Education On Koh Phangan

Liquid Soul · April 18, 2007

At the present time I believe that Phangan does not yet have a privately run/owned school, but yet there are more and more half Thai/half rang kids around and also some wealthier Thais that would send their kids to such a school.

Samui, many years ahead in terms of development now has many schools that fit that bill right? also now an internationally accredited school? Whilst I believe Phangan is many many years away from this, I see no reason why one (the first one) cant be established by some of the expats here to provide this basic service.

Is there anyone out there who has any input on this? or would be interested in creating such venture?

At the moment I am thinking Thai pre-school followed by a Samui commute daily for my young ones (14 months & 6 months to go and counting down) I don’t think so.

For me personally I want to offer my children more than the Thai education system offers, and hopefully I can find like minded people out there who are willing to make something happen.

Thanks In Advance

sbk · April 18, 2007

Samui has an internationally accredited school? Which one?

Liquid Soul · April 18, 2007

Samui has an internationally accredited school? Which one?

As with the question mark, so that will be not then, I remember reading a year or so ago about, cambridge uk doing something on Samui, I take it, it did not happen then? But still that aside I think you will agree that over there they have alot more choice, due to established longer, demand and population size.

girlx · April 18, 2007

the farangs in my area seem to order educational materials and home school their kids.

Liquid Soul · April 18, 2007

the farangs in my area seem to order educational materials and home school their kids.

Does that run along side the Thai curriculum?

sbk · April 19, 2007

Thai kids are required by law to attend school. Not so farang kids. A friend of mine tried that for a few years with her children, attending Thai school by day, homeschooling weekends and afternoons in the Canadian curriculum. She gave up in the end and moved back to Canada as she felt that 1) it was too much for her kids and gave them no free time. 2) felt their English was not up to fluent standards (sounded ok to me but she said when they went back home to Canada it was obvious) and 3) wanted them to learn French as well and felt they were missing out on the other half of their heritage by staying here (she is French Canadian).

Does Koh Phangan have a significant enough population for such a school (I am assuming you are talking pre-school and kindergarten)? Most likely, but I doubt many people in Thong Nai Pan and Haadrin would be willing to drive their kids over every morning and pick them up every afternoon. The expat population on Koh P is pretty widespread.

As for wealthier Thais, most send their kids to Bangkok or the mainland somewhere to a prestigious well known school.

A good idea but not sure Koh P has the right market for it yet.

Liquid Soul · April 19, 2007

Thai kids are required by law to attend school. Not so farang kids. A friend of mine tried that for a few years with her children, attending Thai school by day, homeschooling weekends and afternoons in the Canadian curriculum. She gave up in the end and moved back to Canada as she felt that 1) it was too much for her kids and gave them no free time. 2) felt their English was not up to fluent standards (sounded ok to me but she said when they went back home to Canada it was obvious) and 3) wanted them to learn French as well and felt they were missing out on the other half of their heritage by staying here (she is French Canadian).
Does Koh Phangan have a significant enough population for such a school (I am assuming you are talking pre-school and kindergarten)? Most likely, but I doubt many people in Thong Nai Pan and Haadrin would be willing to drive their kids over every morning and pick them up every afternoon. The expat population on Koh P is pretty widespread.

As for wealthier Thais, most send their kids to Bangkok or the mainland somewhere to a prestigious well known school.

A good idea but not sure Koh P has the right market for it yet.

Some fair points. And judging by the overwhelming response to this thread I guess maybe not a great enough population, YET.

I am talking about high school initially, a private high school, but why not a "non stop shop" from pre to off to uni time, an alternative to the high school (Mathayom) (only one?) in Bantai.

My idea is to form some kind of non profit organisation to control and run the school (I am not looking for anyone to profit from this) and to apply for the necessary licences. Even if the school had just 30 students to start, teachers employed, facilities and maintaining a high standard from the school fees, and why not an overseas affiliation from a school. Phangan might not be ready, I agree, but it has to start somewhere, you must agree that KPN is changing as Samui did all those years ago and welcomed its first schools and so on and so forth and I bet at the time people said back then that Samui was not ready for it.

And would people drive their kids? A centrally located venue surely would put most places no more than 30 mins away, what about a school bus/s with dedicated pick up times/areas?

I don’t really want to send my little ones so far away from the nest, Bangkok, Phuket, Surat etc and feel that something should be available here.

I know in the past that our distinguished property company, KP Property has done some studies on this but I not know the outcome?

sbk · April 19, 2007

Honestly, I don't know. I just don't think it would fly. Call it a gut feeling based on years of experience living here.

Logistics as well, would seem to be difficult. Where would you put the school? Leasing can be expensive. Especially in an area accessible to most the island, with ready access to high speed internet, water and electric.

If you really want a good school you'd have to go with accreditation from a well known intl school if you really wanted to lure in the parents with money. Apparently not so easy to do, the intl school in Phuket lost its accreditation from Dulwich for various reasons.