Do You Send Your Children To School Here, In Thailand?

[CTO]

Daughter used to go to Rasami - wouldn't want her to do high school there but for kindy through to year 2 it was very good - small classes of less than 10 so great teacher time.

Now she's in a local Catholic school - in Sawang - with her younger brother - quite hard as she's in year three with kids 2 years older but where she fits academically - there was a LOT of corporal punishment but a few quite words stopped that.

She's fairly happy misses her opld school - son is VERY happy

[torrenova]

There are a select few good Thai schools in Thailand, especially demonstration "Saatit" schools operated by Faculties of Education, and private schools like Varee, Montfort, and Sacred Heart in Chiang Mai, in programs with class sizes under 30, real tests and the chance to fail, etc. It is not the fault of dedicated Thai teachers. With few exceptions, general education here is abysmal, however.

I agree. If the proof of the pudding is not what we as parents can see and find out, it is surely evident in the adult Thai people we know who have not been to high fee paying schools.

[Smee]

We have three sons, 12, 7 and 5.

The two youngest go to International school (Ascot) the eldest to a Sarasas (Witaed Romklao).

The difference between the two systems academically is quite obvious - painfuilly so, I would say. Of course, so are the fees. Socially, in terms of how the kids enjoy the overall experience, there is less of oa difference. All our kids love going to their respective schools. We have unfortunately had to move all our sons around to different schools for a variety of reasons at different times - we have to find the fees ourselves, and many international schools raise their fees regularly, making it extremely hard to budget effectively.

As it is, we spend over 60% of our income on educating our children. Home education, financially appealing as it is, is not an option for us; having to earn a living rather gets in the way! Besides, how does a child learn social skills with their peers if he/she is at home most of the time?

We have tried a Prapamontree, very affordabnle, the teachers seemed quite communicative, but it was very far away from our house: our poor son was having to get up before 5am for the school bus and got home after 6pm every day. Also, the academic standards were pretty low. Sarasas, where he is now, is particulalrly uncommunicative and unhelpful. We are not welcome in the school; they hardly commiunicate with us at all (we don't even know when term ends this year, no one seems to be able to tell us such basic information) and when we do manage to get though to someone, we are generally fobbed off with platitudes and half-truths. However, we had our two youngest at Nantawan Trilingual School after we were forced to remove them from Bromsgrove after yet another fee hike last year. After our kids were beaten, screamed at, publcly humiliated, proseletyzed by a God-fearing science teacher and demoted to the year below (aged 3!) for being "behind", all in the first week, we realized we had been misled by the school's headteacher. When we subsequently complained about our 7-year old being foced to face the irate, sceraming parents of another kid the school claimed he had hit deliberately (he denies this,) who threatened him in the school office in teh presence of a teacher with arrest and imprisonment (the mother) and with being kicked (the father), which naturally traumatized him (he still cries almost a year later when the topic is brought up), the school banned us form the premises, refused to accept our phone calls and refused to refund any of the THB247,000 they had taken from us in advance fees and "non-refundable" deposits. We are suing the school for the return of our money, the judge has already ruled that the school must return at least a proportion of the money it took from us pro-rated against the time they actualy spent enrolled until we removed them (in short, it is irrelevant if a school claims deposits, etc. are non-refundable, under Thai law this is deemed an unreasonable and unjustified action and Thai courts will usually judge in favor of the parents, not the school - apparently...! But you will have to go to court to get "non-refundable" deposits, etc., back form most schools, they don't willingly return anything, even if caught abusing your kids. And, interestigly, the courts are not interested in why the children were removed, only the timing. If you want to press a claim against the school for abusing your children, the courts are not the place to do this: try to local education department, and good luck!).

To sum up, if I could home educate, I probably would not as I feel it deprives children of social skills development opportunities. It is more important to us as parents that our kids enjoy the shool experience and come home happy and healthy, as opposed to miserable and stressed. And as has been pointed out previously it really is a matter of the chemistry between teacher and student as to whether the kid gets taught well or not., A good teacher in a great school that doesn't hit it off with a student imparts less value to the child than an averge teacher in a humbler school that establishes a good relationship with the student.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Smee

[samran]

we send our eldest to a Thai language, Waldorf kindy. Not that means anything, except that it is all in Thai and they aren't trying to teach them maths at 4.yo.

50% of the kids are Japanese, which means our daughter will learn Thai and perhaps a bit of japanese on the side and the teachers are experienced in teaching kids who aren't native speakers of the language (we all speak english at home). This will make her 'native' though, and help her navigate the rest of the time in Thailand.

Fairly 'cheap' too, only 60K per year.

After that it will be the australian school in BKK, and then back to OZ for us for secondary school.

Edited August 5, 2009 by samran

[zzaa09]

Private Thai/Khmer scools...

[tasuru]

My son, who's in 10th grade, presently attends ISB, which I think is a pretty good school academically. The problem is that the tuition fees keep getting higher every year, and I'm paying them from my retirement pension. Does anyone in Bangkok have any suggestions for alternatives to these very expensive international schools? Is there a home school here in Bangkok? Are there online high school study courses? Or are there any affordable schooling choices in Bangkok I haven't heard about? Thanks.

Edited December 7, 2009 by tasuru

[g00dgirl]

I could afford to pay for an International school here or in any other country. I would decide on homeschooling (unschooling). For 500,000 Baht I could even pay a private teacher for one on one lessons if needed or for many other valuable activities.

I find it important that children do not only socialize with other children of the same age like they do in school (besides, from my own school years I remember that socializing was not very welcome at all in class and breaks were too short), I think this is very unnatural and so is sitting down for hours.

If you research unschooling, you can learn that children teach themselves reading and writing (like they learn walking and talking) and everything else they need to achieve whatever goals they have in life. They learn these things at the time they are ready, when they need it and it is their own desire to learn something, so learning happens naturally and with much less effort and in a shorter time.

The role of the parent or guardian is only to facilitate the learning, answer questions, help to buy materials or show the child where to find answers, expose them to a variety of things and generally just being a good example.

This way they do not lose the interest in learning itself, like they do when they are coerced or forced to from an early age. They learn how to learn, and this enables them to learn whatever they need, not wasting years memorizing and then forgetting things they never need again. How much time in school is wasted with organizational things, getting everyone quiet, handing out things, collecting things, talking about admin issues, waiting. Schools are good for some children, where parents or guardians all have no time or interest to be with their child and support their learning, or where the child specifically asks to go to a school, but I would never 'send' my child to school, 'put' him into a school, unless he goes because he asked for it and he would be allowed to leave and stop anytime.

Why would I worry about my child being bullied or beaten or forced to spend time with something other than what he is really interested in. So many people bring up socialization, again there is no reason a child needs to spend with a group of children who are all the same age, it makes much more sense for a child to be around children of different ages, learn to care for young children, be around adults and older children he can observe and imitate, be around the older generation to learn and value their experience and how to care for the elderly. Homeschoolers and Unschoolers do not stay at home, the opposite, they go out a lot more than schooled children, they have so much more time for activities and hobbies, they go to homeschool meetings, volunteer, clubs, sports teams, take independent lessons like music or arts lessons, they meet a variety of people all the time. Those are real life skills many full time schooled children don't get enough of. I would much rather let my child decide who he likes to socialize with, who his friends should be, in a school he has no control over this. The more I read about unschooling, the more sense it makes.

Edited July 27, 2010 by g00dgirl

[sarahsbloke]

My 12yo daughter goes to the local Temple school near CM ... it's 100 times better than the village school she last went to.

School is free, lunch is free, books and 6 uniforms cost about 4,000bht this year.

In the school she learns to read and write Thai ... they pretend to teach her English, but the Thai teacher can't speak English at all.

I teach her English, by the time she attends CM uni she will have a vast advantage over her fellow students.

She never intends to leave Thailand so she needs to read and write Thai properly, else she will never fit in.

Edited July 27, 2010 by sarahsbloke

[getgoin]

We have 2 teenage daughters in International School in CM. The school seems to have a high turnover in teachers, some teachers have questionable training for their positions, seem to have a excess of half days during the year, seems more concerned with income than education. I could go on but this will give a feel for what I perceive. As both girls plan on going to university, we will probably move to US in a year to let them finish high school there, thus reducing tuition costs and give them the opportunity to apply for and receive a scholarship.

I have 4 children. Two graduated from CMIS in Chiang Mai and are living in the US. One is about to enter college and the other is taking a year or so off. They received a better education in Chiang Mai than they would have in the US. Their experience was better/unique. The other kids at the school were more intelligent and worldly than they would have found in the US and the teachers were better than the 9-5 teachers that work in the system in the US. I would not have done it any different and they will be better people because of their experience here.

To reduce tuition let them take a year off and get residency.

[kotovasiya]

We are looking for some unschooling company in CM!

I could afford to pay for an International school here or in any other country. I would decide on homeschooling (unschooling). For 500,000 Baht I could even pay a private teacher for one on one lessons if needed or for many other valuable activities.

I find it important that children do not only socialize with other children of the same age like they do in school (besides, from my own school years I remember that socializing was not very welcome at all in class and breaks were too short), I think this is very unnatural and so is sitting down for hours.

If you research unschooling, you can learn that children teach themselves reading and writing (like they learn walking and talking) and everything else they need to achieve whatever goals they have in life. They learn these things at the time they are ready, when they need it and it is their own desire to learn something, so learning happens naturally and with much less effort and in a shorter time.

The role of the parent or guardian is only to facilitate the learning, answer questions, help to buy materials or show the child where to find answers, expose them to a variety of things and generally just being a good example.

This way they do not lose the interest in learning itself, like they do when they are coerced or forced to from an early age. They learn how to learn, and this enables them to learn whatever they need, not wasting years memorizing and then forgetting things they never need again. How much time in school is wasted with organizational things, getting everyone quiet, handing out things, collecting things, talking about admin issues, waiting. Schools are good for some children, where parents or guardians all have no time or interest to be with their child and support their learning, or where the child specifically asks to go to a school, but I would never 'send' my child to school, 'put' him into a school, unless he goes because he asked for it and he would be allowed to leave and stop anytime.

Why would I worry about my child being bullied or beaten or forced to spend time with something other than what he is really interested in. So many people bring up socialization, again there is no reason a child needs to spend with a group of children who are all the same age, it makes much more sense for a child to be around children of different ages, learn to care for young children, be around adults and older children he can observe and imitate, be around the older generation to learn and value their experience and how to care for the elderly. Homeschoolers and Unschoolers do not stay at home, the opposite, they go out a lot more than schooled children, they have so much more time for activities and hobbies, they go to homeschool meetings, volunteer, clubs, sports teams, take independent lessons like music or arts lessons, they meet a variety of people all the time. Those are real life skills many full time schooled children don't get enough of. I would much rather let my child decide who he likes to socialize with, who his friends should be, in a school he has no control over this. The more I read about unschooling, the more sense it makes.

[Carry]

My baby is way to young but ofcourse i've been thinking about what to do when she gets to the age of going to school....

First thing I want for her is to be happy, ofcourse I want her to have a good education but if that would mean going back to europe, I would go back alone, since my husband will never have a perm. visa for my country

besides that there's been a lot of uproar since they discovered a whole pedofile network amongst teachers and caretakers in daycare centers...that means that going to school will not be as I remember going when I was a child, no more sitting on the teachers lap when you are hurt or a pet on the shoulder, no more touching and paranoid parents [and for a reason!]

Let alone what else....

this makes me wonder, I found a program that helps parents homeschool their kids, they also promote to send your kid to a local school [social wise that's what I would want to] and than educate your kid in your own language and any extra course you find necessary.

I would seriously concider that if that would keep my family together, my child in her familiar surroundings and keeping me from going home working 40 hours a week, sending my kid to afterschool care every day and living on a small flat just for her education...I would do it if necesarry but again our happiness is at stake her to so ideal? No but espec. for elementary school a solution

As long as she will keep up with the level at european schools that would be whats relevant.

[jazzbo]

I have assisted two students in particular in Thailand who went through the public school system in Isaan: One is an honors graduate from Chula which he attended on full scholarship and was recently accepted in the USA into a state university PhD program; the other after being valedictorian of her high school class has attended the London School of Economics and she is now at The City Law School of City University London. Both are totally blind ... they may be the exception but don't let anyone tell you that it cannot be done.