The cheapest international school/english school in Kuala Lumpur?!!
my little family are planning to move to KL in 2 years time. We have a 4 year old, and when we go he will be around 6-7. Ideally we would like him to enter Year 3 (british one). He does not speak Malay even though his father is malaysian (dont ask, pure laziness!!!), and so of course, we would have to put the wee one into an english speaking school.
i have had a look around and the ones i have looked at are too expensive, we would ideally not want to pay more than 拢3000 a year (15000 ringgit) for tuition and registration and whatever else they are asking for these days!
does anyone have any recommendations? all i need are
1. ideally teaching British/US/Canadian curriculum.
2. within 45 minute drive of the centre in any direction.
3. mixed students (i.e. not a school catered to a particular race, i know there is one for indians and i assume the majority are indian, i dont want him to feel like the odd one out)
4. cheap fees!
so thats all, again we dont care about the latest high tech facilities and that the students go backpacking in the himalayas or something, just regular education would be fine for a 7 year old i think!
thanks!!!!
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However, I believe gravitas will provide you with the necessary links.
I do know a British guy with an Indonesian wife and an 8 year old child and they put they child in a Catholic School which apparently is very affordable. But it depends whether your husband objects to it or not.
With your budget you must be joking honestly!
When your husband returns to Malaysia, he will start to speak Bahasa Malaysia when necessary as he is back in his home environment. You and your child will probably need to learn BM as you may not be living in an expat area and neighbours kids may go to local schools and not speak English. To be kind to your child, he anyway needs to learn it to communicate with all of his Malaysian family members (unless of course they all speak English at home - which is possible).
Your family may be better off with one of the private rather than international schools which has a mixed curriculum.and tuition in English. They may be a bit more affordable. To keep Mike happy you can always look up what is available at
Prepare yourselves for a fairly large dose of culture shock, including reverse culture shock by your husband, finding himself back in a society that he left and has probably outgrown in his absence. It puts strains on marriages especially ones between different nationalities, which are already prone to more integration issues, according to all the sociology studies that have been carried out.
If you do move maybe consider a mandarin school. Cheaper and strong discipline. And mandarin and English are the two main languages to know.
I have been to malaysia 4 times before, i am a muslim and my husband is pretty western. His family are quite modern and his sister married a german, and his parents have lived overseas so there has been no forcing of wearing hijab or anything like that!
Thank you Gravitas for posting that link, I managed to find a few schools offering decent rates lower than 15000, i didn't know private schools were an option but i will definitely look further into it. i still have time to do more research. we will work on the malay, hopefully he will know some basic malay by the time we move, but i have enrolled him for mandarin classes so hopefully that will prove useful as well! thanks for the responses!

Being aware of issues helps prevent the problems so we are all doing you a favour in making you aware. Your husband will have the worst shock culturally. Foreigners are given leeway as we are foreign. He is Malay and will be assumed that he is being bolshie or nasty if he displays English characteristics he has probably picked up. Especially at work. it happened to a friend who is English with a south Korean wife. They lasted 6 months in Korea as she hated it as working there sucks as a Korean who is westernised. He loved it. They returned to UK to save their marriage although he doesn't like UK. Sometimes it is easier as a foreign couple to go to a third country. A Malay woman I know married to a Scot did that. They live in Asia but not malaysia. I know a lot of "bananas" as they call themselves - Chinese Malaysians who return to Malaysia. Working here can be very hard when westernised.
I would suggest your husband gets work if possible with a western company and works with westerners that minimises the impact.
As for schools most of the new international schools are poor and run to make money only. The private ones are less than awful. You have to pay at least 30k a year for somewhere decent I am afraid if you want English as the medium.of education. School fees are in easing 10-15% per annum as well.
Total cost of an education from year 2 to 11 will be at least 400k rm in todays terms.
Then 50k for pre U.
Then back to UK 40k pounds for degree plus living costs. Say 60k steeling so 350k rm.
The cost to educate one child is 800k at least in RM.
Before you move maybe consider that !
My kids are still young, one at kindergarten and another about to start kindergarten and that means I will be paying about RM23,000 per annum unless I put them in a cheaper place. Certainly I will be moving away form Malaysia by the time they start serious school. Probably Indonesia as I heard the Singapore International School is quite reasonable and of a decent standard.
I've spent about 30 years in the Far East and can run my business from anywhere so I don't mind moving around. But for those with kids and looking for a job it may well be worth staying in the UK one of you can find a job with good expat terms.
Saeid
Mike when I say things "only paid 12-15k" every Muppet comments I am way off! But true that is a lowish salary in kl. for a single expat ok. For anyone wanting a good education for children follow the Malaysian herd. Go west.
Thanks
This is the list for Kuala Lumpur from the bottom of the web page given above:
St. John's Institution (Kuala Lumpur)路
La Salle School (Brickfields)路
La Salle Chinese School (Brickfields)路
La Salle School (Sentul)路
La Salle School (Jinjang)路
La Salle School (Peel Road)
Selangor: La Salle School (Petaling Jaya)路
La Salle School (Klang)
Negeri Sembilan: St. Paul's Institution (Seremban)路
Sino-English Chinese School (Seremban)
Here is another link for international and private schools, which are open to foreigners:

Personally I think religious education is an oxymoron, however,聽 what I recommend is a good secular international school and send your child to 'Sunday school' at your local Catholic Church where they can learn all about Catholicism, but learn to be tolerant of all religions in a non-religious school. I suggest that for all parents - keep mainstream education and religion apart, There are many after school religious 'schools' for all major faiths in KL (not Jewish for obvious reasons!)
So 15000 ringit per year? for school fees?
do I have to pay monthly?
regards
The lowest fees are about RM1,500 per month, payable at the beginning of the term, but there are other hidden fees that you need to enquire about.聽 Please read this article:
Your child will need a students pass (visa) and that requires you to have an employment pass or some other pass in Malaysia.
Fees of acceptable schools are 35-45k (primary-secondary) per year to 80-100k RM for the best schools.
Global Indian International School, Kuala Lumpur Campus, Malaysia
They have Cambridge board as well.
School fees, etc all are avilable on website.
We have been shopping for a similar school in Malaysia and visited many schools in Malaysia
To our surprise most international school fees are as follows
1) minimum Rm35,000 and above per year.聽 At Rm35,000 you get local Malaysia teachers and a small percentage of Filipino, South African, India and maybe 1-5% British.聽 I have check out these school and am extremely disappointed with the quality of teachers. (This is because the pool of available Malaysia teachers are very limited and although they may have a Degree, you MUST ask where they graduated from.聽 Likely they graduate from some unrated university in Malaysia.聽 Besides the pay of teachers are very low in Malaysia hence most are not loyal to the school they work with and will never put their heart to their job as they are not earning enough to keep up with the rising cost of living in Malaysia.聽 (I am sorry if I offend anyone here.聽 However, this is the reality in Malaysia)
2) true British education with British teacher mostly - fee range between minimum RM50,000 - Rm80,000 per year.
If you pay these fees, you get good teachers and chances are that the teachers will also put their heart in the job.聽 These teachers are well paid and mostly are from the UK. with a good expat package.
Unless you get a good expat package or you have very strong economic reason to come to Malaysia, I highly recommend you not to.聽 This is largely due to high education cost at junior years.聽 If your company are not paying your kids school fee, I am afraid a majority of your income will go to pay school fees which is ridiculous.聽 You are paying top university fee such as Durham, Cardiff and Nottingham University where the annual fee are around British pounds 9,000 to 10,000 for junior years.
Some forum members recommended centre for IGCSE at RM10,000/year.聽 Indeed centres are very popular in Malaysia.聽 Its an option for Malaysian parents who cannot afford to put kids at international school and yet want their kids to take the British standardised exam.
But please bear in mind these are not proper school.聽 I have check all of them out too.聽 Your child will not be able to grow academically and learn about society, being part of community, responsibilities, excel in sports or music, taking up leadership role etc that a proper school offer.
BTW IGCSE is very different to GCSEs (the British exam) in the same was as "A levels" offered in Malaysia are very different to real UK A levels (the ones offered here are for the Asian market). These "Asian A levels" seriously disadvantage Malaysian students at University.
Dream_treat spot on with "Unless you get a good expat package or you have very strong economic reason to come to Malaysia, I highly recommend you not to."

Second option is聽 Yemen聽 International Islamic school in Putrajaya I think their fee is also come into your budget
So be happy and check

Regards
Akhtar Riaz
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Reason : For own security measures, please do not share email address on the forum, you could use our private message system for that.
Anyone ...any idea about Fairview Int'l School?
As mentioned earlier, perhaps you can check on some international learning centers that does not only offer academically driven classes. There are quite a few centers which focuses on nurturing the child alongside preparing them for exams. They are very much affordable compared to international schools. I'm teaching in one of such. Try checking out
I recommend ELC in Sungai Buloh. My son went there and we were satisfied. Their fees are reasonable and there are many places to live in the area.聽
Best Regards
Mike silvia
Reason : Promotion of own commercial websites not allowed.
rahayu wrote:There are a few centers teaching igcse from primary to secondary. Fee is about RM10,000 per year. This center suitable more to parents who wish to home schooled their children but no time for it. Two in oug - able learners n campus rangers and 1 in usj 1 - sri prima.
Can you advise where these centers websites?
I have an idea about Fairview International School as I am a student there (Malaysian, local student) First thing you need to know is that we no longer offer the UK IGCSE O Level Exams but we are doing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme in place of it. There are also 5 campuses in 5 states. While the Kuala Lumpur campus is full of expatriates, the campuses in Subang Jaya, Penang, Johor Baru and Ipoh mainly cater for local middle to high income range families (like mine) who want IB English Medium Education. The fees for my year are roughly 40k, so that would be definitely out of your budget. Seeing as this question was asked more than a year ago, I believe you have made your decision. But I just had to answer questions about my school because I wanted to, and just in case you are looking to move to another state or something.
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