Foreign teachers still cannot join the private school welfare fund, and the minister points to how long they stay
Education Minister Prasert Chantararuangthong said on 10 August, after a meeting of the Private Education Commission, that the question of allowing foreign teachers to pay into the private school teachers’ welfare fund remains unresolved.
The obstacle is a rule about time. Prasert said current regulations require a contributor to pay in continuously for at least 10 years before drawing benefits from the fund. Foreign teachers mostly live and work in Thailand for an average of six to seven years, he said, and few have applied to contribute in the first place.
The 10 year threshold does not gate everything the fund pays out, and the distinction matters for anyone weighing what membership is worth. A Thai member’s own contributions, deducted at 3% of monthly salary, come back in full whenever they leave, however short their service. The employer’s matching 3% and the ministry’s 6% are what the 10 year rule controls.
A member who serves at least five years but fewer than 10 can still claim part of that money, but only by continuing to pay their own 3% until the 10 years are complete. Medical reimbursement, the child education allowance and low-interest loans run alongside, for as long as someone is a member.
Members of the commission were divided. The matter has been sent back to the relevant agencies to assess the advantages and disadvantages before any decision is made.
If you teach here, this is the practical position
The request itself tells you where foreign teachers currently stand. They sit outside the fund, which means no medical reimbursement through it, no child education allowance, no access to its low-interest loans, and no retirement payout. Nothing said on Monday changes that.
The gap runs deeper than the fund. Under the Private School Act, directors, teachers, and educational personnel at schools in the system are exempt from labour protection and social security laws.
The full picture of what foreign teachers are entitled to and what they are not, including work permit requirements and tax obligations, is worth reading before signing any contract
A foreign teacher at a private school in the system generally cannot count on social security as a backstop, so anyone assuming their employer contributes on their behalf should check.
That leaves private arrangements: personal savings, private health insurance, and whatever the employment contract itself provides. Teaching is one of the most common routes into employment in Thailand for English speakers, but the welfare and legal protections available vary significantly depending on which type of institution you are employed by.
Four Bangkok private schools have applied to close
In the same meeting, Prasert said four private schools in Bangkok have now applied to shut down, citing economic conditions and Thailand’s falling birth rate. The figure covers applications from schools in Bangkok, not a national total.
He described the closures as an internal matter for each school, saying the ministry cannot do a great deal unless a school asks for help.
Pupils would not be affected provided they can move to another school, he said. He has asked for a further survey to establish whether more schools intend to follow.
The underlying arithmetic
Thailand’s birth rate has been falling for years, and private schools feel it first. International schools are moving in the opposite direction entirely, adding 8.3% more students in 2025 even as the total number of children in the country fell, a divergence that explains why the pressure is not spread evenly across the private school sector.
Fewer children entering the system each year, combined with household finances under pressure, produces exactly this: schools that were viable a decade ago closing quietly, one application at a time.
The pressure is not spread evenly. Schools serving international curricula draw on a different parent market from mid-sized Thai language private schools, and the two groups are not moving in the same direction. The survey Prasert has ordered will show how far this reaches for foreign teachers in Thailand.
The story Ten years in, or nothing: the rule keeping foreign teachers out of Thailand’s private school fund as seen on Thaiger News.
