Thread: Don't get ripped off by Thai schools

My first expereince in Thailand was visiting some friends who lived in Chang Wattana and sent thier kids to ISB--all at company expense. My friend argues that ISB was an excellent school and worth every penny. I argued that you can do a lot of educating with $15 per hour per kid for the time they spend in school (including study hall and lunch time).

I have three kids and, as it works out, I live too far away from the nearest over-priced international school. It gives me a convenient excuse to avoid paying their ridiculous fees. Tey just hire my TEFL grads anyway!!

So what do I do with my kids? I send them to Thai school every other year and I hire one of my TEFL grads to tutor them on alternate years (home schooling). I buy books (mainly when I go back home but there is a heck of a lot on the internet for free or a very low access fee) that have the curriculum they need to cover and the tutor spends 5 hours a day with them (for 30,000 baht per month).

I also have UBC and INSIST that they ONLY watch English programming and give them prizes and gifts for reading English books (my 13 year old has read all Harry Potter books and recently finished The Stand (all 1,400 pages) by Steven King. All for a new (and admittedly nice) guitar.They all seem to love Discovery Channel.

The results? All three of my kids are completely fluent in English and Thai. All of them do well in school (they even spent a few months back in the US and were top of their classes).

We've managed all this for 720,000 total in tutor bills over 7 years. Total for all three kids.