Bilingual Schools In Pattaya

[Vespa]

First off is Regents really worth the money ?

I spoke to one teacher off campus and was told the owners greed is amazing.

Anyone have first hand experience with the quality of the schools in the area ?

What do you suggest as being a good school

[expatgaz]

First off is Regents really worth the money ?

I spoke to one teacher off campus and was told the owners greed is amazing.

Anyone have first hand experience with the quality of the schools in the area ?

What do you suggest as being a good school

Good post.I've asked the same question before and don't get to much in a way of positive responsers.There seems to be half a dozen schools in the Pattaya area so please any sound advice much appreciated.

EPG.

[Vespa]

Good post.I've asked the same question before and don't get to much in a way of positive responsers.There seems to be half a dozen schools in the Pattaya area so please any sound advice much appreciated.

EPG.

I have the same problem , this forum should have some people w/ direct experience.

Please share your views

[Phil Conners]

This has been discussed before, try for example this search

Anyway, first a bit about terminology:

Regents is an international school - not bilingual. There are quite a few international schools around, they follow UK/US curriculum and generally cost around 600-800k baht/year + a signup fee of around 200k baht. Regents and Andrews are supposed to be the best of the bunch. Others such as the PIS (sorry, ISP) is IMO a joke. The best ones employ European, American and Australian teachers.

"Are international schools worth the money". Well that depends. If you are only here for a short time and your kids have to return to the west you might want to use an international school due to it's international curriculum, but I don't know anyone who pays for it out of their own pocket - eveyone I know with kids there are expats with the school paid for by their expat package. Another thing to consider is that the international school do not include any Thai with the standard curriculum (but you can add lessons for $$$)

Bilingual schools in Pattaya includes Wuttichot and "Best". They are much cheaper, around 60k baht plus a 10-20k signup fee. The staff is mostly Thai, Philipine and Europeans with unknown qualifications.

In my experience the "bilingual schools" are just profit machines for "farang suckers" and are definitely NOT worth the money. My daughter went to Wuttichot for a year and it was NOT recommendable. The buildings were in a very poor state, the kids toilet was broken for half of a school year and she would bring back notes from the school weekly with requirements for stationary stuff we'd need to bring for "projects" the next day. Teachers come and go and I was often wondering about their qualifications - for example, I heard of one case with a married teacher couple where the wife was banned from teaching in UK and the husband was plainly without any teaching qualifications.

Private Thai schools include Satit Udomsuksa, Aksorn and a catholic school (near Wuttichot, sorry the name escapes me ATM). They are a little less expensive than the bilingual schools, but not much. The private Thai schools seem to be non-profit organisations and appear to offer the best value. My daughter has been going to Satit for the last 2 years and love it there. They have been expanding like crazy the last year which just show their popularity.

Finally there are the public Thai schools which I believe are free (or nearly free). Their quality varies greatly, some a reasonable, some not. They seem all to be run by very old-fashioned - or at best "Thai" - methods, learning by rote, never questioning the teacher, physical punishment used etc.

[sbk]

This thread is being discussed in the Family & Children forum as well here. I will close this one and leave the one in family and children open as it seems to have generated more response.

In the future, please do not double post as it leads to the confusion we have already seen with this double post. Thanks