Suphanburi
Sa-nguan Ying School is a school of about 2,400 students, about 60 of whom are boys. It is situated on Prachatipitai Rd in the town of Suphanburi about 95k's north of Bangkok. The town of Suphanburi has about 30,000 people but expands considerably during the day to possibly 80,000 due to the amount of people working in this Government centre for the Suphanburi District. The Suphanburi district has about 800,000 people. It is in the centre of the rice growing district of Thailand and has a strong rural feel.
The curriculum.
The curriculum is set by the school and although we teach in English the Thai curriculum for the whole school is followed. To this end there is lots of support in the form of text books in English and a Thai teacher assistant in the classroom to clarify any problems to the students. Besides the texts supplied each student has a laptop (notebook) with internet access so sites like YouTube and specialized sites can be accessed to enrich the curriculum.
Secondly wages.
Wages depends on your qualifications and the length of stay for your contract. Basically as a qualified teacher the rate is 30,000 baht a month. To keep this in context the average Thai teacher earns less and has a comfortable middle class lifestyle.
Thirdly living conditions.
If you elect to stay in a room in the ‘Yee Dee Mee Sook’ apartment block adjoining the school you will be in a relatively new room with en-suite shower and toilet facilities, a fridge in the room with a chair a small desk, TV, a large bed, air conditioner and a wardrobe. There is a laundry business on the bottom story for washing. The laundry costs about 180 baht for a medium bag of clothes.
Rent in the apartments is about 3,000 baht ($100) a month with water and electricity metered. The average services cost is about 100 baht for water and about 1500 baht a month for electricity. Electricity of course is determined by the settings you have your air conditioner set to and how often you use it plus the surcharge.
Sometimes there is an apartment available where there is a living room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 showers and a laundry alcove. These cost anywhere from 4000 to 5000 baht a month depending on the location of the apartment .
Extra information.
The average basic meal such as fried rice and chicken will cost about 30 baht and you will get some assistance with learning to order different foods. We have many translations of English to Thai in small visa sized cards to assist with food and travel during the first month in Suphanburi.
If you decide to come to Suphanburi be sure to go through the processes of getting a contract and applying for a Non Immigrant Category ‘B’ Thai visa. You will also need travel insurance and I would recommend if possible getting an insurance policy that allows travelling on motor bikes providing the rider has a license appropriate for the country. I say this as motorbikes are such an accepted form of short distance transport that you will most likely find it convenient to catch a bike taxi on different occasions.
Consider what has been said about the bikes because many people come over and decide that the 2 kilometer walk in very hot conditions is much harder than hoping on a friend’s bike and being delivered to a destination. Often visitors make this decision and travel in such a manner that their travel insurance would be void.
If you want to be adventurous and ride a motorbike around some of the resorts or even hire a car be sure to get an international driving license before leaving Australia/America as they cannot be purchased once you leave your country of origin.
Chemists, hospitals and doctors are all very good here and of an international standard so there are no major health issues in Suphanburi. The only thing you will notice is that chemists will dispense things like blood pressure tablets with no prescription, so scripts are not that necessary unless you cannot remember medication dosages.
So far in the Suphanburi there are no Malaria issues, Rabies or Bird Flu problems.
Bring an empty suitcase as clothes are very cheap here and you can buy stuff in Bangkok before they have thought about how to make it. I do exaggerate but only a little.
All the best from us here at Sa-nguan Ying (EP) English Program.