessment upon submission of self-study reports. In the list provided by the International Schools Association of Thailand website, 36 of its members are fully accredited by WASC. ISO 9001:2015 is a certification given by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization aims to demonstrate consistency in provision of services and products and enhance customer satisfaction and assurance of conformity to regulatory requirements. As stated by Isoorg (2018) all the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 are generic and are intended to be applicable to any organization, regardless of its type or size, or the products and services it provides. To date, in the ISAT list, only Ramkhamhaeng Adventist International School (RAIS) located in Bangkok has specified ISO 9001:2015 Certification as part of its accreditation licenses (Isatorth, 2018). However, Pootrakul (2014) mentioned that on the subject of education quality, there are many components regarding the issue of viewing the school as a system. Leadership, the teachers, and the students alone are not absolute answers that lead to education quality solutions.

Theoretical Framework
This study is based on Contemporary Human Capital Management Theory highlighting the premise of the significance of human resource management as schools try to provide quality assurance in their respective organizations. McCracken, et.al. (2017) mentioned that in order to cultivate and develop human capital, an organisation must be able to identify and measure how more recent initiatives impact its development in organizations and that to support the overall strategy of an organization, the HR must develop its own strategies and activities to set competitive advantage (Rodriguez, 2017).
The Contemporary Human Capital Management Theory's premise as discussed by McCracken, et.al (2017) aligns employee training, mentoring, opportunities for learning, career planning and employee development, motivation and engagement through rewards systems, and selection and retaining talent as some of the micro-foundations of human capital. Thampoe and Srinivasan (2011) stated that Human Resource Management practices are significant predictors of outcomes such as behaviour of satisfaction and organizational commitment. Zaria (2017) also maintains that it should also be remembered that the major premise of staff or human resource management in schools is that the end results of the educative process will be determined by the effectiveness of the school teachers. According to Pootrakul (2014), education is long regarded as a key mechanism in improving the quality of life and thereby affects the nation's growth as a whole and if primary and secondary education, which is the backbone of education, fails to provide the quality it deserves, then higher education quality is almost impossible to achieve.
According to Thailand Regulatory Fact Sheet released by Australia Education International (Internationaleducationgovau, 2013), there are approximately 37,494 schools in Thailand, about 683,568 teachers and about 12 million school students. In 2017, it was estimated that a total of 60,103 educational institutions will be included in assessment by 2020 (ONESQA, 2017). To provide education relevant to local needs, Thailand's Basic Education is decentralized into educational service areas, thus the four-region system. International Schools use foreign curriculum from the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore to name a few. English Program schools are also called Bilingual Schools and offer the Thai National Curriculum or the Basic Education Core Curriculum of 2008, which provides direction in all levels of basic education (Actacth, 2008), in the English language. However, the Thai National Curriculum mandates that some subjects be taught in Thai, for example, Thai History, and this makes the English Program Schools -effectively bilingual‖ in nature. Government schools also provide Intensive English Program which also follows the same principle. Walsh (2013) wrote that international schools are very popular among parents in Thailand because they exude confidence in the international level of educational standards that they provide. Bilingual schools are the schools of choice for those parents who wish their children to speak English well but not to forget their Thai heritage and culture. As the aspirational Thai middle class continues to expand, therefore, so will the demand for international school places also increase. Among other things, parents who send their children to international schools expect that upon completion of education, their children will gain language skills above average if not superior and other opportunities which will enable the students to develop self-confidence and command of the English language. It is therefore imperative that International Schools deliver the quality that they are known for. The prestige that comes with the affiliation with the accrediting agencies also becomes a marketing strategy for most. In this, human resource management becomes a crucial part of the accreditation process because at the heart of every school are teachers who deliver the education. As employees, teachers become a great asset to any educational institution. However, the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees may become reduced and the asset may transform to a liability if not evaluated and motivated properly(Sarkar, Mukhopadhyay, and Ghosh, 2011).
The diversity of the student populations in international schools (Jeannin, 2013;Taylor, 2018) and lately, bilingual schools call for diversity in the teaching population, given that English is the medium of instruction in most of these schools. The growing diversity in secondary schools and later in university and adult life stems from different trends such as globalization and students and teachers' migration (Altbach, Reisberg, &Rumbley, 2009;Jeannin, 2013).Recruitment, induction, professional development and appraisal are areas in which particular challenges arise especially for the management system (Hayden and Thompson, 2008). Aiming for a stronger teacher workforce should be is one of the most important responsibilities of school leaders and human resource personnel as teaching and learning are the core of schooling. Human Resource Management practices such as hiring, supporting and sustaining effective teachers are indispensable to high-achieving schools (Stronge and Hindman, 2012).Edwards (2015) said teaching performance plays a prime role in multi-diversity of education around the globe today. Teachers have to be skilled in preparing lesson plans, teaching techniques, student/teacher relationship and classroom management.
Quality teachers matter for student performance and thereby student success as an individual and the school as a whole. This notion has long been established amidst all evaluation strategies and provision of continuing professional education to augment teacher quality. According to Rudnick, 2015, while there are numerous factors that policymakers have implemented to improve academic performance among students and schools, research has shown that teacher quality plays a large role in influencing student outcomes. In addition, Jacob, (2016) said over the past two decades, researchers have confirmed what many children and parents always believed-the individual classroom teacher is the key to a successful education. Research has documented the vast difference in student learning between classrooms with an effective teacher and those with an ineffective one. Teacher evaluation systems are different for every institution. However, the fact remains that all teachers, foreign or local, are evaluated and given a performance rating at least once a term. There is a critical role of performance rating threshold in summative teacher evaluations (Steinberg and Kraft, 2017). Overall performance rating in a school's teacher evaluation system was intended to improve teacher quality through providing feedback and support and retaining the most effective teachers (Napedu, 2015).HRM practices in Thailand involve VISA assistance, health insurance, mentorship and evaluation related to hiring foreign teachers. Mentorship and correct placement or assignment directly or indirectly affects classroom success of the hired personnel. Other HRM practicesinclude provision of continuing professional education opportunities. As part of management procedures in the academic affairs, De Luna (2016) suggested provision of continuing professional education of teachers in using technology as part of an intervention program to improve delivery and mastery of teaching reading comprehension to students. Walter and Briggs (2012) stressed the importance of additional professional learning in teacher development. Teacher incentives include but are not limited to monetary compensation and career advancement. The type of schools also matter in this area. According to Meador (2017), prospective teachers applying for a position in a private school should know the differences between public and private schools that will impact how they do their job because understanding those differences is important whether a teacher would land opportunities and have access to incentives.
Supporting employees is also at the forefront of the human resource capital framework that HRM has to address. Data gathered by Mayes, et.al. (2016) suggest that hiring, training, and compensation, which are common HR practices, predict POS.One aspect of a positive and supportive organizational environment is an employee's Perceived Organizational Support (POS). This employee attitude is deemed by many organizations as valuable, as is evidenced by the many programmes they invest in to develop the POS of their employees, (Riggle, Edmondson & Hansen 2009).สุ ขสว่ าง (2018) in examining POS among teachers in the Cambodia-Thai border found that POS has a direct and indirect positive effect on teacher satisfaction resulting in attachment. Inwood (2014) mentioned that teachers are measured not only through the student's evaluation but also through other factors affecting teaching performance. However, student achievement is perceived to be an important indicator of instructional provision quality management.
After Human Resource Management practices and Perceived Organisational Support, the third dimension of focus is the HRM Employee Outcomes. Desirable outcomes of effective human resource management are organizational citizenship behaviour or the behaviour which refers to anything that employees choose to do, spontaneously and of their own accord, and which often lies outside of their specified contractual obligations, (Zhang, 2011);employee behaviour towards work and job satisfaction, engagement and attitude towards colleagues and authority and commitment to the organization. These organizational outcomes of employee satisfaction link HR practices and performance (Vermereen, et. al, 2014).In addition, Ybema, van Vuuran and van Dam (2017) found that satisfaction with personnel's employability was higher as organizations reported more implemented HR practices as these practices were used more often, and as employees participated more in the implementation of HR practices in the organization.
To sum, in educational institutions or anywhere else, effective human resource management is necessary to gain true competitive advantage in the marketplace, (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2010), and an absolute essential if an institution is to gain steady foothold in terms of quality assurance in a place, such as Thailand, that is teeming with schools hoping to do the same.
Accreditation, according to Opeedgov (2018) is the recognition that an institution maintains standards requisite for its graduates to gain admission to other reputable institutions of higher learning or to achieve credentials for professional practice. It is tantamount to saying -quality assurance‖. The goal is to assure the public or stakeholders that an accredited institution provides education with acceptable levels of quality. The educational institutions' responsibility for assessment and evaluation is directly linked to Thailand's educational quality assurance system, which consists of both an internal and an external quality assurance program. Doyle (2017) recognized the value of in utilizing an external framework to provide structure in meeting quality assurance goals. All affiliated agencies and schools are required to have an internal quality assurance system as part of a continual educational management process, and they must submit an annual report to the local education authority; local education authorities report up to the Ministry.A pride of the Ministry of Education is that Thailand has a well-developed, government-supervised, private sector to assist in providing education to its citizens. Private schools generally are known for providing a higher level of education thangovernment schools. Students attending these schools usually achieve a high level of education and are more likely to continue on to renowned international universities (Moegoth, 2015).As part of its external assessment system, in 2000, Thailand established a quality assessment process that falls under the responsibility of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) (ONESQA, 2015). The government ensures the quality of learning institutions through accreditation with ONESQA due to the monitoring of the achievement of the learning outcomes of each school and external assessment processes placed by the agency. To date, the latest publication of ONESQA on its directives about the external quality assessment of schools was during the third-round of its monitoring cycle. During this time, the indicators were divided into three groups which were the Basic indicators, Identity indicators and Social Responsibility indicators. These indicators also show achievements which are aligned using the Ministry of Education standards in Educational Management Achievement, Student-centered classroom management, Internal Quality Assurance, and Educational Administration.
Basic indicators are those that concern student quality and provision of student centered learning environments.
Outcomes of student achievement are also measured here. Teacher quality is also assessed through these outcomes in the basic indicators throughthe Self-Assessment Report as part of the internal quality assessment. Identity indicators are those that concern mostly of educational administration and management focusing on student quality and provision of student-centered classroom management through quality teacher performance. Social responsibility indicators are those concerning management practices and inclusion of projects that follow the principles of national education provision that contribute to the quality of the school thereby affecting the society as a whole. Schools were rated in a point system after the indicator points were calculated. Preparation of these documents in support of the indicators take about 9 of the 200 schools days per year for teachers and educators to prepare, (Mala, 2018). Indicators were summarized into educational management achievement, student-centered classroom management and educational administration. International schools which were assessed through a joint visit with an international accrediting body of the school's choosingfollowed the simplified standards in Table 2. After the third round-cycle was finished in 2015, schools were directed to find ways to accomplish the goals and recommendations of the assessing team. This direction for improvement aims to develop quality and standard of an institution. After the third round cycle, more than 60,000 educational institutions were assessed including a total of 2,228 private educational institutions providing basic education operating under the Office of the Private Education Commission. It was planned that in the fourth round of external quality assessment (2016-2020), there will be no re-assessment. However,there will be a monitoring process after the assessment by considering the result of the assessment. If the quality level is at the level of ‗improvement required', the institution will be monitored within 6 months after the assessment. If the quality level is ‗fair', the institution will be monitored within 1 year after the assessment. For the Fourth Round of External Quality Assessment (2016 -2020), the assessment will focus on the quality of educational institutions by focusing on the overall performance of the institution, as well as, to facilitate the assessment process by using IT-based assessment. The external assessment will emphasize on verifying the institutions' internal assessment result, and EQA will be based on the parent organization's internal quality assessment' standards and criteria, (Onesqa, 2017). Submission of Self-Assessment Reports to ONESQA will be through digital files and which will allow the assessors to systematically monitor the school's progress before the on-site visit and reporting.
A new assessment system has since been communicated as the first batch of schools started to be assessed in August 2018. The information system developed by ONESQA called Automated QA (AQA) is an online system that will facilitate the efficiency of ONESQA performance, the assessors and the institutions which is expected to be fully operational by the Fifth Round of EQA in 2021 (ONESQA, 2018).
Since the publication of the Third Round results, there has been developments regarding the Royal Thai Government's policy in the educational system that directly affects quality assurance. The program of ‗Education 4.0' bringsseveral changes such as assessing student learning outcomes.The quality criteria and standards should be decided byeach individual educational institution and should be customized based on each institutional context. The purpose of EQA aims for development. Accordingly, for each institution to be able to support the national change, ONESQA's role needs to be able to tackle both developmental andtransformational changes of quality assurance system.

Paradigm of the Study
The paradigm of the study shows the interaction of the profile variables and the process of Human Resource Management and the Quality Assurance of selected schools and projected outcome which is the improved Human Resource Management.  Educational Administration 5. Is there a significant difference between the level of quality assurance of secondary schools and the different areas? 6. Is there a significant relationship between the level of human resource management and the level of quality assurance in secondary international schools? 7. What intervention program is proposed to improve quality assurance in secondary international schools? Areas of Human Resource Management 1.3Teacher's Performance 2. There is no significant difference between the level of quality assurance of secondary international schools and the different areas. 3. There is no significant relationship between the level of human resource management and the level of quality assurance in secondary international schools.

Chapter 2
Methodology:-For this study, a quantitative analysis using the survey method for Human Resource Management was employed which is considered as the best way in answering questions through numbers and statistics (Suveymethodscom, 2017). Secondary data about quality assurance from the results of the third cycle External Quality Assessment of Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) was also used.

Research Environment
This study focused on selected International and English Program Schools from Central Thailand Region.
The schools are all International or English Program schools providing secondary education located in Central Thailand Region under the four-region system (Hays, 2013). Three groups in the region (Greater Bangkok, Sub-Central, and Eastern)was represented by at least one province or area by random sampling except for Bangkok, which by default is automatically included. Each province was then represented by at least one school purposively selected for its ability to provide data and diverse faculty due to the program that it offers.The following information is from Sataban.com (2017) which features a Thai Schools Directory.

Respondents
The respondents of this study were 153 teachers and administrators from the selected schools whose participation in this study was voluntary. Most of the respondents work in schools from Bangkok Metropoliswhich is the most congested area in terms of International Schools and English Program Schools. The matrix distribution of respondents by virtue of school area in the Central Thailand region is shown in Table 5. Even though nationality is not a variable in this study, the matrix Table 5 shows that Filipinos comprise most of the respondents at 78.4%, followed by British nationals, 6.5 %; Americans and other nationalities, each at 5.2% and Thais at 4.6%. This means that there is a strong presence of Filipinos in International and English program schools in Bangkok and other provinces. Wood (2009) mentioned that because the Philippines is one of the few countries in Asia where English is the main medium of instruction and the forefront of educational system, Thailand has been consistently importing Filipino teachers as an attempt by the country to augment the need for proficient Englishspeaking teachers in their schools. Data Gathering Procedure A letter of request was sent to school heads together with the approval form and the survey questionnaire through electronic mail. The letter contained information about the study and that teachers and administrative personnelwere selected to participate in the study as respondents. Originally, twenty schools were chosen, however, only thirteen schools had returned a confirmation or had a respondent as participation in the survey is not compulsory. Upon approval, the questionnaire was facilitated by the school head,coordinatoror administrator and the questionnaires were sent to the teachers. Retrieval was through EMS through the coordination of the researcher and the school. A period of three months was given for the survey. Retrieved data was recorded and analyzed using SPSS program. Schools which have been sent the letter of request and did not respond were not included as part of this study.

Data Gathering Tools
The data gathering tool for this particular research is a survey questionnaireadaptedfromHuman Resource Management Practices and Their Outcomes: A Survey from Shodhganga (Inflibnetacin, 2018) which was modified by the researcher to fit the research environment. The layout of the questionnaires was patterned from Dr. Sheryll

Ann Castillo's research instrument used in her dissertation Personal and School Factors in Relation to Twenty-First Century Life and Career Skills as Mediated by School Engagement in the ASEAN Context: Towards a Proposed
Model (Castillo, 2016).
The questionnaire employs the use of Likert Scale level of qualityand used the description of mean values shown in Table 6. The questionnaire was reviewed by one methodologist/researcher, two school administrators and two Cambridge-certified hiring personnel from Bangkok, Thailand and two English Language faculty members from Nonthaburi Province. The recommendations from the reviewers were taken into account and the questionnaire was adjusted and edited accordingly. The secondary data from the website of Office of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment, which provides all their assessment results from the third cycle to be downloaded,was used for the external quality assessment of schools. ONESQA provides the results in Thai language and the data, which can be chosen and downloaded from a drop down menu wastranslated from Thai to English by selected secondary students of Bangkok Advent School, crosschecked and approved by a Thai language teacher.

Statistical Treatment of Data
Ensuring the reliable analysis of the data that will be gathered needs tabulation, encoding and analysis through SPSS. The data will be tabulated to determine frequency of the number of responses in analyzing the demographic data; the percentage as a descriptive type of statistics; Pearson correlation which investigates the influence of two variables with each other (r) to measure the relationship of human resource management to quality assurance of schools;t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) will also be employed to determine if the differences are true difference and not random effect.
Interpretation of secondary data analysis after indicator points have been tallied will use the scales provided by ONESQA in Table 8.  Table 9 shows the frequency of the profile of the 153 respondents who participated in this study in terms of age, gender, position, educational attainment, monthly income, length of service and type of school affiliation. This means that most of the respondents are college graduate female teachers, aged 31-40, who earn about 15,000-24,999 baht and who has been employed in province-located English program schools for 2 years or less.

Profile of Respondents
Although Boyd, et al., (2013) find that employers demonstrate preferences for -teachers having stronger academic achievement, measured by having more than a BA degree,‖ according to Bond (2016),due to demand, many schools employ teachers who don't qualify for work permit and make alternative arrangements due to the demand. This was affirmed by the results which showed that some schools opt to hire those without a Bachelor's degree indicating that the teachers have some sort of certification to teach English,even though legal processes mandate that any undergraduate or those without a degree won't be able to teach in Thailand and are generally not granted a work permit.   Table 11 shows the means and standard deviation of the HRM dimension Perceived Organizational Support with an overall mean of 3.488 with a standard deviation of 1.008. The overall mean has a descriptive value of Good. The statement -cultural diversity thrives in our organization‖ received the highest mean of 3.692 which is described as Very Good.

Level of Human Resource Management Perceived Organizational Support
This means that employees perceive that they are generally supported and valued by their respective organizations. They perceive that their organizations recognize their contribution and care about their well-being to a midpoint level and that support for cultural diversity in educational institutions is highly appreciated by employees. This is affirmed by Baran, Shanock and Miller (2012) who found that international and cross cultural issues are among the themes and developments in perceived organizational support. Furthermore,employees who feel support from their organisation feel their needs are being met by their organization (Colakoglu, Culha and Atay, 2010). In addition, Allen, et. al (2008) stated that employees see their employment as a reciprocal exchange relationship that reflects relative dependence and extends beyond a formal contract. Employees need to determine whether, and to what extent, an organization will recognize and reward their effort, support their socio-emotional needs, and help them on request.Veld and Alfes (2017) while following a positive perspective, explored how HRM may enhance employee well-being via a climate for well-being and increase level of efficiency.  Table 12 presents the means and standard deviation of the level of Human Resource Management in terms of employee outcomes.

Level of Human Resource Management Employee Outcomes
Based on statements grouped to show HRM outcomes of organizational citizenship behaviour, satisfaction and commitment, the overall mean is 3.702 which has the descriptive value of Very Good. Except for one, all statements received a mean score greater than 3.5 which translates to Very Good. The statement -I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this school‖ received a mean score of 3.440 which is equivalent to Good.
This indicates that the level to which employees are willing to commit and engage in working for the benefit of the organization is high.
It may be thought that employees satisfied with their job have a willingness to work on behalf of their organisation and a strong motivation to remain in their organisation and that employees who are satisfied with their organisation feel obligation to remain with their organisation due to the fact that they want to repay for the financial or moral support from their organisation, (Yang, 2010;Gunlu, et. al., 2010; Colakoglu, Culha and Atay, 2010). Furthermore, increasing employees' feelings of obligation to help the organization could also mean that an organization's success can be attributed to the employees' commitment and their focus towards achieving the organization's prime goals (Kalpana and Shibu, 2015).  Table 13 shows This reveals that among the profile variables, Age demographic shows significant difference in Human Resource Management unlike the other profile variables.

Differences in the Levels of Human Resource Management By Profile
Furthermore, Edgar and Geare (2018) said that even though not all demographic variables significantly impact employee attitudes towards HRM, it should still be a consideration for statistical analysis.Pahos and Galanaki (2018) stated that staffing effectiveness evolves according to employee demographic characteristics and should still be studied because this area has not been thoroughly elucidated t o date.   This demonstrates that there is a significant difference in the levels of the areas or dimensions of Human Resource Management. Therefore, the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference among the dimensions of Human Resource Management is rejected. Aktar and Pangil (2017) considered the role of POS on the link of HRM practices and employees' behavioural outcomes and found that POS acted as the full moderator between HRM practices and employee engagement. They also highlighted the significance of perceived organizational support in shaping reactions of employees regarding HR practices associated to employees' behavioural outcomes.  Table 16shows that HRM Practices and Perceived Organizational Support has a p-value of .991 which is not significant while HRM Practices and HRM Outcomes when compared against each other resulted to a p-value of 0.035 which is significant.
Perceived Organizational Support and HRM Outcomes showed a p-value of 0.036 which is alsolessthan the 0.05 confidence level and is significant.
This means that when compared to the level of Employee Outcomes both HRM Practices and Perceived Organizational Support have significantly different levels implying that employee outcomes are rated higher than employer-related factors such as Practices and the POS.
Marescaux, De Winne andSels(2012) stated that HR personnel -should be aware that merely implementing soft HR practices may not suffice.‖ Furthermore, they suggested that HR practices could affect basic needs satisfaction of employees and thereby affect HR outcomes. This is supported by Gavino, Wayne and Erdogan (2012) who mentioned that this feeling of employees being appreciated impacts their commitment to delivering high-quality service.  Table 16Performance Rating of Respondents. Eight respondents answered not applicable and 17 did not respond to this question due to various reasons such as personal decision and unavailability of data. The study revealed that the level of Human Resource Management is the same for teachers who received a rating of 70-79 which is described as Good, teachers who received 80-89, described as Very Good and teachers whose performance rating is 90-100, described as Excellent as Table 16 Result of ANOVA between the Levels of Human Resource Management by Teacher Performance shows a computed p-value of .332 which is not significant.
This means that the result of a teacher's overall performance is not enhanced by Human Resource Management. Therefore, the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant differencebetween the level of Human Resource Management and Teacher's Performance is accepted.
This also affirms the study of Hashimi, 2014, whose result showed that the trend that current practices of HRM by the educational leaders at (CBE) schools are not effective to an extent where it improves teachers' efficiency.  Table 19 shows the means and standard deviation of the Levels of Quality Assurance in terms of Educational Management Achievement, Student-centered classroom management and educational administration of secondary International and English program schools in Central Thailand which participated in this study.

Level of Quality Assurance
It is revealed that in terms of Educational Management Achievement, the mean is 50.63% out of 60% which is described as Very Good. In terms of Student-centered Classroom Management, the mean is 17.05 out of 20% which is described as Good while Educational Administration has a mean of 17.32 out of 20% described as Good. Overall, the 13 schools had an average rating of 85% which is also qualified as good.
This means that the schools included in this study passed the external quality assessment qualifications set by ONESQA and are among the accredited schools of Thailand.
Kuruzovich (2016) emphasized that though there is no standard way to measure the quality of an international school, multiple indicators can be examined to at least provide a general sense of how well any particular school performs in relation to others, and the benefits it provides to its teachers.However, Taylor (2018) said a good indicator of a school's quality is to check with which bodies it holds accreditation. In Thailand, external quality assurance is guaranteed by the aforementioned ONESQA.  Table 20 shows the result of ANOVA between the levels of quality assurance in different aspects with the p value at .442 which is interpreted as not significant.

Difference between the Aspects of Quality Assurance
This means that the variance among Educational Management Achievement, Student-centered classroom Management and Educational Administration is not enough to warrant any significance, therefore the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference among the aspects of quality assurance is accepted.
As stated by Onesqa (2017), the assessment processes ensure that the educational institution's council and the management executives comply with the Thai governmental laws and regulations. The external quality assessment reports precisely inform educational institutions of the level of the standard quality achieved by the assessed institutions.

Relationship between Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance
This study revealed that there is a weakly positive correlation between Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance as shown in Table 21 which gives the r value at 0.108 and the p value at 0.726.
This means that the correlation between the two variables, although showing a positive linear relationship, in this case, is not significant and therefore the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance of Secondary International and English Program Schools in Central Thailand is accepted.
This is contrary to the study of Mutiso (2010) which revealed a strongpositive relationship between quality of service and performance management implying that better management of teacher performance would raise the quality of education service provided by teachers.However, Susilowati, et.al. (2012) explained that the belief that strategic human resource management results to better firm performance is thought to be rather conventional because of the numerous studies on the relationship between the two variables that have shown the inconclusive results. There are unknown factors called "black-box" between strategic HRM-firm performance relationships that need to clarify (Susilowati, et. al., 2012).
Furthermore, it is noteworthy to say that ONESQA, the independent accrediting body from which the data of Quality Assurance has been taken, has faced criticism from the Office of Higher Education Commission due to reports that the evaluation process did not adequately reflect the quality of schools, (Oxfordbusinessgroup, 2016). Moreover, the indicators provided by ONESQA show that Human Resource Management and teacher factor are graded among other factors under Educational Administration and Student-centered classroom management which are only a fraction of the 20% for the two indicators.

Proposed Intervention Program
Enhancing sustainable employability is an additional policy of Human Resource Management that is proposed as part of the intervention program to increase the level of HRM. Sustainable employability to meet the demand for a longer professional career, retention of knowledge and skills and monitoring andaddressing health issues of aging workforce is proposed. This will be through a healthy lifestyle program with activities that contribute to knowledge, proper diet, movement and facilitating acquisition of social security card in the Kingdom of Thailand to further support foreign employees as recognized workers who contribute to education and economic strength of the nation.

Chapter 4
Conclusions And Recommendations:-Conclusions:- Most of the respondents are 31-40 year-oldteachers, female, college graduates, with a salary range of 15,000-24,999 baht; Filipinos, and have been employed for 0-2 years in their English Program institution located in Central Thailand provinces outside Bangkok. 2. Good HRM practices are in place with provision of paid sick, emergency and personal leave rated as a very good HRM practice. Moreover, the respondents feel adequately supported and appreciated by their organization as shown in the good quality level of Perceived Organizational Support (POS).The respondents also have a high level of commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour and satisfaction in their respective educational institutions. 3. Younger employees in the 21-30 age group's view of the quality of Human Resource Management of their schools significantly differed from their older counterparts in the 31-40 age group in that they have a lower perception of Human Resource Management than the older respondents. Employee outcomes of organizational commitment, citizenship behaviour and satisfaction showed a significant difference when compared against HRM Practices and Perceived Organizational Support in that the dimension of Employee Outcomes is high even if the Practices and POS were rated slightly lower. The quality of Human Resource Management is not a determinant factor in Teacher's Performance. 4. Based on the assessment of the Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assessment, the schools included in this study have very good Educational Management Achievement, good Student-centered Classroom Management, and good Educational Administration with an overall quality level of good allowing them to be included in the roster of ONESQA accredited schools. 5. The level of Educational administration, educational management achievement and student-centered classroom management do not significantly differ in International and English program schools in Bangkok and other provinces in Central Thailand. 6. Human Resource Management, showing a weak positive correlation with Quality Assurance, is not a determinant of quality assurance of International and English Program Schools in Central Thailand. 7. An Intervention Program on sustainable employability should be employed to increase the quality level of Human Resource Management.

Recommendations:-
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends the following: 1. A similar study should be conducted including nationality as a demographic variable and how demographic shifts affect HR strategies and employee outcomes in International and English Program schools in Thailand. 2. Mentorship program and Thai culture education must be included as orientation procedures for every newly hired personnel. This is to strengthen the Human Resource Management Practices and POS of the educational institution and to ensure that there will be a smooth transition for teachers every time there is a turnover. 3. Career planning for young and ageing employees should be mapped out by Human Resource Managers as they attempt to secure talent and contribute to the quality assurance of the school. As different needs and expectations arise due to employees diverse ages, educational management might put in place different HR practices or polices that can promote equality, organizational growth and support among colleagues. Practices must also be in place to recognize physical limitations of aging employees and how the educational institution can aid foreign employees who opt to retire from school employment as there is no limit to age in the workplace here in Thailand and there is generally no retirement benefits or severance pay granted after a certain number of years served in the school. 4. International and English Program Schools should continue to comply with the mandates of ONESQA and should try to increase their quality level by 2020. English Program schools are also encouraged to apply for an international accreditation. 5. Internal quality assurance measures should be in place regarding Human Resources under educational management and Student-centered Classroom Management. Documentation of the indicator data should also move towards automated QA in support of Thailand 4.0. 6. Even though the result of this study shows a weak correlation, Human Resources must continue to strengthen selection and retention of talent through policies that will support Quality Assurance of schools. As International and English Program schools have differing needs and values, the HR managers should see to it that human resources employees are aware of the expectations and the goals of the organization. 7. An Intervention Program on Enhancing Sustainable Employability is recommended for implementation to increase the level of Human Resource Management and Quality Assurance.
higher yield of quality service from teacher employees but will require This requires a joint commitment between both the employee and company with a dual approach in terms of flexibility and engagement, (Indavergroup, 2018).
As part of Sustainable Employability Policy, foreign teachers who are eligible may be supported through the provision of The Thai Social Security Card. The Thai Social Security covers pension plans and other benefits which are good motivation for foreign teachers to stay in employed in an educational institution because of the security it provides. Apart from the employer matching an employee's 3% salary contribution with another 3%, the government also contributes 1% monthly. The provision and acquisition of the Thai Social Security card decreases the need for foreign teachers to look for other jobs or go back home early in their working years because of security reasons when the time comes for them to retire. The health and well-being of individuals is an important factor in contemporary research which relates to the contextual development of (human capital) within organizations, (McCracken, et. al., 2017). As discussed, these activities if properly implemented may increase the level of HRM in terms of the dimensions of Practices, Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Outcomes.
Objectives:a. Select and promote health practices within the workplace and school culture through provision of health seminars, workshops or scheduled employee physical workouts. In this line, international schools may also opt to provide free medical check-ups on after scheduled seminars. b. Facilitate acquisition of Thai Social Security Card for foreign employees which will provide employee benefits that are sustainable and insure financial support to employees after retirement, disability, sickness and maternity needs.

Methodology:-
The methods in the table below outlines the tasks needed to be undertaken to make the goals of the intervention program attainable such as healthy lifestyle promotion through health seminar and workshops and free salad day and hosting of school marathons. Also included are the activities which will make it possible for a foreign employee to obtain a social security card in Thailand and the roles of the Human Resource Department in ensuring that the steps and procedures are properly implemented.