experiences of korat schools

[joefarang]

hi,

i am currently trying to decide whether to stay in thailand or move back to the uk with my wife and young family(son 3, baby due june)

the main reason i am tending towards thinking about moving back to the uk is educating my kids in a decent system.

i would be interested to hear about any of your experiences educating your kids in the korat area - good or bad or otherwise 

i am aware from the other "korat schools" thread that opinion is divided on the schools offering english language curriculum, so i am widening the debate to all schools in the area - thai/english/private/government/whatever.

any info very much appreciated.

george

[dereklev]

I wouldn't worry too much at the moment as the for the Anuban years (nursery/kindrgarten) there are some good schools.

Plookpanya I can personally vouch for as my son attended for a term. He loved the school but did not enjoy living in Korat. He had few friends there whereas in our home village, near NonThai, he is surrounded by cousins and friends. I think they now offer classes up to the age of 11 or 12.

My son, now 5, goes to a Government school in NonThai and is very happy there. I certainly will not be considering moving back to Korat for his education in the near future.

Sunshine kindergarten is another I have heard good reports about.

If you are worried about your son learning English then do as we do and speak only English at home. I plan on getting my son a couple of hours a week of private tution to teach him grammar more than anything else.

With the big influx of Farang into the Korat area in the past couple of years I am sure that the English language choices will only improve.

[VulcanDanny]

George, its a difficult decision to make. Basicly I am agree with Derek, don't worry too much about kindergarden years.

Most kindergardens i have seen here in Thailand are much better than in my homecountry (Switzerland). In English-Programm-Schools they start to read and write English and Thai from the age of 3 years and they do it by playing games, watching pictures or movies. Its fun for the kids and they learn very easy. I was surprised, how easy my son learned both languages.

Another thing is the education at real school from 1st grade on. If you do not have the money to send your kids to a private, international school (THB 100'000 up per term), the education is very bad, even in English curriculum schools like Mary Vitayakom or Assumtion. The system is bad, kids from higher ranked parents in the society can't fail and the classes are too big. The teachers do not have the chance to take care of the kids, even if they want to.

Before we were living in Chiang-Rai, where my son went to a small, private school. That school was the best I've ever seen in Thailand. Very small classes (7 kids only), good foreign teachers with an open learning system. For personal reasons, we moved to Korat 15 month ago, now my son (11 years old) goes to the Assumtion College.

He's bored there because they do learn very slow and as i told before, the classes are too big. I also will have to make a decision soon but I am in the same situation like you. Until now, i did not found a good school yet which i can pay.

For me its sure, that in Europe the education ist much better than here. They have a system here you can not brake. Teachers do what they have to do but not more.

Basicly i can say that private schools are better than governement schools. The cousin of my son goes to a well known governement school. He is 2 years older than my son and also 2 grades higher but he knows much less than my son and he still can not read and write English (7th grade!!)

George, I will let u know if I found a solution.

Vulcandanny

[joefarang]

derek/danny,

good replies from both of you guys - thanks very much.

to explain my situation a bit further : i work offshore on a 6/3 rotation in saudi, so 6 weeks in 9 i am away and although alex is picking up english from me when i am at home, it's only a few words compared to the thai he now speaks.

that said i am not totally closed to the idea of a quality education in thai if it's available - i know there are a number of schools in bangkok that have a good reputation and teach in thai.

however it's looking from what you guys are saying as if the most obvious option is private (the international school in khao yai is just round the corner).  my concern with these places is that despite the fees the quality of education is still compromised.  there also exists within these schools favouritism towards very wealthy thai kids.  also heard that they have plenty problems with discipline and the various vices associated with spoilt kids - drugs, cliques/gangs, etc etc ....

korat it seems is still just not international enough to offer a wide choice ......

any further thoughts anyone?

[MrChokChai]

^ open a school!

mcc.

[dereklev]

^ open a school!

mcc.

That's what the owner of Plookpanya did He didn't like any of the schools in Korat for his kids so he opened his own.

I think it's a great school and would happily educate Matthew there but now we will wait until he is 8 or 9 before moving back to Korat for his schooling. I think that his personal happiness is worth more than education at the age of 5.

George, it is usual for children who are exposed to 2 languages from birth to be slow starters and to favour the language of their environment. When my son was 3 I was 2 months here and a month back in England but while I was away my wife spoke mainly English to him at home.

Cartoon Network is your friend, plonk him in front of the TV and let him watch cartoons in English. It really is all about exposure to English at the age of 3. Get your wife to buy DVDs and not VCDs and alternate his viewing between Thai and English.

I find it interesting that none of the members who are teachers have answered your post. Maybe their silence is the answer to the availability of a good education in Korat

[Dragonfly25]

Perhaps parents should get together with some teachers and open a school as suggested.
Make it a non-profit and pay the teachers decent wages so you can hire good staff.

I'm sure there are enough foreign Father's and Thai people who'd like a Montessorri type school.

[joefarang]

^ open a school!

mcc.

That's what the owner of Plookpanya did He didn't like any of the schools in Korat for his kids so he opened his own.

I think it's a great school and would happily educate Matthew there but now we will wait until he is 8 or 9 before moving back to Korat for his schooling. I think that his personal happiness is worth more than education at the age of 5.

George, it is usual for children who are exposed to 2 languages from birth to be slow starters and to favour the language of their environment. When my son was 3 I was 2 months here and a month back in England but while I was away my wife spoke mainly English to him at home.

Cartoon Network is your friend, plonk him in front of the TV and let him watch cartoons in English. It really is all about exposure to English at the age of 3. Get your wife to buy DVDs and not VCDs and alternate his viewing between Thai and English.

I find it interesting that none of the members who are teachers have answered your post. Maybe their silence is the answer to the availability of a good education in Korat

yep, i use cartoon network and various dvd releases in english and they help.

[SDJohn]

George
If I had kids of school age, I would not send them to any of the private schools in Korat. Such as Assumption College.
They have a can't fail policy and no system disipline at all. The kids in the English program all come from rich families that are paying for a piece of paper (diplioma) that says they have money.

I know two parents that pulled their kids out mid term because this school is just a diploma mill.

If you can, send them back to your home country or home school if they must stay close to Korat.

[MPO]

I personally will look to online tuition ie www.teachertom.com, for one, when the time arises. I also considered returning to the UK but then sat down to recall why I came here. The thought of going back scares me.

[joefarang]

George
If I had kids of school age, I would not send them to any of the private schools in Korat. Such as Assumption College.
They have a can't fail policy and no system disipline at all. The kids in the English program all come from rich families that are paying for a piece of paper (diplioma) that says they have money.

I know two parents that pulled their kids out mid term because this school is just a diploma mill.

If you can, send them back to your home country or home school if they must stay close to Korat.

yep - this can't fail system is the one i want to avoid.  producing paper evidence of nothing more than attendance for rich kids.  it's bollocks!

[joefarang]

I personally will look to online tuition ie www.teachertom.com, for one, when the time arises. I also considered returning to the UK but then sat down to recall why I came here. The thought of going back scares me.

same here! i'm totally conflicted between getting the kids the best education i can and going back to live in cold, wet, expensive, uptight, crappy old scotland!

[MPO]

JoeFarang,
We all want the best for our children even if it means making sacrifices ourselves, but like you, I'm thinking a little premature. My eldest is 2 and I think that buys me time to see if situations change. I'm sure it will so don't jump too soon as you may regret it. You've plenty of time to keep all options open. Good luck in your decision.

[joefarang]

JoeFarang,
We all want the best for our children even if it means making sacrifices ourselves, but like you, I'm thinking a little premature. My eldest is 2 and I think that buys me time to see if situations change. I'm sure it will so don't jump too soon as you may regret it. You've plenty of time to keep all options open. Good luck in your decision.

thx mate, it's certainly a tough one!

[kev_o]

I have two kids both in Marrie Vittiya school, one is in the English programme and one in the Thai programme, personally I am not to impressed by either however from doing a fair bit of research on what school to send them to this is where they ended up. Both of my kids attended international schools in various country's in both the UK and American system before returning to Korat, is there a difference, very much so however is it going to affect their chances of further education, me, I do not think so. I, like everyone else only want the best for my kids however i firmly believe that further education, ie. university is what matters for their future. So I asked myself the question, can they gain access to an accredited university for example abroad or in Bangkok through graduating from a Thai high school, the answer is yes. I pretty much decided to keep any money that I would otherwise spend on an international school for their further education. Both the kids still talk about their old schools and how they miss them, I believe the curriculum in an international school is much more varied and children friendly, however if they learn the basics of reading and writing here in Korat I am happy enough, common sense and realizing that their is a world out side of Thailand is something they will learn from me and their travels. Another point to consider is all the Thai professionals that we see daily, doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc.....how many of them were educated in an international school or for that matter abroad during primary and secondary years, probably not many, however maybe a few were for their university education, maybe. I worked for a large multinational company a few years back, many of the senior managers in Asia and throughout the world were Thai, I only knew one person who went to university in the US, the rest were educated for the most part locally and then later attended university in Bangkok. I have quite a few friends here in Thailand who's children are now at the age of finishing high school, these are kids with Farang fathers, two of them have been educated throughout their high school years at international schools, one in Bangkok and one abroad, despite the parents wishes neither will leave school with much in the way of qualifications and neither have any interest in further education, waste of money?, depends how you look at it, they were given the opportunity but never took advantage of it. Another friend's son will go to Canada to attend college, he was at a Thai private school in Chonburi.
I have debated taking the kids to Bangkok for school and still think about it, the main reason being that I am not totally happy with their current school, I will probably wait until my daughter is ready for high school however I'm pretty sure that the school will be a Thai school and not an international one. With better management the some of the schools here in Korat could be fine however like many things here there is no foresight, for example, the English programme that my kid attends will finish at year 5 I believe, the school give the poor excuse of not being able to find teachers for each subject and suggest that the kids can go study abroad instead which is pretty unrealistic. So basically a class of kids educated in the ep programme will need to either join back in to the Thai programme or find an alternate school. This alone annoys me and is a typical example of a poorly managed system and is not fair on the kids. Anyway, bit of a ramble from me here but just some thoughts. Cheers.