New School Term Soon

[muji]

Dear all,

I understand that Thai schools are having their break now.

Upon their return to school, do they have to pay any fees? school fees or anything else?

Coz my friend is asking to borrow some money- about 12,000 baht-saying that she needs it for school fees for the new term-for 2 kids. ie- 6000baht for each kid.

Is that right?

btw-its a Government school.

Hope friends out there can enlighten me bout the government school system. Thanks!

[BruceMangosteen]

Is that right?

Nope. Doesn't read right. However, I'm sure she has an explanation. Don't force her to lose face and provide it to you. It will only lead to lies which will then drive a wedge between yourself and her as you will think you can no longer trust and rely on anything she says. At that point you will think back and wish you had just given her the money in the first place. BTW, it won't be a loan. It's a gift.

[Ski_Goong]

Dear all,

I understand that Thai schools are having their break now.

Upon their return to school, do they have to pay any fees? school fees or anything else?

Coz my friend is asking to borrow some money- about 12,000 baht-saying that she needs it for school fees for the new term-for 2 kids. ie- 6000baht for each kid.

Is that right?

Could be. I just paid for my and my GF's tuition yesterday (7,500 baht each). We are studying at a government university also.

[Phatcharanan]

Dear all,

I understand that Thai schools are having their break now.

Upon their return to school, do they have to pay any fees? school fees or anything else?

Coz my friend is asking to borrow some money- about 12,000 baht-saying that she needs it for school fees for the new term-for 2 kids. ie- 6000baht for each kid.

Is that right?

btw-its a Government school.

Hope friends out there can enlighten me bout the government school system. Thanks!

Sounds about right. Similar terms at a school in Pattaya...higher fees though but still the same payment due for the new half-term

[BruceMangosteen]

Sounds about right. Similar terms at a school in Pattaya...higher fees though but still the same payment due for the new half-term

Thai Government high schools, middle schools, and primary schools do not charge the students 6000baht upwards per semester for regular programs. Many families can't afford it.

[muji]

Dear all,

Thanks for the speedy reply and information but however, we've got conflicting inputs here..

Some say there are fees , some say no, so what's the real deal?

The kids are in Government run primary school- so is there really any fees to be paid? I'm wondering out loud here coz its kinda weird that students are required to pay such hefty sums to continue a mid term- I will not be surprised if the fees are paid in the new year but mid term?

Thanks again for all the inputs!

[kangeroo]

hi i have 2 kids(not mine) that go to a government school in a village about one hour north of Korat and no they dont have to pay but a fee is asked for i give 2000 bht per term .

[Daffy D]

More conflicting input.

My 5 year old goes to pre-school and though this is at the local Government school it's not part of the system and is run by volunteers and we pay 1000bt per term.

According to my wife Goverment schools are free up to grade 6 that's 11-12 year olds. But apparently many schools ask for monies for extra equipment and dinners and uniforms.

Another point is that if you are trying to get a kid into a new school for the first time it will cost money to ensure your child get a place.

So the answer is there is no definite answer. 6000bt per child could be correct but maybe not. It does sound too much.

What did they pay last term?

Edited October 18, 2009 by Daffy D

[Ijustwannateach]

Your mileage may vary. Government schools have official rates but there are also many unofficial requirements and extras, especially if the school is in high demand. The only way to know for sure is to go to school with the kids and see how the payment is made, and even that can be fudged. Basically, asking random anonymous people here on the internet is not going to give you a good measure of how much you should trust your girlfriend, and the fact you are asking should probably be telling you something already.

[TerryLH]

Paying by the term instead of the year is commonplace here.

Whatever the fee is, it should be lower than the first term because they don't have to buy all the books again.

[PeaceBlondie]

Special programs - English native speaker, EP, MEP, etc., have add-on fees.

[bifftastic]

My g/f has 2 daughters (6 and 8) in school in Chiang Rai and has never mentioned any school fees. Ongoing expenses like books pencils and stuff yes, but never specific tuition fees. When they started school we bought uniforms and gym shoes and stuff but no fees.

[Phatcharanan]

If the kids are also in an EP program or something similar then those fees seem ok. As PB states.......depends also on how good the school is.

[basjke]

Might be that there also is some schoolbus included.If only 30 baht per day for the schoolbus this will already count for 2700 Baht per term per child.

I pay school for a 5 year old who is in an english program school in kindergarten 3 and the school fee including schoolbus was about 45.000 baht for the next term.And his school is among the cheaper ones in english program.

[idrankwhat]

My child is starting the second half of the year on November 4th and I have to pay the other half of the yearly tuition. I see you are getting varying opinions so I would say it depends on the school. You could always ask for the bill, receipt or go pay yourself.

[Pitbullman1]

Dear OP the best thing to do, is to ask your your lady friend if you can go along with her to the school, and see what the score is. If it is true that the school fees need to be paid then you can help her by paying them for her, but on the other hand if she won't allow you to go to school with her, I would be smelling a rat!

Never part with money unless you have a guarantee as to why you are doing this. Many many scams are coming to light, please don't think that I am saying that your friend is attempting to scam you as this is quite the contrary, but I am merely giving you good advice as this happened to my friend. His long time live-in g/f wanted 30,000 THB from him for her son's (not his child) school fees, he insisted that he went with her to the school to pay the fee or he would pay nothing! She refused this! It turned out from a source of information at that school that there were no fees to be paid as yet!

[muji]

Cheers All!

Im still as confused as I was yesterday : ) Probably make a trip myself to see

Nevertheless...thanks all!