Thai Sikh International School not up for sale

Rumours that the Thai Sikh International School (TSIS) is to be sold to a Christian Missionary School are totally unfounded. TSIS is owned by the Thai Sikh Foundation and there will certainly be no change to that. Consultants from the US have recently been gathering information on the school premises and this might have given the false impression that a sale of the school was imminent.

It is true that TSIS, despite charging very low fees, has produced many outstanding students who have won scholarships to many high-ranking universities. However, charging these low rates has necessitated continuously seeking donations to subsidise the fees while paying staff salaries below the rates offered by other institutions. Donor fatigue and high staff turnover has forced a rethink of the business model.

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The board debated this issue at length for quite some time before arriving at a consensus. The board has decided that TSIS must be among the top five international schools in Thailand and it will do whatever is necessary to achieve this. With this in mind, TSIS is signing a contract next week for educational management services with an international organisation that is currently working with 300 schools worldwide.

The mandate is to raise the educational standards to match or exceed those of the best in the country. Curriculum development, total staffing (school head and teachers), complete administration and accreditation by the Council of International Schools will be handled by this organisation.

There will be no change to TSIS’s primary mission of teaching universal values to all its students and Sikh values to the Sikh students. TSIS will continue to teach the importance of lifelong education, to encourage creativity and to promote the concept of universal well-being.

Suthep Kittikulsingh

Member of TSIS board of governors