Schools & universities in Phetchabun.

The province's flagship state secondary school and its first, founded as the provincial school for Phetchabun and today co-educational, at 210 Samakkhi Chai Road in Nai Mueang — the Saraburi–Lom Sak artery that also carries the provincial hospital and the town's main offices. It matters to relocating families because it runs genuine special-programme tracks rather than a single Thai-medium stream: an English Program (EP) and Intensive English Program (IEP), an Intensive Chinese Program (ICP), a Computer Science Program (CSP), and a science-mathematics-technology-and-environment special classroom on the national gifted-science model. An EP is English-medium teaching inside the Thai national curriculum — it is not an international curriculum, and the distinction matters if you need IB or IGCSE — but it is a real English-medium route, and the best one in the province.

The capital's other large state secondary school, at 208 Nai Mueang — effectively next door to Phetchaphitthayakhom on the same road — and historically the provincial girls' school. Together the two schools account for most academic secondary places in Mueang Phetchabun, and both sit under the Phetchabun Secondary Educational Service Area Office. If you are choosing a valley address for schooling reasons, this pair of schools is the single strongest argument for living in or near Nai Mueang. Confirm current programmes, streams and admission rounds with the school directly — Thai state schools set intakes annually.

The leading state secondary school in Lom Sak, the province's northern market town and Highway 12 crossroads. For families based in Lom Sak, Lom Kao or on the Khao Kho approaches, this is the practical academic secondary option without a daily commute down the valley to the capital — a genuine consideration, because the Mueang–Lom Sak run is roughly 40 km each way.

The province's best-known private school, and the option most relocating families ask about after the state schools. It has been operating for well over four decades and covers the full span from a pre-kindergarten and early-years department through to secondary, with an Intensive English Program in the early years. It is a private Thai school rather than an international school — the curriculum and qualification are Thai — but for parents who want smaller classes, a private setting and more English contact than a standard government school offers, it is the realistic local choice. Confirm current levels, programmes and fees with the school directly; we do not publish fee figures that change every year.

Part of the national Kanchanaphisek Witthayalai network of state schools, sited at 99/9 Moo 5 in Tambon Nam Chun, Lom Sak district, out in the northern valley rather than in either main town. It is worth knowing about if you are looking at the Lom Sak and Lom Kao area, because it widens the northern schooling options beyond Lom Sak Wittayakhom — but check the intake and any boarding arrangements directly, as schools in this network vary.

The province's largest higher-education institution and the only full university based in the capital itself, in Mueang Phetchabun, strong in education, humanities, management and applied and agricultural fields. PCRU anchors local higher education and teacher training, and its student population is a visible part of the capital's rental demand — much of the town's apartment stock exists because of it.

Phetchabun is one of the twenty-three provinces where Ramkhamhaeng University — Thailand's large open-admission public university — runs a regional campus, and the detail worth knowing is where it sits: not in the provincial capital, but in Lom Sak, the northern market town roughly 40 km up the valley. Ramkhamhaeng's regional campuses exist so that people can read for a Bangkok-issued degree without leaving the province, which in practice means working and part-time students rather than a residential campus population. Teaching is Thai-medium. One honest caveat: the campus's own website still publishes student numbers ending at academic year 2557 (2014/15), so treat any programme list you find online as out of date and confirm the current intake with the campus directly.

Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University — Thailand's principal public Buddhist university — lists a regional Buddhist college for Phetchabun among its twenty-eight, named for Pho Khun Pha Mueang, the historical ruler associated with this stretch of the upper Pa Sak valley. Like the Ramkhamhaeng campus, it is in Lom Sak rather than the capital. It teaches Thai-medium degrees to monks, novices and lay students alike; MCU's own course systems list a political-science bachelor's alongside Buddhist studies, and its college website did not render for us, so confirm current programmes with the college. It will not be relevant to most relocating families — but it is the second reason Lom Sak carries a young student population that a market town of its size would not otherwise support, and student demand is what sustains cheap room stock in a town like this.

The province's largest vocational institution, at No. 212 in Nai Mueang, Mueang Phetchabun — the same central sub-district as the two big state secondary schools. It is worth stating precisely, because the usual shorthand about Thai technical colleges is wrong here: alongside the vocational certificate (ปวช.) and higher vocational certificate (ปวส.), the college's own admissions material says it teaches to degree level, awarding the Bachelor of Technology (เทคโนโลยีบัณฑิต, ทล.บ.) on the practitioner track, across some seventeen programme areas spanning automotive, electrical, electronics, construction, welding and production trades through to digital business, accounting and marketing. It does that as a member college of the Institute of Vocational Education, Northern Region 3, whose head office is not in Phetchabun at all but at 410 Moo 1, Phitsanulok–Bueng Phra Road in Mueang Phitsanulok, where degree admissions for the group are run. Other public vocational colleges operate in the province, including agricultural ones; we name here only the college we checked against its own site.

There is no full international-curriculum school in Phetchabun. Not a thin selection, not one to verify locally — none. English-language and Thai-language searches both return nothing in the province, and Phetchabun appears on no list of Thailand's international schools. A family needing a complete IB, British or American track through to secondary will not find one here, and the honest advice is to plan schooling outside the province: Phitsanulok is the nearest larger city, about two hours over Highway 12, with Chiang Mai and Bangkok offering the fullest choice. What Phetchabun does have is the English Program route inside its leading state school and an Intensive English stream in the private sector — real English-medium teaching, but of the Thai national curriculum, issuing a Thai qualification. That distinction decides whether a child can transfer into a foreign system later, so we state it rather than blur it.