Schools In Surin

[barryofthailand]

Does anyone know of any Primary schools in Surin that teach in English as well as Thai?

Barry

[thedi]

I guess here are no international or bilangual schools in Surin.

My daughter goes to 'Vithes Suksa Bilangual School' (http://www.kkvs.ac.th/) in Khon Kaen. They have dormitories for kids from far away. The school is rather small (classes with a maximum of 25 kids), 40% of the teachers come from New Zealand, the other 60% are Thais. All teachers have an education as a teacher. This leads to a high price: tutorial cost per term are about 70K, add to this the costs for dormitory 35K and this and that and it will add up to about 250K Baht/year.

IMHO the school is well worth this money. The school follows western education style: 'think, decide, understand' - rather than Thai style which is 'learn and repeat that'.

There is another international school in Korat (in Kao Yai), but that one is much more expensive and upper class (has its won golf course etc). You may find it, with several others in BKK and Pattaya, if you google international schools in Thailand.

Regards

Thedi

PS: Last year, I looked at several schools for my daughter (Matajom level) in Khon Kaen and nearby provinces. You may contact me, if you are interested in more informations.

[lampard10]

They are building a new International school just outside Surin. How far it is progressing is anyones guess, but I have a reliable source of information that this is true. I will try and find out more for the forum.

[Nomad97]

I can confirm Lampard's information and add a little more.

Mr Roger Walker is the Principal of the new International School that is under construction in Surin. He is also the Resident Director of the Tree of Life Orphanage in Burriram (www.treeoflifeorphanage.com). The school was due to open its doors in August 2007 although a casual look at the building site last week suggests that there is much construction work still to be completed. I understand that the school will follow the American Curriculum although I have yet to see a full prospectus for what is being offered. I further understand that the primary teaching language of the school will be English, provided by native English speakers. The children will also receive Thai lessons by Thai teachers. The school will accept children from the age of three. The school year starts in August/September. I spoke with Mr Roger Walker in March (this year) and, as my own daughter is not three years old until the middle of next year, I have not followed up with further discussions. I hope this information helps a little although it is still early days. I am sure you could contact Roger Walker through his Orphanage web site - he seems a very outward going and friendly person.

There is another school on the ring road, towards the turn off to Roi Et on the right hand side, that does offer and teach some English. I think this is a Catholic School and I did visit this school last year too. The school fees are quite modest. When I spoke with them they were extending their classes from kindergarten through to 12 years old. Their terms follows the Thai calendar with the new school year starting in May of each year. The school is quite small and seems very friendly.

[barryofthailand]

They are building a new International school just outside Surin. How far it is progressing is anyones guess, but I have a reliable source of information that this is true. I will try and find out more for the forum.

Thanks Lamp and Nomad. I will see if I can contact Mr. roger walker through his website. If this is a true international school, i'm sure the tuition will be expensive like ISR on the eastern seaboard. It's also hard to believe that they would follow the american curriculum, as the Thai ministry of education mandates the brithsh curriculum.

Barry

[Nomad97]

Barry, when we made enquiries earlier this year the fees were about 71,000 baht per year, with a few extras for books and school meals. Certainly well less than 100,000 baht per year. Unfortunately, I do not have a hard copy of any fee schedule or the like so I can not say for sure if the fees are per year or per term. I was waiting until later in the year and for the school to open its doors to find out some more concrete information. In contrast, the fees for the much smaller but already established Catholic School were less than 10,000 baht per year.

The only other alternative in this neck of the woods, although not strictly an International School, is the Catholic Assumption College in Korat. This offers a full English Program for Maths, English and Science with the remaining subjects taught in Thai. They have a very impressive website too. As an aside and for what it is worth, my wife and I are seriously thinking that we will have to move west to Korat or south to Ban Chang to find the education we would like for our daughter. At the moment, the Garden International School in Ban Chang seems to have the edge on Assumption College. This school does offer a full English curriculum (IGCSE) and this is what I am seeking for my daughter's education.

Please pm me if you would like further information.

[barryofthailand]

Now I just got some additional info. The construction schedule is running behind, and Roger Walker being very busy with his Orphanage project will not be the principal. I have a phone number for any one that wants information. 044-714-100. Roger says to ask for Nat,Aun, or Poo. I will have my wife call for additional details.

Barry

[Nomad97]

Thanks for the news update about Roger Walker. I am a little surprised by that turn of events, especially after talking to Roger for the best part of three hours at the end of March. He seemed very committed to his new appointment. As I said in my first post, "a casual look at the the building site last week suggests that there is much construction work still to be completed". You have confirmed that the construction work is behind schedule. I am also surprised that the advertising hoardings that were present in March disappeared overnight four months ago. The decision to remove the hoardings was related to not yet having Government Education Authority approval for the school. As of last week, there are still no advertisements outside the construction site. Maybe its not just construction that is running a little behind schedule.

I look forward with interest to your next report after your wife contacts Nat, Aun, or Poo.

[aussiecollin]

Tree Of Life is very much a Christian organisation so expect a religious bias. That said, their orphanage in BuriRam appears to be spot on.

[barryofthailand]

We will be going back to Surin next Monday, and i'll have my wife give them a call probably on tuesday. My son has a weeks midterm break from school. He presently attends Best Burapha English program School of Thailand in Pattaya which is a bilingual school. This is the reason why I am looking fo a school that teaches the four major subjects not only in Thai but also in English. We will be relocating to surin as soon as our house sells in Pattaya.

Barry

[Nomad97]

Barry, FYI, the new International School is set back off the main road to the north of town from Surin to Roi Et. I suppose it is about 4 kilometers from the railway line, past the traffic lights and past the Toyota, Isuzu, Mitsubishi and Honda car show rooms and before you come to the next set of traffic lights at the junction to the ring road. If you look to the right after the last car show room (Honda?) you should see the new school about half a kilometer from the main road. The main school is a large, 2 x 4 floor buildings with red/brown roof and brown and white painted facia. The admin office is at the end of the front wall to the school although they may also be using the private house located in the grounds of the school (turn left at the admin building and head down a track to the right in the school grounds). Still no signs or advertisements outside the school as of a week ago.

[barryofthailand]

Thanks Nomad. We'll have a look next week.

Barry

[Cent]

Barry, FYI, the new International School is set back off the main road to the north of town from Surin to Roi Et. I suppose it is about 4 kilometers from the railway line, past the traffic lights and past the Toyota, Isuzu, Mitsubishi and Honda car show rooms and before you come to the next set of traffic lights at the junction to the ring road. If you look to the right after the last car show room (Honda?) you should see the new school about half a kilometer from the main road. The main school is a large, 2 x 4 floor buildings with red/brown roof and brown and white painted facia. The admin office is at the end of the front wall to the school although they may also be using the private house located in the grounds of the school (turn left at the admin building and head down a track to the right in the school grounds). Still no signs or advertisements outside the school as of a week ago.

I've just heard recently that there have been some sort of difficulties getting gov. permit/permission to open. Something about the construction of the school building, some sort of conflict about the size of the building and pilings used or not used. Construction safety issues I was told. Does anyone have any more info about this? I was told they would open in September, and am thinking of sending my 14 yr old daughter there for the immersion in English in the classes. Any new info appreciated on this. It looks like the construction has stalled or stopped? I'd love to see this open and want the English taught classes.

Also, are they, has anyone heard, going to run on a western schedule (Sept to June) or will the school shcedule in the Thai school months and holidays?

Cent

[farangconnection]

Here is the school. I don't know about permission or not, but in the office no-one knew even who the boss was. The building is nowhere near finished, and when I asked for a brochure on the school, I was told to go to Buriram. That in itself was strange, as the guy who runs the orphanage in Buriram has now resigned from this school. We asked who was in charge, but nobody knew.

Here it is anyway.

It does seem a typical Thai venture though, nobody knows and nobody cares less.

[barryofthailand]

Supposedly the school is owned by the American international schools in Bangkok. I have a telephone number but unfortunately I do not have it with me at the moment as I am in a hotel in Surin, but I will get it and post it in the next few days. I will check this out when we get back to Pattaya.

Barry

[Nomad97]

I too have a gut feeling that all is not well with the construction of the school. The stairs seem to cross the open windows in the stair wells, I cannot see any fire escapes to what are two 4-story buildings, the roof is fabricated tin and the general standard of building work looks very cheap and shoddy, and I saw the brick work before it was rendered. The school fees are rather on the light side for an International School, 71K per year was the figure I was quoted, and would be the cheapest by far anywhere in Thailand. Now I am not saying the low school fees are a bad thing in themselves but it does tend to suggest that the salaries to be paid to the teaching staff will not attract the best teachers in the business. I just get the feeling that everything about the new school is way behind schedule and being done on the cheap. As the old adage says, "You get what you pay for."

As I said in my post No 6 above, both my wife and myself think we will have to travel away from Surin to find the education we would like our daughter to receive. I would like to be proven wrong as I do not really want to move away from this area. It is still early days and only time will tell if the new school has anything to offer academically.

[Nomad97]

Roger, many thanks for your reply. You have confirmed beyond any doubt what I suspected was the case anyway. For your information, I was very impressed by your professionalism and enthusiam when we met and, while I have not said anything on this forum before, I guessed that the real reason you left your position was because of the various issues that seemed to be developing. Clearly, your vision of how the school should develop was 180 degrees opposed to the way dictated by the behind-the-scenes money-men. I am happy for you that you have not lent your name or your profesional expertise to this venture. Thank you for being so open with your comments.

For everyone else reading this forum, you will have to make up your own minds as to what the school has to offer. My mind was 90% made up before and, with Roger's comments to endorse my personal observations, I now know beyond any doubt that my daughter will not attend this school.

[Martin]

It isn't just in Surin that there is tension (to say the least) between the 'money making' and 'academic' sides of an International School.

I worked at one very posh one in Bangkok for part of the week, and did Supply in others on my spare days. This 'tension' was a bone of contention in all the privately-run ones. "Not for profit" foundations escape it, though.

It was difficult to make out, though, even for an 'insider', how much substance there was to the allegations of profiteering. So it must be very hard for parents.

And I see the same phenomenon starting to show in University-level education. There are some real gripes surfacing from some undergraduates who feel they are just profit-fodder in mills of the Higher Education Industry.

However, having served on the Finance Committees of some Governing Bodies, I have to say that education cannot come cheap. Salaries make up such a large part of the budget, the best teachers command good ones, and class sizes have to be kept reasonable. You get what you pay for, or less---never more.

[thedi]

Schools are one of he very few business opportunities in Isarn.

In the last 10 years several new private schools opened in the area where I live (KKC). They build school facilities, engage teachers (poorly paid) and teach mostly kindergarden, some also pratom level for ~20K Baht/year/kid.

The competition seems to be hard now. But it is still one opportunity to start a business in Isarn. Many parents originating from Isarn work now in Central or South Thailand. They live in a very poor environment and work both. The grandparents stay in Isarn and look after the kids. The parents want their offspring to have a better future and can rise enough money for such a private school.

IMHO it is to be expected, that schools will be used as a money-making device by investors - there are very little other opportunities to make some money in Isarn.

On the other hand: our daughter visited 'Mancha Christian School' for 9 years (kindergarden and Pratom 1-6). This is one of the above mentioned schools. They try a bit harder than the official village schools, but it is basically the same: Thai teachers follow Thai school tradition - religion was not a problem at all.

Since last spring, our daughter attends Khon Kaen Vithes Sueksa http://www.kvs.ac.th for Matayom. This is a bilangual school with 50% of the teachers from New Zealand, costs about 10 time what Mancha Christian was and is worth the higher price.

So in my personal experience, there was no problem with 'money-maker-schools'. But I recommend to double check private owned schools, before to send kids in any school; especially private-owned schools in the upper bracket.

Regards

Thedi