Thursday, 19 January 2006 03:22

EDUCATION : General Info  

Some cities seem to have been created to be seats of learning - ideal places both for teachers and students. Chiang Mai is such a city.  

Founded seven hundred years ago, Chiang Mai is today a bustling city of over 200,000 people with all modern facilities - first class hotels and restaurants, theatres and cinemas, sports complexes and golf courses, shopping malls and hypermarkets, hospitals and condominiums. Yet the moated city contains many beautiful wat or temples from a by-gone age, which lend an air of peace, tranquillity and history as a counter-balance to all the modern development. Drive twenty minutes from the centre of town in any direction and you will come to little villages nestling amongst the rice fields, or you can climb up through the forest to Doi Suthep perched on the mountain that guards the city.

Chiang Mai is home to five universities, Buddhist and Christian seminaries, technical colleges, four international English language schools and one German one, a large university teaching hospital and several private ones, some with nursing schools. There are also many private language schools as well as the AUA, the British Council, Australian and New Zealand centres and the Alliance Francaise.  

All this means that there are many opportunities for native English language teachers, especially if they have a university degree and teaching qualifications. The many Thai schools are hungry to employ English teachers.  

The international schools cater for the children of ex-patriates living in Thailand and are increasingly attracting Thai children and those from neighbouring countries, whose parents want them to be educated in English. Universities are offering more and more courses in English and are anxious to establish exchange programmes for overseas students and lecturers. All this activity results in a stimulating environment - students exchanging ideas at the food stalls around the university or picnicking beside the lake at the foot of the mountain; English teachers relaxing after a hard day's work at the quiet bars and restaurants along the banks of the River Ping.

In the age of cyberspace and satellite dishes, Chiang Mai, only one hour's flight from Bangkok, is no longer an isolated outpost. It is, in fact, a regional centre of communications, the gateway to Myanmar (Burma), Laos and southern China.

Chiang Mai is a safe, healthy and stimulating place for students, and a low cost, convenient and idyllic heaven for teachers.

Among are some of the schools are as followed :