Kajonkietsuksa School

[oljkt]

I am considering putting my children in Kajonkiet. I have a 6 and 10 year old. I hear many bad things about their English program. Can anyone who has children there or teaches there tell me what their experiences with the school have been? Also, if anyone sends their child to the Thai program or ESC program, I would love to hear what you have to say too.

Thank so much for any information.

[CroBiker]

Awful experience on my side.....too many agendas and politics. There are some good teachers but they leave school for greener pastures every 6 months. Mostly economical refugees from South Africa looking for opportunity to get visas for Australia and New Zealand. They don't care about your or my child, petty jealousies, poor conduct, lack of all good basics that makes teacher respectable profession. As I said, there are nice ones, but in minority and that isn't good enough. My son was there for 1 year and I moved him to QSI Phuket. Great International school, fantastic teachers. Yes, it is much more expensive but my son speaks awesome English now and he is only 8 1/2 years old.

[K2K]

My son was there for 4 years - the foriegn teachers were on the whole good to very good, but like previous poster has said they left after 6 months, some even after 3 month which is not good for your childs education. The Thai teachers can very very petty - and found rather 'strange' disparity between foreign taught results and thai - apparently needed to be oiled with tea money to the underpaid Thai teachers.

Academically was pleased enough with results and there are some very good staff there but owners are greedy - just look at the annual building frenzy - and every meeting they priase themselves, dont listen to suggestions and treat fee paying parents in an off hand manner. Not much community spirit either - just the usual brain washing - so keep track of what your child is being taught in Thai classes.

I think its a good enough school for kindergarten and junior levels, but its the main reason I left Phuket - since QSI follows US curriculum and while good not what I wanted for my child and BICS after losing its Dulwich affiliation was grossly over priced for what it offers.

[phuketsub]

My daughter goes to their kindergarten and I am very happy with it -- at least for now. Staff turnover is definitely a huge problem, but what industry in Phuket that relies on foreign (ie. farang) labor doesn't have the exact same problem? The do have nice facilities and it is a clean, safe environment.

The sad truth is that there aren't many other options in the same price range. For older kids, if you look at the ANet, Onet results they do well compared to other schools on the island even though the program is very new..

[zazo]

Yes my Daughter is a Student at Kajonkiet she is 15 years old, The school just about OK if your child just sits and smiles all day, but they must not have an opinion of her own, and your are right they are to GREADY they have to earn out of every thing, the main thing they are is a buisness, they may be ok for the younger children but they havent got it anyway near right yet for M1 + M2 students, Also the Thai Teachers are heavy handed we are told it is their culture ?

[MisterMan]

A good friend of mine was thinking of sending her daughter there. She said during the inspection of the Thai./englis program one Thai teacher was on the phone and the other looked really miserable.

she said the the english program looked better in terms of teachers.

she did mention that the teachers only hit the kids if they are VERY naughty!!

[Somtamnication]

There was almost a revolt two weeks ago when 20 odd farang teachers threatened to walk off the job!

The nephew of the owner is very heavyhanded with the teachers, to the point of the school being lovingly known as The North Korean Democratic Republic of Kajonkiet.

Overpriced, teachers are worked to death. Thai teachers are arrogant and students are not allowed to ask questions. But nice air con rooms!

Search this forum for additional topics on this school.

[oljkt]

Mmmmm! Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Needless to say I will not be sending my child to Kajonkiet.

x

[CroBiker]

There was almost a revolt two weeks ago when 20 odd farang teachers threatened to walk off the job!

The nephew of the owner is very heavyhanded with the teachers, to the point of the school being lovingly known as The North Korean Democratic Republic of Kajonkiet.

Overpriced, teachers are worked to death. Thai teachers are arrogant and students are not allowed to ask questions. But nice air con rooms!

Search this forum for additional topics on this school.

Yes, that nephew is some piece of work. Claiming to have degree from some fancy English school...whatever.

Once I lost my cool with him, prior to that I was always courtious and respectful. He was so surprised and changed his tune completely.

Believe it or not, Thai teachers and administration will treat you and your child better if they find out that you drive expensive car or live in fancy area. Such a shame....

Edited September 19, 2008 by CroBiker

[Nip]

I am considering putting my children in Kajonkiet. I have a 6 and 10 year old. I hear many bad things about their English program. Can anyone who has children there or teaches there tell me what their experiences with the school have been? Also, if anyone sends their child to the Thai program or ESC program, I would love to hear what you have to say too.

Thank so much for any information.

One of the senior teachers from the school pulled me aside one day and said ... "You have a lovely daughter. If you want her to have a good education I would suggest you take her elsewhere." Many of my friends have their kids there and have nothing good to say about the school. Problem is the alternatives are not much better.... The Montessori near Chalong is an absolute joke. QSI and the Dulwich as was may well be excellent but are so expensive. I settled with Thai Hua (Chinese)... Long term I believe my kids living anywhere in the world with a decent education and fluent in Thai, English and Chinese will with ease find gainful employment.

[ozymandious]

Seems like for heavy English based curriculum you have 3 options.

Kajonkiet

QSI

Or the new school in Talang.

http://www.phuketinternationalacademy.com/

Based on the options on the island I chose to send my daughter there.

The first classes have already begun Instruction and the whole school will be built out completely in about 3 years time.

Check it out and see if it's right for you and your kids.

[CroBiker]

And British International, formerly known as Dulwich. They are slightly more expensive then QSI but I found them snobish. When we went for interview my kid hated the place. He begged me tearfully to send him to QSI lol....

[stevehaigh]

I settled with Thai Hua (Chinese)... Long term I believe my kids living anywhere in the world with a decent education and fluent in Thai, English and Chinese will with ease find gainful employment.

hi, i'm planning to bring my 9 year old, 100% Thai step-daughter here. how is Thai Hua going? the other schools i've read about on this thread don't seem very appealing. what about government schools in south Phuket, how are they?

i should add that i don't care about heavy English education, she will pick up English eventually living with me.

thx steve

Edited October 22, 2008 by stevehaigh

[stevehaigh]

we just went to Thai Hua and it looks nice but they didn't seem to like the idea of taking a kid that doesn't speak any Chinese. Chinese is only 3 hours per week and I thought she could pick it up, but that didn't impress the person we talked to.

anyhow, just down the street across form Central Festival is Dara samut school. It looks nice, and modern and very big. The kids seemed well behaved (some classes are in school now!). It's catholic which is a big no no for me but they said the religious education is optional and no problem for Buddhist kids, they don't get any christian propaganda at all. But i'd like to be sure, does anyone know anything about Dara samut school?

thx steve

[Big Guy]

My son has been at Dara Samut school since he started school at 3 and is now 11. He is in the bi-lingual program and has been since its inception. I has debated sending him to kajonkiet, but they seem fairly similar, with students changing back and forth. It seems to be a good school and my son is doing well, think he is more advanced here than he would be in a school in a falang country. QSI and dulwich might be good schools but they price themselves out the the market for normal people.

[g00dgirl]

The Montessori near Chalong is an absolute joke.

I know, old thread, Nip if you still read replies, could you explain your opinion about the Montessori in Rawai? I would like to know more about that place so I am interested to hear good and bad opinions.

[KarenBravo]

I have heard that there is too much play and not enough learning.

A very unstructured syllabus where the kids pretty much do what they want.

[Lannatyne]

Montessori :

dirty, run-down, education at the whim of the child. Also, the school owner lives in a huge, modern house near Land and Houses Park, so you can see where the school fees are going.

Kajonkiat :

the same points apply. No change. Each year the "ruling family" undertake 'study tours' to schools in places like New Zealand and South Africa, on the premise of seeing how education in the developed world works, and how they could improve things here. But nothing ever changes. Before I moved my child, at a parents meeting I stated that, in the parent audience, were parents from UK, USA, Australia, America, Germany, Sweden etc, etc ...... all the top academic countries. Given this, why did they not utilse such a wealth of knowledge and expertise by way of a parents committee to make suggestions for school improvements. I'm sure I don't need to waste cyber-type to tell you what happened!

If you're kids are 100% Thai, then there's no problem with the school. That's what you / your country wants to teach your kids, so go ahead and do it. For 50/50 kids, or full foreigner kids, then you have to be off your trolley to send them to Kajonkiat.

[Valentine]

The traffic management at Kajonkiet sucks as the school is divided into 2 sections you have a huge number of vehicles entering & exiting from the same gate in one part of the school & then about 100m further on it is the same for the next section of the school. It is almost gridlock there in the mornings & evenings which is compounded by the official U turns at the nearby Honda dealership.