Schools in Thailand when you move back with kids

Moving back with children turns one big decision into two: where you live, and where they go to school. The two are tied together by traffic, fees and, most of all, how much Thai your kids have right now. This page lays out the options and the questions to ask. It doesn’t rank schools or name any; every family’s answer is different. For why people make the move at all, see moving back to Thailand.

Last checked 14 October 2026. School rules, fees and calendars change. Confirm everything with the school and, for enrolment rules, the Ministry of Education or the district education office.

What kinds of schools are there in Thailand?

Broadly, four:

• Thai government schools. Run by the state and taught in Thai. The 2017 Constitution promises twelve years of free education, from pre-school to the end of compulsory schooling. Families may still pay for things like uniforms and extras, so ask what is covered. For a child who can already follow lessons in Thai, it’s the most direct way into Thai life and friendships.
• Thai private schools. Fee-paying, and many are run by charitable or religious organisations, Catholic orders among them. They follow the Thai national curriculum and vary a lot in style.
• English Programme (EP) and bilingual schools or tracks. According to Wikipedia’s summary, students in the English Programme learn every subject in English except Thai and social studies. Some government and private schools run an EP track next to their Thai track; ask whether it costs extra.
• International schools. Taught in a foreign language, usually English, following an international curriculum (for example British, American or International Baccalaureate) or one approved by the Ministry of Education. The Office of the Private Education Commission counted 275 international schools in the 2025 school year: 125 in Bangkok and 150 in other regions. The schools’ association, ISAT, keeps a member directory.

How does the Thai school year work?

Thai schooling runs six years of primary (prathom, P1–P6, from about age 6), three years of lower secondary (matthayom, M1–M3) and three years of upper secondary (M4–M6). Primary and lower secondary, nine years in all, are compulsory. Before that come kindergarten and a pre-school year.

The calendar is the part that catches families out:

• Thai state schools start in mid-May. For 2026, the Secretary-General of the Basic Education Commission said most of its schools would open on Monday 18 May, and some on 14 or 15 May. According to Wikipedia’s summary, the first semester then runs to late September or early October, and the second from late October or November to February or March.
• Some international schools follow an August-to-July year in three terms, closer to the British calendar.
• Private schools vary; ask each one.

So the month you move matters. Arriving in July can mean joining a Thai school mid-semester or an international school at the start of its year. Ask the school what it does with mid-year arrivals and which grade it would place your child in.

Can a Thai child go to an international school?

Yes. According to Wikipedia’s summary, Thai nationals were kept out of international schools until a ban was lifted in 1992; we couldn’t confirm that from an official page.

What we could confirm is the Thai lessons. A guideline from the Office of the Private Education Commission, published in the Royal Gazette on 4 August 2026, sets a time framework for Thai language, Thai culture and Thai history at international schools. For Thai students it’s 20 hours a year in pre-school and 150 hours a year from primary through lower secondary; for foreign students it’s 20 and 30. In upper secondary it’s 150 hours a year for Thai students, or at least 600 over four years, and it can be an elective for foreign students. The guideline’s example curricula teach Thai as a mother tongue or first language to Thai students and as a foreign language to foreign students. The guideline calls itself flexible and lets each school adapt it, so ask the school how many Thai hours your child would get, and whether it counts a child with two passports as Thai.

Whether your child is registered as Thai can change both the paperwork and the Thai timetable. Start with registering a birth at a Thai embassy and the order of things in moving to Thailand as a luk khrueng.

What curricula do international schools follow?

The common ones are a British curriculum, an American curriculum and the International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB has four programmes: the Primary Years Programme (ages 3 to 12), the Middle Years Programme (12 to 16), and, for 16 to 19, the Diploma Programme and the Career-related Programme.

If you might move again later, it’s worth asking which curriculum would make the move easiest for your child, in either direction.

What about a child who understands Thai but answers in English?

That child is very common, and nothing has gone wrong. Understanding usually runs ahead of speaking in bilingual children; we cover why, and what helps, in raising bilingual Thai kids and should my kid go to Saturday Thai school?

For school, it means three honest questions:

1. Can your child follow lessons in Thai today? Following a family conversation and following a science lesson are different things.
2. How does the school support Thai as a second or heritage language? Ask what the Thai lessons look like for a child who speaks but doesn’t read, and whether there’s extra support. At an international school, a child counted as Thai may be in the Thai-as-a-first-language group, so ask how they place a child who is still catching up on reading.
3. Is the goal Thai friendships, a particular exam path, or both? Some families start in an English-medium school and move to a Thai one later, or the reverse.

Whatever you choose, praise at home goes a long way after a first day in a new language:

เก่งมากลูก

geng maak luuk

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

What should you ask a school?

• Accreditation and licence. Is the school licensed by the Office of the Private Education Commission? Which body accredits it, and when is the next review? Check the answer on the accrediting body’s own site. The International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT) says every international school must be accredited by a recognised overseas agency by the end of its fifth year, and also go through Thailand’s national quality office, ONESQA. CIS International Accreditation is one of the overseas marks it lists.
• Thai language. How many Thai hours a year, at what levels, and how they place a heritage speaker who speaks more than they read.
• The full fees. Tuition plus application, enrolment, building, uniform, transport, lunch and trips, in writing, with what is refundable.
• Documents. Ask the school for its own list. In Thailand, many processes start from your child’s Thai ID number and house registration, so sort those first if your child is Thai (see the tabien baan guide).
• Transport. In big cities, the school run can decide where you live. Do the trip at rush hour before you sign a lease.

What we couldn’t confirm

• An official, current English-language page from the Ministry of Education on enrolment rules for Thai children coming from schools abroad. Ask the school or the district education office.
• The 1992 change for international schools. A Bangkok Post feature mentions that year, but we couldn’t read it in full and found no official page; we used Wikipedia’s summary.
• Whether the 2026 Thai-lessons guideline is binding in every detail, and how it treats children with two nationalities. Ask the school.
• An official calendar for semester end dates, or the opening date for the 2027 school year. Ask the school.

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them. Last checked 14 October 2026; confirm with the school and the education office.