Thread: International School Costs

Actually I talk to students from international schools frequently and over the course of the academic year I will generally see a fair number of students from each and every international school in Bangkok. I have been in contact with students at the end of the school "production line" for a number of years so I would say I was quite able to comment appropriately.

I am sorry to say that like for like, when comparing an international school with its Western equivelent, the standards are generally well below what could be expected and given the level of fees, this is quite shocking, nay even a disgrace.

I am not going to name names on here, but several International schools cannot produce students who speak adequate English. Others can't produce students that think critically. Some schools fail on both counts. There are only 1 or 2 schools that consistently produce anything to march the private sector in a western country and that I think is the fair comparison to make, not to compare them with Shit Street Comprehensive in Moss side or any other schools in some sink estate.

When you try to find real information on these international schoo websites its nigh impossible. Loads of glossy pictures but no information on what students actually achieve re exam results

I agree 100% and as a parent myself I am worried that the International schools provide an education and results that are well below what would be expected at a normal private school in the UK. To be fair, Harrow does provide results http://www.harrowschool.ac.th/files/Results.pdf and perhaps I am unfair citing their data, their figures are a lot higher than somewhere like Rasami (which is another British curriculum school). Apologies that I don't know enough about the US system to do a comparison between schools that use a US curriculum. Also bear in mind that this is not a formal study, just pulling figures together from a couple of sources.

Let's compare the figures from Harrow in Bangkok with a "good" fee paying school in the UK ( I used my school which is a semi-decent public school but not a very expensive/very well known one)

GCSE results

GCSE passes A - C

Harrow: 81%
UK Average: 66%
UK Public school: 97.9%

Harrow compare themselves favourably against all UK schools but if you compare them to a decent standard public school, their figures are poor at GCSE level.

Let's look at A levels

At A levels their figures are quite good and Harrow says that most of students "are non-native speakers the results are truly outstanding." (this might be true that most of their students (in the whole school) are non-native speakers but does not necessarily mean that the majority of their A Level students are non-native speakers. They ask the reader to imply a lot into this statement!

I would guess that most Thai students don't do A levels becuase Thai universities do not require them, only students that will go to study outside Thailand would ever need to do A levels but they give no figures to support the number of non-native speakers who DO take A levels there.

Anway I could not find exact figures that match but as an almost equivelent, their figures do stack up quite well when doing a quick comparison

Harrow A-C : 84%
UK Average A-C: 65%
British Public School: A-B: 77.2%

It should also be noted that their AS grades are a lot lower as well, but their A level scores seem to be a lot different when compared to GCSE scores.

AO, there was a great thread on here recently about hiring a good private teacher for the cost of an international school. I thought it was started by Bruce, as he has 3 kids, but it went into great detail with what exactly he was doing and several financial scenarios were mapped out. I can't find it now, after 20 minutes of searching, but you probably participated in it and may remember the one I'm taking about. I was quite impressed with what I read on there and I filed it away in the back of my brain under "revisit if you ever raise a child in Thailand."

^ Sure it was here and not TD mate??? I know there was one he did on there about his kids etc.

Pretty sure it was here as well. Thanks eric, I will search as well.

^ That's it on TD...but apparently it might also be on here (although not that I can see).

Originally Posted by bgood

"Don't get ripped off by Thai schools" by Bruceveld on TD?

That's the one, surprising as I almost never go on TD but I happened across it by chance. A very good read.

Yes I picked on one particular international school, and I said that it was unfair, but hey it's not me that promotes them as being almost the same as the western counterpart. They do promote themselves in that way.

I believe that the comparison has some merit on the following grounds:

1) The fees demanded by some schools are way in excess when related to the quality of educational output produced.

2) Quite a lot of international schools are selective (the better ones anyway) and have a test prior to studying there plus an interview etc. It's not all the schools who accept everyone just based on the size of the parent's wallet.

3) I would argue that the international schools also cream off the top academic portion of society and in the UK too, parental position can often be used to gain a good public school place for any offspring. This is not just a Thai issue!

I should close this by saying I have met some incredibly gifted students from various international schools who would be in the top 1% of anything produced by an elite western school. My only concern is that there are too many schools who are "international" and the costs of the education and the quality they produce is questionable. There are also some Thai schools that I think produce very very good results e.g. Triam Udom Suksa school. These schools are not half as expensive as the international schools available.

As a parent and as this is on the parenting part of the forum, I am concerned about the cost of education for my children and the quality of education that is available. IMHO there are just a few schools that produce anything near the quality of education I would desire and I can see that many parents have to make very difficult choices (especially when the parents are mixed Thai/Western - western btw refers to ideology and way of thinking rather than race!).

triple Science

I guess that means doing each subject seperately? Chemistry/ Physics / Biology?

Maybe I am old but when I was at school everyone did all three subjects.

Now there is the combined GCSE with just 2? Is is worth 3 GCSEs?

^ It chopped and changed mate....I took individual sciences for my options (physics)....whereas my Sister (3 and a half years younger) HAD to take combined science for her options (apparently at that time we had a shortage of 'em or something).

I didn't think it was so fair for her, as if she was weak at one it could/would knock the whole 'grade' down for 'em all AFAIK!!!