Although hopes were high at the beginning of the school year, the Board has yet again failed to make any significant improvements at the school. At the beginning of the year they had hired a Canadian consultant, Babek, whose goal was to make Pitisuksa a high quality school. Having years of experience in numerous international schools he is well versed in what it takes to make a school competitive internationally. He set about trying to develop a curriculum that stayed true to the Montessori philosophy yet achieved the goals set forth by the Thai Ministry of Education (because Pitisuksa is registered as a Thai school, NOT international.) He had success in energizing the teachers, getting them excited about communication and involving them as the school was improved structurally and their budgets for materials was increased. Ultimately the consultant realized the problem was in the politics and recommended completely restructuring both the school board and the foundation board. That is what the Parents have suggested time and time again over the years and since it has never happened, the result has been the creation of two break-away schools, the AMEC school and the just recently opened Thai Montessori school. Numerous parents have also taken their children out of Pitisuksa and enrolled them in the Chiang Rai International School, Anuban Chiang Rai and St. Mary's. Ultimately, the consultant decided he had enough and will be leaving after only 5 months! The Board has also failed to find a Principal/Director for the school and of course, there have been no minutes of board meetings published, any financial information shared or any involvement at all of parents. Another concern is that one of the main foreign teachers is leaving in October so two classrooms will probably be consolidated into one. So where does that leave the school? Enrollment is low, very few children stay beyond grade 3 or 4 and now the Board seems to think it is a priority to create a middle school project where there are 5 or 6 kids per grade level! So should you put your kids in the school - find out if the teacher you like is staying or leaving. If they are staying you might be ok, but make sure you expectations for management are LOW, otherwise you will surely be disappointed.
The Board members who find themselves so important and unwilling to step down to allow change need to be reminded of Charles De Gaulle's famous quip: The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
