HeadStart International School in Phuket will start offering discounts on tuition fees during the ongoing session of online learning.
For the youngest children, the discount will be 40%.
When Covid-19 first struck early last year and international schools in Thailand turned to online learning, many schools quickly offered discounts on tuition fees as the children were not getting the full campus experience, and much of the burden of teaching was pushed over to the parents.
Once again, starting in April 2021, teaching has moved online, but TIS Monitor has until now received no reports of international schools in Thailand offering discounts on the tuition fees.
TIS Monitor just published a report showing that many international schools in Thailand have been hugely profitable over the last few years.
Discounts reaching 40%
May 13, however, parents with children enrolled in HeadStart International School in Phuket received an email from Mr. Adam Drew, headmaster at the school, which outlined a plan to start offering discounts. In the email, Mr Drew writes:
”Given that online learning is continuing, I would like to remind all parents that we will give discounts on fees for the time that we are teaching online. This is a 20% discount on tuition fees to all Primary and Secondary students and a 40% discount to all students in Foundation.”
He continues:
”These discounts will be applied for each week that teaching is online rather than at school for the duration of Term 3. Discounts and refunds will be calculated at the end of the term and paid to parents in July. Refunds will be made as a discount towards Term 1 fees or as a cash transfer payment for families who submit a student withdrawal form to our office by May 30th.”
Largest school in Phuket
TIS Monitor has been in touch with one parent with children enrolled in the school.
”HeadStart is such a great school. Our kids love it here. We, as parents, really feel that it’s not as profit driven as other international schools in Thailand,” he says.
HeadStart International School was founded in February 2005 as a home-school education centre in Phuket Town. The school opened in a small two storey, four bedroom house.
It has since then kept on growing and is today the largest international school in Phuket by number of students, according to figures shared with TIS Monitor by the Ministry of Education.
HeadStart International Schools is also among the cheaper in Phuket, in terms of tuition fees.
Note from the editor:
Has your school offered any discounts during this session of online teaching? Please share your thoughts on this with our editor, on michael@tismonitor.com
