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Table of International Schools
Below, Thailand Guru has a big table of international schools in Thailand, but before viewing it, you should read all this text above it. What is called an "international school" in Thailand may not be so international, and there is a grey level. While many of the schools listed below have a majority foreign population, many others have less than 10% foreign students but follow an American or British curriculum and style and teach classes in the English language. That said, I believe this table is a complete list of the major "international" schools in Thailand, i.e., those which have foreign students in them and teach in English or another non-Thai, foreign language. The original Thailand Guru table was compiled in 1999, and I have added and dropped some schools based on feedback from website visitors, reviewing others' lists on the internet (which I double-checked item by item), search engines and indexes (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.), and a hardcover book I have on international schools in Thailand from 2003 (now out of print, but available for viewing in the Thailand Guru office). Notably, there are a lot of poorly maintained lists out on the internet. An example is the list of 43 international schools on the Thai government's Ministry of Education website at www.moe.go.th/English/list_sch.htm which doesn't provide website links (just addresses, phone numbers, and tidbits) and misses some major schools in the ISAT list discussed below. The best list I've found (all considered) has 75 schools, on the International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT) website, which is a generally informative website at www.isat.or.th, giving you a standard information page on each member school's purpose, student age range, tuition fees, accredited by, and a short summary on each school, plus the key email and website info. ISAT membership has skyrocketed from 19 member schools when I first compiled this school list around the year 2000 to about 75 ISAT member schools in October 2006, and it appears that every major international school has coughed up its dues to get on the list. (Referencing ISAT here does not imply that I recommend sticking to ISAT member schools. I reference their website simply because it has a standard format for comparing schools, and is an established organization since 1994 whose mandate is to provide information on multiple international schools in Bangkok and therefore shouldn't be a transient or expeditiously compiled source. I've heard complaints by some school officials that ISAT doesn't do much for its high dues, and some schools aren't interested in the membership into that nonprofit quasi-business.) For members of ISAT, I have included a shortcut link to the ISAT page on that particular school. For kindergartens and other things for preschool children, I recommend you consult with BAMBI, the not-for-profit Bangkok Mothers and Babies International organization which has a website at www.bambiweb.org (the previous website was bambi-bangkok.org which was switched to the new domain bambiweb.org) which is a good start but incomplete as a volunteer effort. They have a 25 year history but maybe a natural turnover of babies and mothers ... and admin? A problem with kindergartens is that too many essentially Thai language kindergartens are calling themselves "international" even some are little more than floundering places with nannies. If I included all the "international" kindergartens, my list would be way too long, and indeed I trimmed down the list of kindgergartens to those with decent websites and/or those recommended by parents I've spoken to (especially from our real estate business) and website visitor feedback. The list on this website is only intended to give you a short list of schools to consider, narrowed down by your home region, child's age, cost, and language or curriculum. From there, you should click on their websites, and of course visit your shortlist of schools and take a close independent look for yourself. You should discuss with them issues such as native English teachers, student nationality mix, staff and management, transport for students, and parental involvement events, which are usually not discussed on their websites. In person, I can give more customized feedback, but I really don't want to put much in writing here because if I expand to another level of detail for some schools, then I may as well write a book on international schools here in order to be fair to all of the schools, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. (I have such a book in my office, on international schools in Thailand, written by a fairly unbiased professional. Unfortunately, it's out of print and a few years old.) For public discussions on schools, please see our new web based forum's discussion set for launch on November 1, 2007 (but you can go ahead and post now). I'm working on a map of Bangkok to show the relative locations of international schools in Bangkok. This is all a lot of work, so the feedback is appreciated in more ways than one!
Column 3 has the curriculum (British, American, IB, etc.) and/or the languages abbreviated as E=English, F=French, G=German, J=Japanese, M=Mandarin, and T=Thai. IB = International Bacclaureate, presumably as approved by the International Bacclaureate Organization at www.ibo.org Column 4 is the per "term" or "semester" (/T), or per year (/Y), cost x 1000 Thai baht, e.g., 120-240 means 120,000 to 240,000 Thai baht. There are usually 3 terms per year. I don't just multiply x3 because payment terms may vary and I didn't double-check the schools to see if 3 terms/year. If not clear which, then I put /?. It does not include the "application fee" for first time students, which most schools require and which is usually quite substantial (comparable to a term fee), nor does it include an additional "admission" fee for some, and there may be additional textbook, food, computer facility, library, school "development", and other fees. Make sure you find out *all* fees -- one-time up front costs, recurrent per term costs, and any other fees -- on paper or by email, stating there are no more significant hidden costs. To convert Thai Baht (THB) into your own currency, see the calculator at OANDA. The table is organized by region. Central Bangkok schools not far from skytrain: Sukhumvit, Ploenchit, Silom, Sathorn schools
You may also want to browse condos, apartments, and houses near the skytrain courtesy of kkBkk.com
kkBkk has a list of homes in the Bang Na, Samut Prakarn, and Sri Nakarin region.
kkBkk.com has a list of properties in the Bangkapi-Minburi suburban region of Bangkok.
kkBkk has a list of suburban Bangkok homes in Nonthaburi as well as in Rangsit, Pathum Thani, and RamIndra (two separate searches).
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