Compare schools
Two or three international schools side by side: curriculum, area, age range and founding year.
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Almost every guide to Koh Lanta — including earlier versions of this one — tells you the island has one school and that everything else is home-schooling or a move to Phuket. That is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that costs Nordic families in particular. The International School of Asia (ISA) in Sala Dan is indeed the island's only school licensed by Thailand's Ministry of Education as an international school, and it is the only on-island route that runs to 18 on one campus. But two long-established Swedish overseas schools also operate a few hundred metres away in Saladan, between them teaching from age three to upper secondary, and one of them says it takes more than 350 students a year — comfortably the largest school roll on the island. They are invisible in the international-school directories because they hold a different kind of registration and use a different vocabulary, not because they are small or new. Below: what each school really teaches, where each one stops, the term-abroad model that matters more here than curriculum does, and the honest limits of the island. Pair this with the cost-of-living guide and the Koh Lanta hub.
Are you relocating, or travelling?
On most of the Thai islands the structural question is where the schooling stops. On Koh Lanta it is which school roll your child stays on, and it splits the island's schools cleanly in two.
Both Swedish schools are built around families who are away for a few weeks to a year. Your child remains enrolled at their school at home. They arrive with their own plans and materials, are taught the same national curriculum by certified teachers from that same system, and at the end of the stay the school writes an assessment that goes back to the home school for its own grading. Lilla svenska skolan Lanta holds an enrolment interview with pupil, parent and teacher before the first day precisely so the handover is clean; Sanuk describes working directly with Swedish head teachers and school authorities. Nothing is surrendered and nothing has to be rebuilt when you go home.
ISA is the opposite proposition and none the worse for it: a full school place, on a Ministry-licensed campus, running all the way to Grade 12. Enrolling means your child's schooling now happens on Koh Lanta. That is what you want if you are actually moving — and it is also unusually easy to arrange, because ISA reports no entry evaluation, no waiting list, registration accepted up to two weeks before term, mid-year joiners taken, short-term students as routine and virtual classrooms available when needed. For DTV holders and long-stay families without a fixed departure date, that combination is rare in Thailand.
Answer this question first. It eliminates most of the shortlist before curriculum, fees or facilities come into it.
The schools, and the other routes
Three established schools, plus the three routes families take when none of them fits. Every address and curriculum below comes from the school's own website.
| School or route | Where | Curriculum | Ends at | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta (ISA) | 251 Moo 5, Sala Dan | U.S. Common Core Standards combined with the English National Curriculum, taught in English, with Thai language classes | Age 18 (Pre-K to Grade 12) | The island's one school licensed by Thailand's Ministry of Education as an international school, and the only on-island route that runs all the way to 18 on a single campus. Small: it reports 82 full-time students across the entire age range, 18 nationalities, and roughly one local child for every international one. See our full profile below. |
| Lilla svenska skolan Lanta | 232 Moo 3, Saladan | The Swedish national curriculum (läroplanen), taught in Swedish by certified Swedish teachers | Gymnasium (upper secondary), via Hermods or Korrespondensgymnasiet | Despite the name ("the little Swedish school"), it says it has grown into one of the largest Swedish overseas schools, with more than 350 students a year attending for shorter or longer periods. Teaching groups of about 10–12. Classrooms are free-standing air-conditioned bungalows. It states it has passed every annual Thai authority quality inspection since it opened in 2006. |
| Sanuk – Svenska skolan Thailand, Koh Lanta | 105/4 Moo 3, Saladan — a short walk from Klong Dao beach | The Swedish national curriculum Lgr22, taught in Swedish; Thai language and culture lessons alongside | Year 9, plus upper-secondary study in cooperation with Hermods | Established 2004 and the older of the island's two Swedish schools. Preschool from age 3, then förskoleklass and years 1–9. Explicitly takes Norwegian students as well as Swedish. Sits between the Southern Lanta Residence villas and the Southern Lanta resort, off the main road. Part of a three-school group with campuses in Hua Hin and Huay Yang. |
| Thai state and local schools | Across Ko Lanta Yai and Ko Lanta Noi | Thai national curriculum, taught in Thai | Varies by school | Ko Lanta district has its own state primary and secondary schools, and they are the route most island children take. BAANLYY does not publish a school-by-school list here because we could not verify one from an authoritative source, and we would rather say so than print names we have not checked. The Ko Lanta District Education Office is the right first call, and any school will tell you directly whether it runs an English Programme stream. |
| Home education and accredited online schools | Anywhere on the island | British, American or IB, delivered online | Depends on the provider | A genuinely common route among long-stay families, and the default for anyone whose child's curriculum is not represented on the island. Thailand permits home education under a registered arrangement — research that route and your provider's accreditation before relying on it. |
| Krabi Town or Phuket (commute, weekly boarding or a second base) | Krabi mainland, or Phuket | British, IB and American | 18 | Koh Lanta is reached by bridge and vehicle ferry, so neither is a daily school run from the island — treat both as a move, a weekly boarding arrangement or a second home rather than a commute. Krabi province has other licensed international schools; Phuket has the region's real cluster. |
Read the full ISA profile for cohort size, admissions and the curriculum transition. For the Swedish schools, both publish in Swedish only — which is itself a useful signal about who they are for.
Why two Swedish schools, on one small island?
Because Koh Lanta has been a Scandinavian long-stay destination for two decades, and the schools followed the families. Sanuk opened in 2004 and has run a partnership with the Swedish tour operator Apollo since 2012; Lilla svenska skolan Lanta opened in 2006. Both are in Saladan. Both teach the Swedish curriculum in Swedish, and Sanuk publishes a dedicated page for Norwegian pupils, so this is a Nordic offer rather than a strictly Swedish one. The corroboration comes from an unexpected direction: among the after-school clubs ISA lists is Swedish lessons.
The practical point for everyone else: these schools are not an alternative to ISA unless your child already works in Swedish. But their existence changes the island's character for families — there is a substantial, settled, year-round community of school-age foreign children in Saladan, with the sport, clubs and friendships that come with it. Lilla svenska skolan Lanta runs specialisms in football, beach volleyball, padel, gymnastics and creative writing, and gives school families free use of a beachfront site with beach volleyball courts, an outdoor gym, canoes and paddleboards, plus a four-court padel centre. That is more organised children's sport than the island's size would lead you to expect, and it is one of the strongest arguments for basing yourself near Saladan.
What Koh Lanta does not have
No British school and no IB World School. No French, German or Dutch curriculum school. No school bus at ISA, and no public transport on the island at all. No named external examination board at ISA — the only external assessment it reports is university access testing — so if your child needs IGCSEs or A-Levels on a transcript, that is not currently an on-island outcome and you should plan around Krabi, Phuket or an accredited online provider.
Learning support is the sharpest limit. ISA reports, in its own words, no dedicated staff or programmes for students with special learning needs, no student access to an educational psychologist and limited support for gifted and talented students. If your child needs any of that, it is decisive, and it is better to know now than after the move. The Swedish schools work to the Swedish system's own support expectations — ask each one directly what it can staff on a small island.
Finally, the upper years are thin everywhere here. ISA is the only school teaching its own senior years on campus, and its senior cohort is very small. Both Swedish schools route upper-secondary study through Swedish distance providers with on-site supervision. That is a legitimate and well-established model, and it is not the same thing as a taught sixth form.
What happens after school, and where
Every guide to Koh Lanta, including ours until September 2026, stops at the end of school. That is a real gap, because the honest answer shapes a relocation decision for anyone with a teenager, a Thai partner or a member of staff who wants to study. Here it is: there is no university, no vocational college and no institute of any kind on Koh Lanta. Only 1 of the 6 routes below is even seated in Ko Lanta district, and it stops at Mathayom 6 equivalency. 4 are inside Krabi province; the rest are further out or need no campus at all.
| Route | What it is | Highest you can finish | Where it actually is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ko Lanta District Office of Learning Encouragement | District learning-encouragement office | Upper-secondary (Mathayom 6) equivalency — no degree, no diploma | Highway 4206, Tambon Ko Klang, Ko Lanta District, Krabi 81120, per a directory record |
| Khlong Thom Industrial and Community Education College | Vocational college | ปวส. higher vocational certificate — no degree is conferred here | 90 Moo 9, Khlong Thom Tai Subdistrict, Khlong Thom District, Krabi 81120 |
| Krabi Technical College | Institute member college | Bachelor of Technology (ทล.บ.), taught in Krabi Town | Pak Nam Subdistrict, Mueang Krabi District, Krabi |
| Thailand National Sports University, Krabi Campus | Public university campus | Bachelor's degree, with postgraduate study in the Faculty of Education | 111 Si Trang Road, Krabi Yai Subdistrict, Mueang Krabi District, Krabi 81000 |
| Ramkhamhaeng University, Trang Regional Campus | Open university regional campus | Bachelor's degree, awarded by Ramkhamhaeng University | Trang-Palian Road, Mueang Trang District, Trang |
| Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University | Open university (distance) | Bachelor's and postgraduate degrees, studied from home on the island | No campus in the south-west at all — the university teaches by distance from Nonthaburi, with a regional service centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat |
4 of the 6 lead to a full bachelor's degree, and exactly one of those can be pursued while still living on the island. Every one of them is taught in Thai.
Ko Lanta District Office of Learning Encouragement · สกร.อำเภอเกาะลันตา (เดิม กศน.อำเภอเกาะลันตา)
District learning-encouragement office · Department of Learning Encouragement (กรมส่งเสริมการเรียนรู้), Ministry of Education, constituted under the Learning Encouragement Act B.E. 2566
This is the only public education body of any kind seated in Ko Lanta district beyond the schools, and almost nobody living on the island knows it exists. It is one of eight district offices under the Krabi Provincial Office of Learning Encouragement (95 Panurat Road, Pak Nam, Mueang Krabi, telephone 075-611-933), and its job is adult and non-formal education: taking someone who stopped at Mathayom 3, or never finished at all, through to a recognised Mathayom 6 certificate, plus short vocational courses the provincial office publishes as free. Enrolment for semester 2 of academic year 2569 was open at the time of this review, at whichever district office is nearest you. For a foreign resident it is rarely the route for yourself, because everything is taught in Thai — but it is very often the answer for a Thai partner, a long-serving member of staff, or a young adult in the household who left school without the certificate that every later step requires. Note the geography before you set off: Ko Lanta district is not only the island, and this address is not in Sala Dan.
Awards: Basic-education equivalency at primary, lower-secondary and upper-secondary (Mathayom 6) level, for adults and for anyone who left school early; Short vocational and skills courses, published by the provincial office as free of charge. From Koh Lanta: In your own district, but not on your island: Tambon Ko Klang is the mainland, ferry-pier side of Ko Lanta district, so from Ko Lanta Yai this is a bridge, a car-ferry crossing and a short drive.
Sourcing: Provincial office address, telephone, email, the count of eight district offices, the semester 2/2569 enrolment line and the free short-course line read first-party from krabi.nfe.go.th on 8 September 2026. The Ko Lanta street address is a Longdo Map directory record, not a first-party publication — see flags.
- WE ARE NOT PUBLISHING A TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR THIS OFFICE. The provincial site's own district page is unfinished: every one of the eight entries is labelled (ตัวอย่าง) — 'sample' — with a placeholder director name and a round number of the form 075-XXX-000, and three of the site's news items still carry the slugs sample-news-1 to 3. A first-party page can be a template; the numbers on it are not facts. Telephone the provincial office instead.
- The agency was renamed. กศน. (the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education Commission) became สกร. under the Learning Encouragement Act B.E. 2566, and directory records — including the one that supplies the street address above — still use the old name. Anything written about a Thai district non-formal education centre before 2023 has the agency wrong.
- The street address is a directory record. Confirm the current office location with the provincial office before travelling, particularly which side of the car ferry it is on.
Khlong Thom Industrial and Community Education College · วิทยาลัยการอาชีพคลองท่อม
Vocational college · Ministry of Education, Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) · Tel 0 7569 9130
If a school-leaver on Koh Lanta wants a trade rather than a degree, this is the college the state expects them at. It serves the southern half of Krabi province — Khlong Thom, Lam Thap and the Ko Lanta side — and it is one of the five state colleges in the Krabi provincial vocational group. It teaches at vocational certificate and higher vocational certificate level, and it was one of three Krabi colleges chosen for the Ministry of Education's 2022 residential scheme offering board, free study and a trade to students who had dropped out after Mathayom 3 during the pandemic. It is worth being blunt about what this means for an island family: there is no post-16 vocational campus on Koh Lanta at all, so a sixteen-year-old taking this route either boards, lodges near the college, or makes a daily journey that includes a car ferry. That is a housing decision as much as an education one.
Awards: ปวช. vocational certificate; ปวส. higher vocational certificate. From Koh Lanta: The nearest state vocational college and the one whose catchment this island is in: car ferry, then roughly an hour north-east on Highway 4206 and Highway 4.
Sourcing: Carried from BAANLYY's Krabi higher-education registry, which read the provincial vocational group first-party from kcat.ac.th and krabiptc.ac.th on 7 September 2026. The college's own website returned an empty page body to our fetcher on that date, and did so again on 8 September 2026.
- We have never been able to read this college's own site, so we publish no founding date, no department list and no current programme list for it. That is a gap in our reading, not a judgement on the college.
- The published address is Khlong Thom Tai, which is the district town — not Ko Lanta. Confirm the campus location and the current course list before planning around it.
Krabi Technical College · วิทยาลัยเทคนิคกระบี่
Institute member college · Ministry of Education (OVEC) for the college; degrees conferred by the Institute of Vocational Education: Southern Region 2, whose office is at 215 Sanambin-Mueang Mai Road, Thep Krasattri, Thalang, Phuket
This is the nearest place to Koh Lanta where a bachelor's degree can actually be studied, and hardly anyone searching for a university in Krabi finds it, because the sign on the gate says technical college. It is a member college of the Institute of Vocational Education: Southern Region 2, a degree-awarding institute constituted under the Vocational Education Act B.E. 2551, and the institute publishes three Bachelor of Technology degrees taught on the Krabi campus: Automotive Technology, Marketing, and Digital Business Technology. All three are continuing degrees, entered after a ปวส. higher vocational certificate rather than after Mathayom 6, and all three are timetabled around a job — weekday evenings from 17.30 to 21.30 and weekends, with the workplace component run inside a partner firm. The institute that confers them is not in Krabi at all; its office is in Thalang district, Phuket. That single fact is why a reader can live in this province, opposite a campus teaching bachelor's degrees, and be told the province has no university.
Awards: ทล.บ. Bachelor of Technology (Automotive Technology), continuing, 75 credits; ทล.บ. Bachelor of Technology (Marketing), continuing, not fewer than 72 credits; ทล.บ. Bachelor of Technology (Digital Business Technology), continuing, 72 credits; ปวช. and ปวส. certificates across electrical power, automotive, construction, industrial machinery, electronics, business computing, IT, accounting, tourism, marketing and hotel tracks. From Koh Lanta: Car ferry, then roughly two hours by road to Krabi Town — but the degrees run on weekday evenings and weekends, which makes them a route for someone who moves to Krabi Town, not a commute from the island.
Sourcing: Carried from BAANLYY's Krabi higher-education registry, which read the three ทล.บ. curricula, their credit counts and their timetabling from the institute's own programme pages on 7 September 2026. The Digital Business Technology degree is published there with its CHECO reference at the Ministry of Higher Education and its accreditation records at the Office of the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Teacher Civil Service Commission.
- Continuing (ต่อเนื่อง) means what it says: entry requires a matching ปวส., not a school-leaving certificate. A Koh Lanta school-leaver cannot enter these degrees directly.
- Taught in Thai.
Thailand National Sports University, Krabi Campus · มหาวิทยาลัยการกีฬาแห่งชาติ วิทยาเขตกระบี่
Public university campus · Ministry of Tourism and Sports — not the Ministry of Higher Education · Tel 075-663-638
Krabi province does have one full university campus, and for a reader on Koh Lanta the useful thing about it is how narrow it is. Founded on 20 February 1978 as Krabi College of Physical Education, it teaches through three faculties — Sports Science and Health, Liberal Arts, and Education — each currently listing one undergraduate major, and the Faculty of Education also runs postgraduate study. It is a specialist sports, physical-education and tourism-and-recreation campus taught in Thai, not a broad multi-faculty university. Its Tourism and Recreation degree is the one with an obvious line to the economy this island actually runs on. The reason it is missing from almost every list of Thai universities is that it reports to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports rather than to the Ministry of Higher Education, so a search of a conventional university roster simply does not return it.
Awards: B.Sc. (Sports Science and Exercise), Faculty of Sports Science and Health; B.A. (Tourism and Recreation), Faculty of Liberal Arts; B.Ed. (Physical Education), four-year course, Faculty of Education; Postgraduate study in the Faculty of Education. From Koh Lanta: Car ferry, then roughly two hours by road to Krabi Town — a move, not a commute.
Sourcing: Carried from BAANLYY's Krabi higher-education registry, read from the campus's own history and faculty pages on 30 August 2026.
- Taught in Thai. Confirm the live programme list and intake dates with the campus itself.
Ramkhamhaeng University, Trang Regional Campus · มหาวิทยาลัยรามคำแหง สาขาวิทยบริการเฉลิมพระเกียรติ จังหวัดตรัง
Open university regional campus · Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation
Ramkhamhaeng is Thailand's largest open university and the standard route to a Thai bachelor's degree for adults already in work. Krabi province has none of its infrastructure — no regional campus and no regional examination centre — so for someone on Koh Lanta the nearest one is across the provincial boundary in Mueang Trang. It runs on a hybrid model: classroom sessions at the Trang campus, live-streamed and recorded lectures online, and independent reading, with the degree conferred by Ramkhamhaeng itself rather than by a separate local institution, so a graduate holds the same qualification as one from Hua Mak in Bangkok. Recent regional intakes have covered Law, Business Administration (Management), Political Science (Public Administration) and Mass Communication, plus the Pre-Degree route for students still at school — which is the one line on this page that is genuinely relevant to a sixteen-year-old on the island.
Awards: Bachelor's degrees conferred by Ramkhamhaeng University itself — recent regional intakes in Law, Business Administration (Management), Political Science (Public Administration) and Mass Communication; Pre-Degree study for students still at school. From Koh Lanta: The nearest Ramkhamhaeng regional campus in any direction: car ferry, then south into Trang province. There is no RU campus and no RU examination centre anywhere in Krabi.
Sourcing: Carried from BAANLYY's Trang higher-education registry. The absence of any RU campus or examination centre in Krabi is from Ramkhamhaeng's own organisation register of all 23 regional campuses and all 41 regional examination centres in 39 provinces, read for the Krabi registry on 7 September 2026.
- Taught in Thai.
- Programme lists change by intake. Confirm what is actually opening in Trang for your intake with the campus, not from any list including this one.
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University · มหาวิทยาลัยสุโขทัยธรรมาธิราช (มสธ.)
Open university (distance) · Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation
STOU is Thailand's distance university, and its own founding statement is the reason it belongs on a page about an island: it exists to extend study to people who cannot attend ordinary classes, using printed materials, broadcast and online delivery, so that students learn on their own without normal class attendance. That makes it the one genuine answer for an adult on Koh Lanta who wants a Thai degree and cannot move to Krabi Town or Trang. The service geography is worth knowing precisely, because it is not what you would guess. The centre that looks after Krabi is the Academic Services and Community Relations Centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat, on the Gulf coast — the first such centre the university ever opened, in 1991, renamed from ศูนย์วิทยพัฒนา on 14 January 2021. Krabi is not one of its four assigned provinces (Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung); it covers Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Krabi and Trang on an interim basis while further centres are being established. The university plans eighteen such centres and currently has eleven open. Practically: you are served, but by a centre on the other side of the peninsula that was not designed for you.
Awards: Bachelor's degrees by distance across the university's schools; Postgraduate study by distance. From Koh Lanta: The only route on this page that can be pursued while living on Koh Lanta. Nothing to attend day to day; travel is for examinations.
Sourcing: Read first-party from nakhon.stou.ac.th on 8 September 2026 — the centre's history, the 14 January 2021 renaming under the university's announcement on the internal division of the Office of Educational Services B.E. 2564, the four assigned provinces, the interim coverage of Krabi, and the eighteen-planned/eleven-open count. The university's founding statement is from stou.ac.th.
- WE COULD NOT READ THE EXAMINATION-VENUE REGISTER. STOU's national examination-site list returned an empty page body to our fetcher on 8 September 2026, so this page does not name an examination venue for Krabi province. Confirm your venue in the registration handbook for your own intake.
- Taught in Thai.
- Distance study is not less work. It suits someone with a fixed weekly study routine, which is exactly what island life tends not to provide.
What is genuinely not here after school — and what fills each gap
A named absence is worth more than a vague presence, but only if it arrives with the thing that fills it. These 5 were each checked, and each is stated at the level at which it is actually true — island, district or province. Two of them are statements about our search rather than findings, and they are labelled that way on purpose.
| Checked absence | What fills it |
|---|---|
| There is no university, no vocational college and no institute of any kind on Koh Lanta itself. | True, and it stays true across the whole island. The only public education body seated in Ko Lanta district beyond the schools is the district learning-encouragement office, which stops at Mathayom 6 equivalency and sits on the mainland side of the district. The one route followable from the island is Sukhothai Thammathirat's distance degree; everything else on this page is across the car ferry. |
| There is no community college (วิทยาลัยชุมชน) anywhere in Krabi province. | Proven, not merely not-found: the Institute of Community Colleges publishes its own register of 20 community colleges across 21 provinces with street addresses, and Krabi is not among them. The southern members are Ranong, Phang Nga, Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat; the nearest are Phang Nga (Thap Put District) and Ranong. Read for BAANLYY's Krabi registry on 7 September 2026. |
| There is no Ramkhamhaeng regional campus and no Ramkhamhaeng examination centre in Krabi province. | Also proven from the university's own organisation register: all 23 regional campuses are listed, the southern ones being Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phang Nga, Songkhla and Trang, and all 41 regional examination centres in 39 provinces are listed separately, including Phang Nga, Trang, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chumphon and Songkhla but not Krabi. The nearest campus to Koh Lanta is Trang. Read 7 September 2026. |
| We looked for a Rajabhat university campus or study outpost inside Krabi province and did not find one. | That is a statement about our search, not a proven absence, and we will not upgrade it to one. The two absences above were proven from national registers; no equivalent register settled the Rajabhat question. If a Rajabhat weekend programme matters to you, ask at the provincial education office rather than trusting this line. |
| We searched for a Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya or Mahamakut Buddhist university teaching unit in Krabi province and did not find one. | Again a statement about our search. Buddhist universities name their local units after the province and attach them to temples, which makes them easy to miss in both directions; if you are looking for one, ask at a provincial temple. |
Before you enrol anywhere — always confirm
- Ask which body confers the qualification, not which building you sit in. One teaching site on this page hands you a degree certificate signed by an institute in Phuket.
- Ask whether a programme is 'continuing' (ต่อเนื่อง). A continuing bachelor's is entered after a ปวส. higher vocational certificate, not after Mathayom 6 or Grade 12, and that decides whether the route is open to you at all.
- For any Thai public body, check which ministry or department it reports to, and when that last changed. The district learning office on this page moved agency in 2023 and most secondary sources still use the old name.
- Treat a first-party website as a source, not as proof. The Krabi provincial learning office's own district page is currently a template with sample names and round placeholder telephone numbers, and we have not republished any of them.
- Every route on this page is taught in Thai. We found no English-medium bachelor's route in Krabi province, and this guide will not imply one exists where it does not.
- For the distance routes, confirm the examination venue in the registration handbook for your own intake, not from any list including this one.
Where families base themselves
Koh Lanta has one main road and no public transport, so the school run is by scooter or car and distance is measured in time, not kilometres. All three established schools are in Saladan at the island's northern tip, which makes this simpler than it looks:
| Area | Schools there | What it means for a family |
|---|---|---|
| Saladan | All three of the island's established foreign-curriculum schools — ISA on Moo 5, and both Swedish schools on Moo 3 | If school is the reason you are choosing an area, this is the answer. It is also the island's practical hub — banks, supermarkets, the pier and the bridge crossing. Every school-age decision on Koh Lanta points here. |
| Klong Dao | Sanuk is a short walk from the beach | The closest family beach to Saladan and the calmest swimming on the island. Falls within the Saladan end of the island for practical purposes, and is the shortest school run of any beach base. |
| Long Beach (Phra Ae) & Klong Nin | No schools of their own — a drive up to Saladan | Where a lot of long-stay families base themselves for rentals and amenities, and where the home-schooling community is easiest to find. Factor the daily drive north into the decision. |
| Lanta Old Town & the south | Local Thai schools; furthest from the Saladan schools | The most affordable base and the strongest local-integration option, but the longest school run on the island by a wide margin. Drive it at 07:30 before you sign anything. |
See the full Koh Lanta areas guide for rents and character, and the getting-around guide for the bridge, the ferry and realistic times off the island.
Six things to confirm before you enrol
- How many children are in my child's year group this year — not how many are in the school.
- Are we transferring, or staying enrolled at home? If a school offers home-school liaison, ask exactly what it sends back and whether your home school has accepted it before.
- Who teaches the final years — a teacher in the room, or a distance provider with supervision? Get this in writing for any child aged 15 or over.
- What is the school run really like from the area we are considering, driven at 07:30 rather than measured on a map?
- What is the current fee schedule from the school itself, and what is not included in it?
- For ISA specifically: which curriculum will my child's year group be taught and examined under during the transition, and what is finished at the new campus?
Admissions & relocation timing
Decide your schooling route before you choose an area — on Koh Lanta it shapes the move more than anything else. If you are travelling rather than relocating, start with your home school: the Swedish schools' whole model depends on the home school agreeing to the arrangement, and that conversation is the long pole, not the booking. If you are relocating, ISA's admissions are unusually flexible and late applications are genuinely possible, but ask what is finished at the new campus reported for the 2026–27 academic year before you assume a facility exists. For the Krabi Town or Phuket routes, start six to twelve months ahead: the popular schools have waitlists, the international school year typically runs August to June, and you will want recent reports, transcripts, immunisation records and references gathered before you leave home. Then line up housing and healthcare around the decision — see the Koh Lanta healthcare guide next.
Koh Lanta schools questions
How many schools does Koh Lanta actually have for foreign families?
Three established ones, not one. The International School of Asia (ISA) in Sala Dan is the island's only school licensed by Thailand's Ministry of Education as an international school, and it is right to say so. But two long-running Swedish overseas schools also operate in Saladan — Lilla svenska skolan Lanta (open since 2006) and Sanuk – Svenska skolan Thailand (since 2004) — teaching the Swedish national curriculum in Swedish. They are not "international schools" in the licensing sense, which is exactly why they are missing from most guides and from the international-school directories. If you are Swedish or Norwegian, they are very likely the most relevant schools on the island. Beyond those three, there are Thai state schools, home education and online providers.
What curriculum does ISA teach?
The school's own Elementary page says ISA combines the U.S. Common Core Standards with the English National Curriculum. Its own account, given to the International Schools Database, is that it has taught a Common Core-based curriculum from preschool to Grade 12 and is now moving to the English National Curriculum over about three years. If you see ISA described anywhere as teaching a Canadian curriculum — including in earlier versions of this guide, which we have corrected — that describes Global Village School, the school's former identity, and it is out of date. Ask which curriculum your child's specific year group will actually be taught and examined under.
What is the "term abroad" model, and why does it matter more than curriculum here?
It is the single most important structural fact about schooling on Koh Lanta. Both Swedish schools are built for families travelling for a few weeks to a year: your child stays enrolled at their school back home, brings their own plans and materials, is taught by qualified teachers following the same national curriculum, and the school sends an assessment back to the home school to use in its own grading. Nothing is transferred and nothing is lost. ISA works the other way — it is a full school place, and enrolling means moving your child's schooling to Koh Lanta. Neither is better; they answer different questions. Decide whether you are relocating or travelling before you compare anything else.
Where does each school stop?
ISA runs Pre-K to Grade 12 and is the only on-island route to 18 taught wholly on one campus. Lilla svenska skolan Lanta has offered upper-secondary places since autumn 2018, with the academic side delivered through the Swedish distance providers Hermods or Korrespondensgymnasiet and supervised on site by qualified upper-secondary teachers. Sanuk runs preschool through year 9, with upper-secondary study also in cooperation with Hermods. So on Koh Lanta, as on several Thai islands, the last years of school are more often supervised distance learning than a taught sixth form — ask exactly who teaches what before you commit a fifteen-year-old.
How big are the classes, and does that matter?
It is the thing to ask about hardest here. ISA reports an average class of 16 and a maximum of 25, but only 82 full-time students across the whole range from preschool to Grade 12 — and, in its own words, roughly one student a year graduates high school and goes on to university. That is a genuinely lovely environment for a primary-age child and a very small cohort for a teenager aiming at a competitive university. Lilla svenska skolan Lanta reports teaching groups of about 10–12. Whichever school you are looking at, ask how many children are actually in your child's year group this year, not how many are in the school.
Is there a school bus?
ISA reports no school bus service at all — every family drives or scoots. Both Swedish schools sit in Saladan, and Lilla svenska skolan Lanta publishes a school-transport page, so ask them directly what it covers. On an island with no public transport, how your child gets to school is a housing decision, not a logistics detail: pick your area around the school run rather than the other way round.
What does schooling on Koh Lanta cost?
We deliberately do not publish per-school fee figures. School fees change every year, and the numbers circulating for Koh Lanta are unusually unreliable — the widely-quoted band for ISA is third-party directory data that the school does not publish itself, and part of the information attached to that listing describes the school's former identity rather than the school as it is now. Every school here publishes or will send its own current fee schedule, and that is the only figure worth budgeting against. Ask what is not in it too: registration, uniform, lunch, transport and exam entry.
Where should families with school-age children live on Koh Lanta?
Saladan, or close to it. All three established foreign-curriculum schools are there, and the island's one road makes distance expensive in time. Klong Dao is the nearest family beach and the shortest run. Long Beach (Phra Ae) and Klong Nin are popular long-stay bases with more rental choice and a deeper home-schooling community, but they mean a daily drive north. Lanta Old Town and the south are the most affordable and the furthest out. See the Koh Lanta areas guide for rents and character by neighbourhood.
This guide is general information for relocation planning, not admissions or financial advice. School fees, curricula, locations and admissions rules change — confirm current details directly with each school. BAANLYY is not affiliated with any school named here and takes no paid placement in this content.
Sources & References
- Ministry of Education, Thailand
- The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta — official site (About, Elementary, Year/Grade Placement)
- The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta — International Schools Database record
- Lilla svenska skolan Lanta — official site (Om oss, Gymnasium)
- Sanuk – Svenska skolan Thailand, Koh Lanta — official site
- Krabi Provincial Office of Learning Encouragement (สกร.จังหวัดกระบี่) — official site, including its district-office directory
- Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University — Academic Services and Community Relations Centre, Nakhon Si Thammarat (centre history and area of responsibility)
- Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University — official site
- Krabi Technical College — official site
- Thailand National Sports University, Krabi Campus — official site
Curricula, addresses, opening years, stage ranges and roll figures are taken from each school's own website, except ISA's cohort, admissions and facilities figures, which are the school's own answers to the International Schools Database questionnaire and are attributed as such. We do not publish per-school fee figures.
Plan the rest of your move.
Schooling route sorted — now match an area within reach of Saladan, and line up healthcare and your visa.
Hero photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.
Founder of BAANLYY · International real estate broker, investor & relocation specialist
Last updated 8 September 2026 · Last reviewed 8 September 2026