What If It Was Your Child - School Recommendations

[lucky2008]

Hi Teachers,

 

If you had a Luk Khrueng child, and have chosen to stay in Bangkok indefinitely, what kindergarden/primary school would you put you child in if you only had a budget of 120k per year?

 

We would like a school that uses Thai as it's primary language. We use 50/50 English Thai communication at home. 

 

Are there schools that use a British or American curriculum within this budget? 

 

How about the Montessori schools? 

 

I would be asking these questions to the parents, but I think those of you on the front lines should know best. 

 

Thank you in advance. 

 

[BobbyL]

No British or American curriculum for that money. Try the EP programs in Thai schools. 

[MrPatrickThai]

Kinder is not that important in my opinion, although I did notice a big difference between one of my kids after going to  a Montessori one, she's a real brainbox now. 

Primary is a little important but if you speak English all the time at home to them they will learn it. 

One piece of advice - start saving or change employment in the future as it cost my approximately 200k baht a year for each child once they reached high school and $20,000 for the ones that went to a foreign university. 

[lucky2008]

6 minutes ago, MrPatrickThai said:

I did notice a big difference between one of my kids after going to  a Montessori one, she's a real brainbox now. 

Was the Montessori in Bangkok. Would you mind sharing the name? 

[jackdd]

I would consider saving money on a school and spending the money on a private teacher instead, like this you can choose exactly what you want.

It's not so much about knowledge itself but to let them get the right attitude towards learning new things, so that they are motivated to learn, think critical, and so on.

 

26 minutes ago, MrPatrickThai said:

and $20,000 for the ones that went to a foreign university. 

That's only a problem if you want them to study in an english speaking country, because afaik education in these countries is always quite expensive. If somebody plans to send the children to a university abroad just choose a country where they can finance their studies themself, and let them take classes in this language while they grow up.

My Vietnamese ex GF decided to study in Germany (maybe try to choose a country with an easier language ;)), this cost her two years learning German (one in Vietnam, one in Germany), then she studied Bachelor and Master in Germany, completely self financed through working while studying. If her parents had planned for this while she was young and she had taken German classes (if the parents would have had the money) while going to school it would have taken her two years less.

 

[otherstuff1957]

All schools in Thailand, except for International Schools, follow the Thai Curriculum.  EP programs usually teach about 1/2 of their classes in English and some employ native English speakers as teachers (though NES teachers are getting harder to find every year).

 

I would recommend getting your child into a 'good' Thai government school with both a regular and an EP program.  The EP program is usually a showcase program for the school with A/C in all classrooms along with computers, projectors, etc.  Being part of a larger school means that they will have access to facilities that a smaller school may lack, giving them the best of all worlds.

 

Finally, rather than wasting your money on rienpiset afterschool and weekend classes, I would spend a few hours per week giving your student English and History lessons yourself.  While this might seem to be challenging to a non-teacher, there are some excellent free resources on the web.  I would recommend BBC Learning English, VOA Learning English, BBC History for Kids and GCSE Bitesize when they are older.