On-line tuition recommendations in Thailand. Don't want to fork out for expensive private schooling, if we're heading for another year of covid chaos.

[Yorkshire Tea]

This last year has been a disaster, with most of it on-line.  Govt shows no signs of opening up & accepting we live with this virus.

 

Looking for recommendations for next school year on-line.  Are there reasonably priced options, rather than paying current school fees with no discount?  70,000 bt per semester to stay at home is a joke.  Hopefully, by May, things will be back to close to normal, but if it looks like a continuation of this last year, I'd like to have a back up plan & pull my boy from regular schooling.

[ChaiyaTH]

Not sure what you expect to find for that money tho, the average online things easily cost 1K baht per hour too. But in terms of how worthless all options are within Thailand home schooling in general almost always seems a better deal, not sure how that works in TH legally but many kids who travel around the world with their parents seem smarter than those who have been in school. 

I met many who been trough international school here and aren't any smarter, the only benefit seems to be avoiding the brainwash in public schools, but at a very high price. Have some friends who are pretty <deleted> of having had to pay 2x 40K a month (2kids) for the past 2 years getting zero yet clueless to alternatives (except perhaps a cheaper in between 'inter' school).

Edited February 19, 2022 by ChaiyaTH

[simon43]

IMHO, (as an online teacher of science), you should concentrate on providing specialist online tuition in Maths and Science, and any other subject that your son wants to excel at.  This need not be too expensive, since your son needs perhaps 2 science lessons per week and 3 maths.  Yes, this will add an extra expense to the general online teaching that he receives, but (again IMHO), will be well worth it.

 

I charge about 700 baht for a 60 minute science lesson.  I'm not touting for business because I am fully booked up!  But I suggest you search for online NES science and Maths teachers.  If you can find someone based in Thailand or another lowish-cost country, then 700 baht/hour should be possible, and also in your timezone.

[Yorkshire Tea]

I'm not looking for private, one on one tuition.  I'm wondering if there exists on-line schooling, similar to what schools are providing whilst kids are locked out of school due to covid, but without all the overheads & expense of a bricks & mortar school.  Would've been a great business opportunity for the last 12 months or so.

 

A friend has pulled his boy from international school here for similar reasons, but is using an on-line school catering for UK GCSE exams.  Is there something similar that follows Thai curriculum?

[Iamfalang]

I understand and agree with you.  online "education" is a complete joke.  So here's the thing.  Now your kid needs to make new friends, or will they go back to their old friends once online is finished?  there's a mental aspect.  kids chat online in groups with their friends, belonging to the same school is important.   save money and maybe the kids at the other school are a bad influence, who knows.  I would personally homeschool and let the kid know they will go back to their friends when all this covid mess is over.   if you pull your kid out and this becomes a traumatic event in their life,  then it would be the absolute worst possible disaster.   my 1 satang.   

[tomster]

I have made the choice to Homeschool both of mine (6 year old boy and 3 year old girl). My boy never really liked school and didn't seem to learn anything there so I put him with a private tutor (teaching Thai and math one to one) and he progressed much faster than the other kids in his old school.

 

For me the Thai schools brainwash your kids, the private schools are way over priced - homeschool with private tutors is a very viable option and well within Thai law. There is a place where you register them for this, I will do it in May (you don't need to do it until they are 7 years old) so not sure what that process involves but guess there are lots of forms to sign and then they will be accessed a couple of times a year from what I understand.

 

My boy will start on-site Kumon (English and Math) on Monday and I have just ordered a very high end PC and Mi Gaming Monitor to keep him in front of the computer for an hour in the morning doing online homeschooling courses. Will likely add in 1 hour online lesson in Thai writing and reading, so all in 4 hours which for a 7 year is plenty.

 

Exercise is done for 40 minutes in our pool late afternoons. That just leaves social contact which I am working on - that is always the hard part with homeschooling...

 

Finally two points.

 

1. Now the government know they can get away with closing schools they are going to do it as often as possible. Coronavirus was the softening up for whatever is coming next, war, climate change lockdowns, whatever - but I would put money on the fact that schools will be closed again and again going forward. Kids vaccines - don't even go there.

 

2. The thing is most people that I have met in my life have been pretty ordinary, conformist 9-5 types. I managed to break out of that by luck and hard work, I don't want my kids being brought up with those values - I want them to think for themselves and be business savvy very quickly. Most peoples kids are a direct reflection of their parents, hence i don't want them mixing with my kids and putting these kinds of values into their heads.

 

Therefore homeschooling with private tutors ticks all the boxes, for me anyway. ????

 

[Doctor Tom]

Try 'Cambly KIds', its an American facilitator of online teaching and they have quite a sophisticated set of online tools and some great teachers, all well qualified and you can take your pick.  They also have a digital classroom feature where you kids can be taught as part of a virtual class. I teach on the main Cambly site, as I don't teach kids, only adults so I know them well.