Schools & education on Koh Tao.

Ban Koh Tao School · โรงเรียนบ้านเกาะเต่า

Operating · Moo 2, Tambon Koh Tao, Amphoe Koh Phangan, Surat Thani 84360 — in Mae Haad, on land behind the island's temple

The island's only conventional school, and older than most of the dive industry around it. The school's own history records that villagers donated a plot of 2 rai 3 ngan 82 square wah to the island's monastic dwelling, which then permitted a school on it; a two-classroom building to the standard P.1 design was begun on 3 January 2512 BE and finished on 15 April, and teaching began on 1 May 2512 BE (1969) with a single year group. It later grew to P.4, then to full primary, then — on the initiative of parents and the school board — became a โรงเรียนขยายโอกาส, an 'opportunity-expansion' school carrying its own pupils on into lower secondary rather than sending them off the island at twelve. In academic year 2553 (2010/11) that history records teaching to Mathayom 2, 148 pupils and 11 staff of whom 8 were teachers. Instruction is in Thai.

System: Thai Ministry of Education — basic education (OBEC), under the Surat Thani Primary Educational Service Area Office 1 (สพป.สุราษฎร์ธานี เขต 1)
Ages: Kindergarten and primary confirmed; a lower-secondary section is documented but unconfirmed today
Stops at: P.6 confirmed (about age 12). See the note below on M.1–M.3.

What we could not verify, or found contradictory

• That history page was last modified in 2011. It is the school's own account and we publish it as such, but it is fifteen years old and we have not found a newer primary statement of the year range.
• In the most recent district-level OBEC arts-and-crafts competition results we could find — the 71st, academic year 2566, held 17–20 December 2023 — the school entered 23 events, and every single one was an early-years or P.1–P.6 category. Not one was M.1–M.3. That is not proof the lower-secondary section has closed, but it is the strongest current signal we have, and it points the other way from the 2011 page. Ask the school directly before you plan around a secondary year group.
• Those same results name at least 22 different teachers as event coaches — double the entire 2010 staff list — so the school has clearly grown a great deal since the history was written.

Koh Tao Sub-district Learning Encouragement Centre · ศกร.ตำบลเกาะเต่า

Operating · Tambon Koh Tao — one of three sub-district centres under the Koh Phangan District Learning Encouragement Centre at 2/31 Moo 2, Thong Sala–Chaloklum Road, Koh Phangan (tel 077-332520)

This is the part of the island's education map that our own guide previously missed altogether, and it is the reason the flat claim 'there is no secondary education on Koh Tao' is wrong. The สกร. system delivers primary, lower-secondary and upper-secondary completion by non-formal study — scheduled contact sessions, self-study, assessed activity hours and examinations — through a district office with a sub-district centre on Koh Tao itself, plus an online learning platform. It is a Thai-language, Thai-curriculum route, and it is how a great many island teenagers who are working actually finish school. For a relocating foreign family it is rarely the answer; for an honest map of the island it is essential.

System: Thai Ministry of Education — Department of Learning Encouragement (สกร., the former กศน. non-formal education service)
Ages: Teenagers and adults
Stops at: Upper secondary (M.6 equivalent) by non-formal study

What we could not verify, or found contradictory

• The district centre's own site is live and posting into late 2568 (2025), and lists a Koh Tao sub-district centre among its three. We were not able to load the Koh Tao centre's own page, so we publish no opening hours, staffing or enrolment figures for it — ask the district office.

Koh Tao International Primary (KTIP)

Closed — see notes · Jitsin Village

Founded in 2015 by Eliza Taylor and Claire Wyndham as a not-for-profit school for local Thai and Burmese children living on the island, teaching through the International Primary Curriculum with Letterland and Pearson Active Learn, across Thai language and writing, literacy, numeracy, science, art, music and sport. It ran full-time and part-time places, sessions from 08:30–16:00 and again 16:15–19:00, after-school care and weekend daycare, and it operated Koh Tao Childcare — short-stay care for visiting families, out of the same premises, with a share of the fees funding the school.

System: Not-for-profit, no Ministry of Education international-school licence claimed
Ages: Roughly 0–12
Stops at: About age 12, with no examination board and no leaving qualification

What we could not verify, or found contradictory

• It is currently closed. Its own site carries a temporary-closure notice: the school will reopen through a new Thai foundation, the Right to Learn Foundation, and will stay shut until foundation funding is approved by the board. There is no reopening date.
• That notice is undated, and we are not willing to date it for you. Our previous version of this page said the closure was current 'as of mid-2026'; we could not support that, so it is gone. Search results describe the Right to Learn Foundation as having registered years ago, which would make the notice's description of it as 'new' rather old — but the foundation's own site returned no readable content to us, so we treat that as unverified and simply tell you the notice has no date on it.
• Read the framing carefully before you assume it was ever a school for relocating expat families. In its own words it is a not-for-profit school for local Thai and Burmese children, funded partly by selling short-stay childcare to tourists. That is a charity, and a good one; it is not an international school in the sense a relocating family means.
• The island's own tourism association still tells visiting families that 'the international primary school is happy to take older children and welcomes tourists on short-term stays'. As of the school's own notice, it is closed. Do not plan a stay around it without calling first.

Koh Tao Playskool & Daycare

Operating · A quiet residential pocket close to Sairee

The island's most consistently available early-years option, taking Burmese, expat and Thai children together on an early-years curriculum, and also tutoring children who need to keep their English up. The detail that matters most to this island's actual working parents is the hours: drop-off from as early as 05:45 for parents starting a dive course, late pick-up, out-of-hours babysitting, and sitters who will come to your resort rather than making you travel. No school on Koh Tao does anything like that, and for a dive-instructor household it is the difference between working and not.

System: Private early-years setting
Ages: 0–7, in two classes: Babies & Toddlers (0–3) and Nursery & Reception (4–7)
Stops at: About age 7

What we could not verify, or found contradictory

• Sources disagree on the founding year — one description says the business was established in 2007, another that it has been running since 2008. We report both rather than pick.
• Our own childcare guide previously placed it in Mae Haad. Its published descriptions put it at or beside Sairee. We have corrected our pages to Sairee and flagged the disagreement rather than assert a street.
• We publish no fee figures for it. Daily, hourly and monthly rates for small island settings move constantly, and a stale number is worse than no number.

Koh Tao Pre School

Listed, not independently confirmed · Koh Tao — no street address published

Listed by both the island's tourism association and its main local travel directory: open Monday to Friday 09:00–16:00, accepting children of any nationality between nine months and two years, English-speaking staff, a large equipped garden playground, and daily or monthly packages, with cooking, arts and crafts, singing and dancing on the daily programme. Booking ahead is advised because places depend on both child numbers and staff availability. Published contact number: +66 (0) 90 867 9048.

System: Private early-years setting
Ages: 9 months to 2 years only
Stops at: Age 2

What we could not verify, or found contradictory

• We could not confirm from a source of its own whether this is an independent business, a renamed setting, or another name for one of the two above. Its published age band (9 months to 2 years) is narrower than any of them, and its phone number is distinct — which is why we list it separately rather than fold it in. Apply the three-part test before you rely on it: does it have a site of its own, does it have a findable address, and does the phone answer?
• Its stated age ceiling of two is the tightest on the island. A three-year-old is not covered by it.

Use Koh Tao for the early years, then plan a move

The most common pattern, and the honest one. The island's private provision runs out at about seven, and the government school's confirmed range runs out at about twelve. Families base on Koh Tao while children are small and plan a geographic or educational exit before the older child reaches upper-primary or secondary age — most often to Koh Samui, which is the nearest island with an established set of British-curriculum international schools.

Enrol at the government school and accept a Thai-medium education

This is a real option, not a token one, and it is worth understanding properly before dismissing it. Thailand's Education for All policy and the 2005 Cabinet Resolution entitle every child resident in the country to free basic education regardless of nationality or documents, and the government school's own competition entries show non-Thai children enrolled and representing it. The trade-off is not eligibility, it is fit: instruction is in Thai, English teaching is limited, and the calendar and curriculum differ from the British, American or IB systems most relocating families intend to return to. It works best for young children, for families staying years rather than months, and for parents who want their child inside the island's community rather than beside it.

Homeschool, or use an accredited distance curriculum

Because there is no international school here at any age, a meaningful share of long-stay Koh Tao families use structured homeschooling or an accredited online British, American or IB-aligned programme, sometimes with local tutoring alongside. This is the route that keeps the family on the island; the cost is a parent's time and self-discipline, and the thing to check before committing is not the marketing but the accreditation and how the credits transfer back into a conventional school later.

Board off-island, and keep Koh Tao as the family base

Families who want a full exam-track international education without giving up the island sometimes board a child in Phuket, Bangkok or overseas. It is the largest financial and emotional commitment of the four, and it is genuinely common among long-term dive-industry expats with older children — but note that no school on Koh Tao boards, so this always means leaving.

Is there an international school on Koh Tao?

No. Koh Tao has no Ministry of Education-licensed international school, at any age. There is no IB, no Cambridge pathway, no A-levels, no sixth form, no boarding and no school bus anywhere on the island. The one setting that carried the word 'international' in its name — Koh Tao International Primary — is a not-for-profit primary founded in 2015 for local Thai and Burmese children, and its own website currently carries a temporary-closure notice.

Is there really no secondary education on Koh Tao?

That flat claim, which this page used to make, is wrong in two ways. Ban Koh Tao School's own history records it becoming an 'opportunity-expansion' school teaching into lower secondary, up to Mathayom 2 in academic year 2553 (2010/11) — although in the most recent district competition results we can find, from academic year 2566, it entered only early-years and primary categories, so we cannot confirm that section still runs. Separately, the Ministry of Education's non-formal service, สกร., has a sub-district learning centre on Koh Tao offering lower- and upper-secondary completion by non-formal study. Both routes are Thai-medium and Thai-curriculum. What Koh Tao does not have is an English-medium secondary school of any kind.

Can a foreign child attend the government school on Koh Tao?

Yes. You will see it written online that you need at least one Thai parent to qualify; that conflates two different things. Thailand's Education for All policy and the 2005 Cabinet Resolution entitle all children living in Thailand to free basic education regardless of nationality or documentation, and schools are reimbursed per child on the same basis as for a Thai pupil. The government school on Koh Tao demonstrably enrols non-Thai children — its own competition entry lists include pupils with Burmese given names and no registered surname. Entitlement is not the same as a frictionless admissions office, so go and ask in person, but do not let a directory FAQ stop you asking.

Where do Koh Tao expat families send older children to school?

Most commonly Koh Samui, the nearest island with an established set of international schools, roughly one to two hours away by ferry or speedboat depending on route and operator. That is a relocation, not a school run — nobody commutes between the two islands daily. The alternatives are homeschooling, an accredited distance curriculum, or boarding further afield in Phuket or Bangkok.

Which ministry licenses each setting, and why does it matter?

It is the single most useful question to ask on a small Thai island. Ban Koh Tao School is a basic-education school under OBEC and the Surat Thani Primary Educational Service Area Office 1. The learning centre is under the Department of Learning Encouragement. The early-years settings are private businesses. None of them holds an international-school licence, because there is no international school here. Ask any setting which ministry licensed it, for what age band and for how many children — and then compare that with the children you can actually see on site.

Is anything on Koh Tao set up for DTV or long-stay families?

Only at the youngest ages, and only informally. Koh Tao Playskool takes children from birth to seven and works around dive-course hours with drop-off from as early as 05:45; Koh Tao Pre School publishes daily as well as monthly packages for nine months to two years; and Koh Tao International Primary built its model around short-stay visiting families — but it is closed. There is no school on this island offering short-term enrolment, remote entry assessment or a mid-year place to a school-age child, which is exactly what Koh Phangan, Koh Lanta and Samui each do have.