International Schools - Big Money Making Machines

[TJG]

- Salaries for specialist teachers (art, physical education, music, technology, etc.) Already covered in my previous post

- Salaries for ESL teachers - Provided by existing teachers

- Salaries for school psychologists, learning support teachers, and other professionals - The parents have to pay this if they want them to come to the school, just ask the parents

Oh, and I just looked at your school's website. It appears that you do have specialist teachers in P.E., music, art, drama, EAL (English as an Additional Language), and Learning Support (which is like Special Education). Do all of these individuals have their own group of students? Do they each have their own group of 15 students paying tuition, or are their salaries covered by the tuition paid by students in the homeroom classrooms?

In terms of the EAL students, the parents have to pay quite a significant extra fee each term, which will more than cover the cost of the teachers, so rather than it being a cost to the school it is a profit earner.

[TJG]

Here's how it looks on paper to me;

Term fee's are around 125,000 per term x 3 terms

375,000 per year ++ with around 15 students per class = 5,625,000 per class per year.

Less 1 Teacher per class get paid 90,000 per month on average = 1,080,000 per year.

Teachers Aid, if the class is young enough they have a Teachers Aid, usually a Thai National which are paid around 15,000 per month or 180,000 per year.

So;

5,625,000 class fee's plus plus per class, less

1,080,000 teacher (maybe a little more for work permit etc)

180,000 teachers aid

4,365,000 per class to cover admin, maintenance, security.

And there are around 800 students at St Andrew's so at 15 students per class, that around 50 classroom x the above.

Here's another flaw in your calculations. You said that term fees are around 125,000 baht/term. If you look at the fee schedule on St. Andrew's website, you will see that the 125,000/term fee is approximately what the parent of a Year 10, only child would pay. Nursery students only cost 68,124 baht for 5 days, and it goes up with each grade level. In fact, term fees for all students up to Year 10 are significantly less than 125,000 baht. Add on top of that the fact that parents get a 7,000-18,000 baht discount (per term!) for subsequent children, and you should be able to see how wrong your calculations are. Unless of course you also want to argue that there are NO families at your school who have multiple children enrolled, and that ALL students at St. Andrews are in Year 10 or above.

Why are you doubting a parent? The website must be out of date. My own son is just about to enter year 4 and I will be paying nearly 120,000 Baht per term next year.

[tonititan]

- Salaries for specialist teachers (art, physical education, music, technology, etc.) Already covered in my previous post

- Salaries for ESL teachers - Provided by existing teachers

- Salaries for school psychologists, learning support teachers, and other professionals - The parents have to pay this if they want them to come to the school, just ask the parents

Oh, and I just looked at your school's website. It appears that you do have specialist teachers in P.E., music, art, drama, EAL (English as an Additional Language), and Learning Support (which is like Special Education). Do all of these individuals have their own group of students? Do they each have their own group of 15 students paying tuition, or are their salaries covered by the tuition paid by students in the homeroom classrooms?

In terms of the EAL students, the parents have to pay quite a significant extra fee each term, which will more than cover the cost of the teachers, so rather than it being a cost to the school it is a profit earner.

Yeah, I saw that after I posted, when I was looking at the fees page. My question still stands for the specialist teachers and learning support teachers, though.

[tonititan]

Why are you doubting a parent? The website must be out of date. My own son is just about to enter year 4 and I will be paying nearly 120,000 Baht per term next year.

The school's website says that a Year 4 student pays 111,500 baht (or 100,350 if it's a subsequent student) in tuition fees. That sounds about right if your child is paying nearly 120,000. If that amount isn't accurate anymore, then perhaps a parent should draw that to the attention of someone at the school.

And yes, in case someone asks, I do realize that the oldest students (Year 11) pay significantly more than the other grades. It just goes to show that the financial situation of a school is very complex, and a simple "one size fits all" formula isn't enough to calculate how much profit a school might be making.

[Jimmyd]

I think both sides are right--it is hugely expensive to run these schools, and some of these schools are making a killing.

Right now there are so many 'international schools' in Thailand, it's ridiculous. The standards at the top schools are as has been mentioned in this thread. The standards at other international schools vary greatly, with very few coming even close to the top schools. Many international schools hire locally, which is much cheaper, and do not offer any tickets to their teachers, and that's just a couple of the many differences.

I do not personally know the situation at St. Andrews, but I suspect the standards are not nearly as high as at ISB or Bangkok Patana School. However, their fees appear to be much lower too.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Jimmyd