Khon Kaen Vithes Suksa Bilingual School. Up to date info?

[hotsoup]

Anyone got children at this school? Any up to date information? Have grown slight suspicious of veracity of School websites!!

[Rooo]

Moved to Isaan Forum.

[Neeranam]

The Primary is very good and the secondary is not. Both are remarkably overpriced.

[sheepshank]

My 12 year-old daughter crossed over the school quadrangle to the Mathayom side at KKVS this year having spent 1 year in Kindergarten and 6 years in Prathom and I am happy to say I am in complete agreement with Neeranam when he says Prathom is “very good” because, it is.

Where I beg to differ is with regard to the cost of the education at KKVS which he calls “remarkably overpriced”. The websites for 3 of the 4 bilingual schools in Khon Kaen list their scale of fees; the only school which doesn’t is KKVS but never mind, I can refer to my recent bills. So, here is my best estimate of what it would cost a parent to send a P1-6 student to each of the 4 schools for one semester this year (not including non-refundable registration fee) based on the information promulgated on their websites:-

Patanadek – tuition 50,000 – extras included in tuition (no school bus) – total 50,000

NEBS – tuition 50,000 – extras approx 13,000 (incl school bus) – total approx 64,000

Mataneedol – tuition 58,000 – extras approx 16,000 (incl school bus) – total approx 74,000

KKVS – tuition 69,840 – extras 20,340 (incl school bus) – total 90,180

NB: If parents have wildly differing figures for any of these schools please post them so that the record can be put straight.

KKVS is relatively expensive but not “remarkably” so when you consider what is on offer for the price. Note that KKVS is the only bilingual school in Khon Kaen to offer an education from pre-Kindergarten up to Mathayom 6 with appropriate educational and recreational facilities to match. The other three schools stop at Prathom 6.

The school is expanding and a new classroom block is under construction to cater for the ever increasing school roll. Where there used to be one class for each year, there are now 2 classes for some years to keep the teacher/student ratio low. Core subjects in Mathayom are “streamed” so that the brighter students are not kept back by the slower learners, and the slower learners benefit from small class sizes and the consequent extra attention they receive from the teaching staff.

All members of the teaching staff are qualified in accordance with Thai MoE requirements and a large proportion of the NES staff members have been teaching at the school for longer than the 7 years my daughter has been there to date. Staff turnover is low which helps to make a child’s education more stable.

I accept Neeranam’s contention that the Mathayom side of KKVS has not been as good as the primary, but in the past they haven’t been too choosy about who to accept in order to get b*ms on seats. Those students who don’t make the grade for Satit or Khon Kaen Wittayayon EP etc at M1 or M4 are often enrolled at KKVS because their parents have run out of other options and they can afford the fees required to keep their loved one off the streets. I know for a fact that some students arrive there, after 6 years Prathom elsewhere in the city, not even knowing their 2 times table or even being able to communicate coherently in either Thai or English. What is that they say about sows’ ears and silk purses?

From this academic year 2014/15 onwards KKVS is teaching and examining the three core subjects, English, Maths and Science under the auspices of the UK-based educational organization, Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), which is the world’s largest provider of international education programmes and qualifications for 5 to 19 year olds.

Over 10,000 schools in 160 countries are signed up to CIE and their qualifications are accepted world-wide. CIE coverage of all three core subjects at KKVS applies to P1-6 and M1-3 for the time being. M4-6 coverage is currently limited to English only but the aim is to include additional subjects in the future as those who have been educated under the CIE system move up to senior Mathayom level. The bulk of the remainder of the curriculum is taught in Thai to Thai MoE requirements.

I’d like to add here that when KKVS was inspected by the MoE audit team (English readers – think OFSTED) last month, the school was awarded an excellent (same as OFSTED – Outstanding) rating which is the highest award they can give. So the school must be doing something right!

Winds of change are blowing through the school following CIE accreditation. The parents of those Mathayom students whose performance is considered to be below par have been warned by the management, in writing, to the effect that extra effort is required on the part of those students in order to achieve a pass mark. What happens if they continue to perform below par? I have no idea how tough the school will get, but brown envelopes thick with legal tender notes, passed under-the-table, wont answer the problem at KKVS.

I hope that CIE accreditation will make the school an attractive proposition for those parents of more able children who desire an international school education for them but are put off by the huge outlay. What I think we have here is “bilingual-plus”, a halfway house between bilingual and international and I suggest that the fees thus represent excellent value for money.

In summary:-

“The Primary is very good” – agreed wholeheartedly

“Secondary is not” – agreed, up to a point; but the outlook is improving for those who are prepared to study hard, with CIE now onboard

“Both are remarkably overpriced” – I submit, not when compared with international schools, which is the comparison we should be making because KKVS is not just another bilingual school. It is the only CIE accredited school in Northeastern Thailand.

[Seismicman]

The new international school has opened, but I don't think that they cover all the school years, also the first terms prices seem a little extreme

http://www.khonkaenschool.com/index.php/admission/tuition-and-fees

[laolover88]

It was the absence of CiE that disinclined us to pursue it further. Need to know which of the CiE modules they will be offering; several available. And where they have sourced the staff. The fees for an M6 diploma were daft. We'll go to KK and have look!

[noopin2014]

Hi there, nobody have experienced the bilingual school Patanadek ?


http://www.patanadek.ac.th

What do you think ?

[danbradster]

Some up to date info for KKVS - 

My questions, and their answers:
 

1. What is the minimum/starting age for students?
2. Is there some kind of ranking that shows how the school results
compare to international, Thai and Isaan schools?
3. What is the rough proportion of mixed nationality and non-Thai students?
4. Is the culture partly similar to AU-NZ?
5. What is the rough fees per semester or year.
 

The minimum age for students here at school is 2.5 years. That is the Pre-K class. 
In terms of ranking the best measure is where the students go upon graduation. Our students go to universities both here and abroad and have no trouble getting into courses. Our students have become doctors , engineers, pharmacists etc. The school has a rigid policy of only appointing trained and qualified teachers. Our definition of a qualified teacher in terms of the foreign staff is that they are able to teach in their country of origin - currently that means NZ, UK or the US.
Mixed nationality students make up about 30% of the school. Most of the rest are Thais.
The school is run very similarly to schools in NZ or Australia with the styles of teaching and also the expectations.
The fees are around the 100,000 baht per semester [ 2 semesters 1 year]