Larry Liu

Review of Dara Academy

We visited a few schools to enroll my daughter, Da...

We visited a few schools to enroll my daughter, Dangmoo, into P. 2. Dara Academy, amid its long history, seemed to have descended into a mediocre private school whose only purpose is money. We went to the school on the morning of the first day, I believe, of its registration for Academic Year 2020. Immediately after driving into the school, we started to worry about our daughter's safety. The cars parked everywhere despite there were some car parks that were obvious but signposted unclearly. Arriving at the administration building, we inquired a staff member behind a pane of glass pretty similar to those in many Thai bureaucratic institutions about registering our daughter as a new student. The man was too handsome to answer our questions immediately, but all too eager to talk to his female colleagues. After a while, he turned to us and spared a look of a typical Thai bureaucrat. My wife was not happy, but was willing to cooperate, and asked him the question again. He said yes. She then asked if we could see the curriculum and, perhaps, a sampler timetable. The man responded briefly, "Go pay a 300 baht registration fee first." There is a word in Chinese spelled , trans-literally, to pretend to be the big boss, used to describe someone who is pretentious out of his league. That man there, standing behind the glass, was among the est staff in educational institutions I have seen. in Thailand. Imagine him teaching your children! Dara Academy might still have a good name on a recent ranking of best Thai schools, but the reality is harsh. I will not entrust my child's education into a place where staff are arrogant and the only concern is money.