My daughter has been attending school for approx 9 months. Yesterday, a teacher from the school asked if they could make a home visit later that day. I said ok but they never turned up!!

Is it normal for schools/govt to attend students' homes?

BTW there are no Thai people residing in my house. Would this prompt a visit?

Quite normal for teachers to visit the homes of the students and chat with the parents about their child's progress, if there was any sort of problem they'd probably ask you to visit the school.

cheers for that

I absolutely refuse their visit. None of their damn business. They have tried to convince my wife to convince me and it does not work. So they asked if they could take a picture of my son and wife outside the gate.

I told them, that it is ok, only if the entire family is included, included Fat Albert, my 3 meter burmese python.

They said: " mai bpen rai, ka".

At my school all students are visited at home once a year by their homeroom teacher, that is also done at other government schools in the region.

My school does it before wai kru, as on that day scholarships are handed out and they check which students are in need of support.

Wow, you learn something new everyday. I had never heard of schools making home visits.

In the old days- say 10 or 20 years ago, yearly home visits were standard. Now the practice seems to be fading away.

Primary and lower secondary schools seem to have home visits senior schools less.

All of them have a conferance day early in each term where the home room teacher drones on endlessly. They also meet with the parents as do all the teachers. Attendance for these by parents at my niece's school is very very high compared with that at parents nightss at Australian schools.

Home visits usually consist of the teacher telling you what a good student your child is and taking a photo of the family. It lets them have some idea of the home situation which can help if it is seen that a student living in a one room house with one 20 watt lightbulb is having dificulty with homework etc.

That may have been the initial idea. With "modern Thailand", that idea is passé and paranoia creeps in. My argument is the same, whether it be school visits or PRISM. It is none of their dam_n business.

If teachers see a kid who is emaciated, always dirty, has bruise marks, withdrawn, etc etc etc, then ok, do a visit.

My son is well fed, emotionally balanced, hard headed, stubborn, dislikes reading, loves our dog, hates vegetables and fruit, clean and kicks the sh!t out of me when play-fighting.

My understanding is that they're pretty much just parent/teacher interviews, so that the parents can find out a bit more about how their child is doing, and the teachers can voice the concerns of the school to the parents. I always relish the opportunity to talk to the parents of my students, as often the parents are completely oblivious as to what their child is/isn't doing.

A couple of times our western teachers have been asked to visit the houses of our English program students, although they know it's a bit of a hassle to organise this since we are relatively stubborn when it comes to working outside of business hours.

Personally I think it's a great idea, and a great opportunity for the teachers and teachers to communicate. I knew that my school does it, but thought all of the schools in Thailand did it.

Also the photos which the teachers take, are part of showing the school that they've done the visits, and thus are working diligently. Which will hopefully improve their chances of an increase to their pay grade.

At my school all students are visited at home once a year by their homeroom teacher, that is also done at other government schools in the region.

My school does it before wai kru, as on that day scholarships are handed out and they check which students are in need of support.

That's right. My wife has to do it every year, luckily there's not many students in her class. It's nothing to do with snooping, the school usually wants to know which students may need assistance with costs for trips etc.

I was their driver last year and seeing the level of poverty of some of the students was heartbreaking.

That may have been the initial idea. With "modern Thailand", that idea is passé and paranoia creeps in. My argument is the same, whether it be school visits or PRISM. It is none of their dam_n business.

If teachers see a kid who is emaciated, always dirty, has bruise marks, withdrawn, etc etc etc, then ok, do a visit.

My son is well fed, emotionally balanced, hard headed, stubborn, dislikes reading, loves our dog, hates vegetables and fruit, clean and kicks the sh!t out of me when play-fighting.

Any school that offers to visit the home to discuss the child's progress (or otherwise) is a plus for me.

Seriously............why would you refuse?