Mahavajiravudh is Songkhla province's flagship government secondary school, sitting on Ratchadamnoen Road in the Old Town under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office for Songkhla and Satun. It is on this page for one reason: its EGL stream -- ห้องเรียนส่งเสริมความเป็นเลิศด้านภาษาอังกฤษ, English Gifted Learners -- is the largest concentration of native-English-speaker teaching inside Songkhla city, and almost no English-language relocation guide mentions it. EGL is built on the Thai national core curriculum with additional English subjects and a second foreign language on top, and the school states that its English subjects are taught by native-speaker teachers with Thai teachers working alongside them. Students are entered for external English benchmarking -- the school names CEFR, TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS, and runs a computer-adaptive CEFR placement test through Oxford -- and the programme has working relationships with the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Prince of Songkla University and at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya. Read that carefully before you get excited: this is a Thai school with an exceptional English stream, not an international school. The teaching outside the English subjects is in Thai, the timetable is a Thai timetable, and the leaving certificate is the Thai one.
Where it actually is
19 Ratchadamnoen Road, Tambon Bo Yang, Amphoe Mueang Songkhla, Songkhla 90000
Ratchadamnoen Road runs through Bo Yang, so the school is inside the Old Town -- walkable from much of the heritage quarter and a short ride from Samila. For a family basing itself in the Old Town this is the shortest school run in the province. There is no rail anywhere in Songkhla province.
The academic pathway, stage by stage
- The Thai Basic Education Core Curriculum B.E. 2551 across Mathayom 1 to Mathayom 6.
- EGL (English Gifted Learners) -- the English-excellence classroom: additional English subjects and a second foreign language, English subjects taught by native-speaker teachers with Thai teachers supervising closely, and a spread of extension subjects including public speaking, drama and performance, writing for communication and analytical reading.
- EGL enrichment: an EGL United English Camp, domestic and overseas study visits, an EGL Enhancement skills programme, and intensive university-preparation teaching for Mathayom 3 and Mathayom 6.
- External English benchmarking -- CEFR, TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS are all named by the school, with an Oxford computer-adaptive CEFR test run online.
- Other special classrooms alongside EGL: SMA and SMA Pre-Medical, SMTE (science, mathematics, technology and environment), the Phet Mahavajiravudh scholars programme, LP (law and political science), CAP (academic competency) and MP (music).
What a child actually leaves with
The Thai upper-secondary certificate at the end of Mathayom 6. EGL is an English-intensive route through the Thai national curriculum -- it is not IGCSE, not A-Level and not a US high-school diploma. If your child needs a British or American leaving qualification, this school cannot supply one, however good its English teaching is. That is the single most important sentence on this page.
Accreditation and authorisations
- A government school under the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), within the Secondary Educational Service Area Office Songkhla-Satun. It is a state school; it holds no international accreditation and does not claim one.
- EGL's external validation is examination-based rather than institutional -- CEFR, TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS entries, plus the Oxford CEFR placement test -- and its academic partners are the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Prince of Songkla University and at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya.
How a family actually gets in
Entry to EGL is at Mathayom 1 and Mathayom 4 only, by annual competitive selection. The school publishes an academic threshold: a grade-point average of at least 3.00 overall and at least 3.00 in English. Classes are capped at 36 students. Admissions run on the Thai academic calendar -- announcements in the winter, testing early in the calendar year, term starting in May -- and the process is conducted in Thai. For a newly arrived foreign family this is the gate that matters, and it is academic and linguistic rather than financial.
Boarding
A day school. No boarding provision is published, and we do not imply one.
Scale of the community
The school publishes 36 students per EGL classroom. It does not publish a whole-school roll on the pages we could read, so we print none -- Mahavajiravudh is a large provincial flagship, and the number a parent should ask for is the size of the EGL cohort, not the size of the school.
Who it suits
Bilingual and mixed Thai-foreign families already settled in Songkhla whose child reads and writes Thai to a school standard, and who want a strong English education inside the state system at state-school cost. It is also the honest answer for a family whose child will stay in the Thai system for university -- EGL's whole design points at Thai university entrance with a strong English profile, and it does that better than anything else in the city.
Living near the school
The school is in Bo Yang, which makes the Old Town the natural base -- and the Old Town is the cheapest and most walkable part of the city.
Songkhla areas guide Where to live in Songkhla Songkhla rental market Songkhla cost of living
Confirm these directly with the school
- Whether a child without native-standard Thai can sit the selection at all, and what the school will do about the Thai-medium subjects if they are admitted. The school publishes the academic threshold; it does not publish a language policy for foreign applicants, and this is the question that decides whether EGL is available to your family.
- How many EGL teachers are native English speakers this year, and which subjects they cover. The school describes the model; the staffing behind it changes annually.
- The current fee. Mahavajiravudh publishes its EGL costs per semester on its own EGL page, along with a separate annual activity contribution and an extra charge for the overseas study visit. We link that page rather than reprint figures that are revised every year -- but note the order of magnitude: this is a state school, and its published EGL cost is a small fraction of any international school's.
- Whether the second foreign language your child wants is running. EGL adds a second foreign language on top of English; which languages are offered in a given year is not published.
- The intake dates for the year you need. There are two entry points -- Mathayom 1 and Mathayom 4 -- and missing one costs three years.
- The current fee schedule -- tuition, application and enrolment fees, any deposit, uniforms, lunches and transport. We link each school's own page rather than reprint a number that goes stale every year.
- Whether the year group you need is actually running and has a place for your intended start date. Songkhla city is small; a single full cohort decides where you live.
- How far the school takes your child. This is Songkhla city's question. The one private English-medium school here stops at Grade 6, so a family with a seven-year-old is making a decision that expires.
- For any government stream: the entrance examination date, what language it is sat in, and the grade-point threshold. In Thai special classrooms the gate is academic and it is administered in Thai -- affordability is not the same thing as admissibility.
- Whether the school will accept a mid-year joiner. Thai academic years begin in May and the special-classroom intakes at Mathayom 1 and Mathayom 4 are annual, fixed and examined months in advance.
BAANLYY does not rank, endorse or accept payment from schools, and does not publish per-school tuition figures — they are revised annually and every school publishes its own current schedule. Facts on this page are compiled from Mahavajiravudh Songkhla School's own public presence and independent cross-checks; always confirm current admissions, fees and campus details directly with the school. Visit Mahavajiravudh Songkhla School's official EGL programme 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.
Find a home near Mahavajiravudh Songkhla School
Browse Songkhla condos and homes near 19 Ratchadamnoen Road, Bo Yang -- in the Old Town, Amphoe Mueang Songkhla, or see our full Songkhla schools guide for how the realistic schooling options compare.
