The International School of Asia is on Koh Lanta, in Krabi province, and describes itself as the only licensed international school on the island. It teaches from preschool at age 2 through to Grade 12, and is midway through a three-year move from the American Common Core State Standards to the English National Curriculum. It is small and says so: 82 full-time students across the entire age range, 18 nationalities, an even split between local and international children, and average classes of 16. What makes it genuinely distinctive — and what makes it worth knowing about for the audience this site serves — is how it admits students. There is no entry evaluation and no waiting list, registration is accepted up to two weeks before term, children can join after the academic year has started, and the school takes short-term students as a matter of course. For a family arriving on a DTV or long-stay visa without a fixed departure date, that flexibility is rare in Thailand. A new campus is reported for the 2026-27 academic year. Read the flags below before deciding: learning support is limited by the school's own account, and the high-school cohort is very small.
Where the campus actually is
251 Moo 5, Sala Dan, Koh Lanta, Krabi 81150
Koh Lanta is an island reached by vehicle ferry or bridge from the Krabi mainland, and the school reports no school bus service at all — every family drives or scoots. That makes the school effectively a Koh Lanta-only option: it is not a realistic daily run from Ao Nang or Krabi Town. The campus is at Sala Dan, at the island's northern tip, where the ferry arrives. The school day runs 08:25 to 14:45 for kindergarten and 15:00 for elementary and high school.
Area guides families use for this school run: Koh Lanta · Koh Jum
The curriculum pathway, stage by stage
- Preschool from age 2
- Elementary and middle school on the Common Core State Standards
- High school to Grade 12
- The school states it is in the process of changing from the Common Core to the English National Curriculum over three years — ask which curriculum your child's specific year group will actually be taught under
How big the year groups really are
In a province this small, “the school offers this stage” and “there is a class in that stage this year” are two different claims. This is the question Krabi families most often forget to ask.
This is the field that matters most here, and the school is refreshingly candid about it. It reports 82 full-time students across the whole age range from preschool to Grade 12, plus an average of about 15 short-term students a year, drawn from 18 nationalities with roughly one local student for every international one. Average class size is 16, capped at 25. Asked what proportion of students go on to further education, the school's own answer is that roughly one student a year graduates high school and goes to university. Read that plainly: the upper school is very small. For a primary-age child this is a genuinely attractive, personal environment; for a sixteen-year-old aiming at a competitive university, go in with your eyes open and ask exactly who else is in the class.
Accreditations & authorisations
- The school describes itself as the only licensed international school on Koh Lanta. No external accreditation body, and no examination-board authorisation, could be verified from any source.
Boarding
No boarding. This is a day school, and there is no school bus (see transport).
Who it suits
Long-stay and location-independent families on Koh Lanta — and, unusually, families who are not sure how long they are staying. The school reports no entry evaluation, no waiting list, registration accepted up to two weeks before the academic year starts, and students able to join after the year has begun; it also takes short-term students and can run virtual classrooms. That combination is rare in Thailand and makes it one of the few schools in the country genuinely set up around DTV holders, remote-working parents and world-schooling families. It suits primary-age children best.
What we could not verify — and where sources disagree
We publish these openly rather than smoothing them over. A school guide that hides its uncertainty is not much use to a family making a decision this big.
- All the figures above are the school's own answers to a verified International Schools Database questionnaire rather than statements on its own website. They are the school's own words, but confirm them directly — small schools change fast.
- The school reports 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. It states this itself. If your child needs learning support, this is decisive.
- The curriculum is mid-transition from the American Common Core to the English National Curriculum across a three-year period. Ask which one your child's year group will be taught and examined under, and what qualification they will leave with.
- The school describes its current facilities as "currently not many" and reports a new campus opening for the 2026-27 academic year. Ask what is finished and what is not. Sports provision is a 7-a-side football pitch and a half basketball court.
- Not all teachers are native English speakers, by the school's own account, and classroom technology is limited to televisions. School lunches are provided but the school reports no alternatives for special dietary needs.
- No external examination board is named. "University access testing" is the only external assessment reported.
Ask every Krabi school this
- Ask how many children are in the specific year group your child would join -- not the whole school. This is the single highest-stakes question in Krabi. Cohorts here are small enough that a stage can be advertised on a website while the class itself has two or three children in it, or is not running at all this year. Ask for the number, in writing, for the year your child enters.
- If you need A-levels or IGCSEs, ask which subjects actually run this academic year and who teaches them on site. A small sixth form cannot offer every option every year; the subject combination your child needs may or may not be timetabled.
- Ask whether the school is licensed by the Thai Ministry of Education as an international school, and request the licence details. Krabi has a mix of licensed international schools, government English Programme streams and private early-years centres, and the distinction affects both the qualification and your child's visa route.
- For a government English Programme (EP) place, ask about the entrance examination and the Thai-language requirement before you plan around it. Local guidance is that EP entrance tests are sat in late January or early February and that Thai to a native-speaking standard is expected -- which quietly rules the EP route out for most newly-arrived foreign children.
- Ask what transport the school actually runs, and whether it reaches where you intend to live. One Krabi school runs a minibus collection service across the surrounding area; another reports no school bus at all. In a province with no rail, that decides which neighbourhoods are realistic for you.
- Drive the route at 07:30 on a school day, not at midday, and drive it in the wet season. Krabi's road times change a great deal with rain and with the tourist season.
- Request the school's own current fee schedule in writing, including registration, admission, deposit, uniform, transport, lunch and trips. We do not publish per-school fees -- for one Krabi school, three directories currently quote three different ranges.
BAANLYY does not rank, endorse or accept payment from schools. Facts on this page are compiled from The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta (ISA)'s own published material and independent cross-checks, and we deliberately publish no per-school fee figures — they change annually and a stale number is worse than none. For one Krabi school, three directories currently quote three different ranges. Always confirm current admissions, fees, year groups and campus details directly with the school. Visit the official The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta (ISA) page →
Sources & References
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
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