Teacher couple from Central Finland took leave of absence, sold their house, and set off to teach in the tropics
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By Marjukka Liiten
The Finnish school that opened its doors in the Thai holiday resort of Pattaya last autumn is now applying for an official comprehensive school licence from the Finnish government.
The licence would give the school the right to issue school certificates and receive state aid.
In all, the Ministry of Education and Culture has received 14 private school licence applications.
The government is likely to decide on the new school licences during February and March.
The new applicants also include the support associations for a Christian school in the Rovaniemi region and for the Jumesniemi Church School in Hämeenkyrö.
The school in Pattaya has filed an application for permission to organise comprehensive school education for all the grade levels from one to nine. Currently the school has 16 students, eight of whom live in Thailand permanently.
The rest are pupils holidaying there. There is at least one student on each grade level, save the fifth.
A teacher couple, Tiiti and Tommi Mäkelä from Central Finland, is responsible for providing education at the school.
Last spring the Mäkeläs - and 200 others seeking to work in a different environment and a conspicuously warmer climate - responded to a newspaper ad looking for teachers.
“We sold our large detached house and all our movables in Korpilahti. The only thing that we kept was our boat”, Tiiti Mäkelä explained last Wednesday.
”Yes, we saw them, and we laughed that we beat him to it”, Mäkelä says, referring to recent news articles about an Espoo man, who is also looking to get rid of his possessions and relocate to Thailand.
“For sure we are not going to stay here just for one year”, Mäkelä reckons, trusting in the couple’s future in a country that - despite their extensive previous travels - neither one of them had ever been to before.
“This is not a den of vices of any kind, but a truly peaceful place. And it was nice to come to somewhere sunny”, Mäkelä exclaims.
“We set out with a spirit of adventure”, Tiiti Mäkelä points out, dismissing the lower salary and other benefits compared with back home in Finland. “The cost of living here is cheap.”
So far the Pattaya Finnish school operates on a voluntary work basis and with funds provided by the support association.
The student tuition fees are EUR 250 per month.
Obtaining the official licence is anything but a certainty, for the means test is strict.
The teaching has to satisfy particular schooling and educational needs, and the applicant has to have the professional qualifications and the financial means to provide proper tuition.
“The area has 2,000 permanent Finnish residents, and then we have all the schoolchildren holidaying here”, Mäkelä says in justifying the effort.
The Pattaya area does have an international English school, but it is “really expensive”.
Some of the Finnish children also attend Thai schools, and some have been given tuition at home by their parents.
In 1989 Bangkok’s Finnish School of Thailand, maintained by Fida International, the Missions and Development Cooperation Organisation of the Pentecostal Churches in Finland, was granted an official school licence, but apparently its operation has since died down.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.1.2011
Previously in HS International Edition:
Permission still sought for permanent Finnish upper secondary school on Costa del Sol (25.2.2009)
See also:
Finnish expats stay in orbit (5.1.2010)
Espoo snow removal man to move to Thailand without his family after all (31.1.2011)
Links:
Pattaya Finnish School (site in Finnish)
The Finnish school that opened its doors in the Thai holiday resort of Pattaya last autumn is now applying for an official comprehensive school licence from the Finnish government.
The licence would give the school the right to issue school certificates and receive state aid.
In all, the Ministry of Education and Culture has received 14 private school licence applications.
The government is likely to decide on the new school licences during February and March.
The new applicants also include the support associations for a Christian school in the Rovaniemi region and for the Jumesniemi Church School in Hämeenkyrö.
The school in Pattaya has filed an application for permission to organise comprehensive school education for all the grade levels from one to nine. Currently the school has 16 students, eight of whom live in Thailand permanently.
The rest are pupils holidaying there. There is at least one student on each grade level, save the fifth.
A teacher couple, Tiiti and Tommi Mäkelä from Central Finland, is responsible for providing education at the school.
Last spring the Mäkeläs - and 200 others seeking to work in a different environment and a conspicuously warmer climate - responded to a newspaper ad looking for teachers.
“We sold our large detached house and all our movables in Korpilahti. The only thing that we kept was our boat”, Tiiti Mäkelä explained last Wednesday.
”Yes, we saw them, and we laughed that we beat him to it”, Mäkelä says, referring to recent news articles about an Espoo man, who is also looking to get rid of his possessions and relocate to Thailand.
“For sure we are not going to stay here just for one year”, Mäkelä reckons, trusting in the couple’s future in a country that - despite their extensive previous travels - neither one of them had ever been to before.
“This is not a den of vices of any kind, but a truly peaceful place. And it was nice to come to somewhere sunny”, Mäkelä exclaims.
“We set out with a spirit of adventure”, Tiiti Mäkelä points out, dismissing the lower salary and other benefits compared with back home in Finland. “The cost of living here is cheap.”
So far the Pattaya Finnish school operates on a voluntary work basis and with funds provided by the support association.
The student tuition fees are EUR 250 per month.
Obtaining the official licence is anything but a certainty, for the means test is strict.
The teaching has to satisfy particular schooling and educational needs, and the applicant has to have the professional qualifications and the financial means to provide proper tuition.
“The area has 2,000 permanent Finnish residents, and then we have all the schoolchildren holidaying here”, Mäkelä says in justifying the effort.
The Pattaya area does have an international English school, but it is “really expensive”.
Some of the Finnish children also attend Thai schools, and some have been given tuition at home by their parents.
In 1989 Bangkok’s Finnish School of Thailand, maintained by Fida International, the Missions and Development Cooperation Organisation of the Pentecostal Churches in Finland, was granted an official school licence, but apparently its operation has since died down.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.1.2011
Previously in HS International Edition:
Permission still sought for permanent Finnish upper secondary school on Costa del Sol (25.2.2009) See also:
Finnish expats stay in orbit (5.1.2010) Espoo snow removal man to move to Thailand without his family after all (31.1.2011) Links:
Pattaya Finnish School (site in Finnish) MARJUKKA LIITEN / Helsingin Sanomat
marjukka.liiten@hs.fi
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