school

[alan 100]

Good day all i am thinking of moving to chiang mai ,but before doing so i need to find out a little about schooling my daughter,she is eleven years old and at present in grade 4 she is from an english background and does not speak a word of thai. I have been told that international schools are very costly and i am starting to worry that i will not be able to afford her schooling, can anyone shed more light on the subject possible give me some info on schools in chiang mai and what i might be expected to pay per term or if anyone knows of a private school in chiang mai that might be able to accommodate her. Kind regards ALAN

[paulchiangmai]

Plenty of private schools around Chiang Mai that are not too expensive, my daughter attends a school with about three hundred pupils, it costs about 22,000 baht a YEAR. Your daughter would undoubtable have a set back initially until she learnt some Thai, if she is around other kids that converse in Thai she would pick some up pretty quickly. You can also pay for private lessons in the Thai language. On the plus side think how far ahead she will be in English. Good luck.

[Thailaw]

With no Thai speaking/reading/writing capability, your child needs an "international school", at least to start. As she develops some Thai speaking/reading/writing capability you could move her to a Thai private school with an English program. But if she speaks no Thai, I do not see that (the EP at a Thai private school) as a viable option for at least the first several years, maybe longer. She would be lost in such an environment. International schools are not cheap, but they are not that expensive. Not knowing your budget or ability to pay for an international school education, it is not possible to say if it is a hurdle for you. There are several international schools in the Chiang Mai area that are considered good and also considered "affordable". An example (only 1 example) is Lana International School, which has a site on the internet with fees posted. There are others, and you can easily do a Google search. Lana has enrollment fees of B14,000 and tuition for an 11 year old student of about B213,000, so total fees for a year would be about B227,000, and there will undoubtedly be extras -- uniforms, Thai classes, etc. You should budget B250,000 I would estimate. You may find cheaper international schools and you will no doubt find more expensive ones, but Lana gives you a good "ballpark" estimate of the cost per year of international school for your daughter. If you can afford that, you should be fine; if you cannot, you have a problem. And keep in mind that international schools in other areas, such as Bangkok, are much more expensive that Chiang Mai, by approximately 50% and more.