A Thai School Parade, Isaan Thailand.

Last week of school there was practicing every day for senior students as there was a very important parade taking place. On Friday there was a guard of honour lining the entrance to the school.

Also outside the school the students were lined along the road. This was a very significant parade.

And students were even lining the road across from the school.

And this was the reason, the parade had arrived.


Our student soldiers were carrying the Thai National colours.

And also the school’s colours.

Following closely were senior students. They had walked about 2klms through the centre of Ubon Ratchathani.

And here is the reason; this truck was carrying important people and the Holy Grail.

One of our most senior teachers, and he is a top guy as well was enjoying the ride.

The Holy Grails were being guarded by student soldiers. In these purple holders were prizes of the highest regard, The King’s Prize. I have written about this before a few years ago and can read about that at this link if you like.

The King’s Prize parade marches past the school.

As you can see, we have 5 of these awards. You have the honour of being known as a King’s prize recipient for 3 years and then have to reapply for the award. Also the awards are separate for kindergarten, primary and secondary levels. We now hold all three levels at once.

The Assumption School Band helps motivate the marchers.

The line of student marchers stretches back, and the guard of honour welcoming them.

Then the traffic was stopped to allow the students to cross over into the outside lane of Ubon’s main road. This parade was held during peak hour, pretty insane indeed.

The traffic was let go, but the problem was that not everyone had crossed over and all of a sudden cars and motorbikes were going between students. It was very comical and unsafe but this is Thailand.

The parade then did a u-turn at the lights and made their way back to the school.

All traffic heading into the centre of town was then blocked off again. This lasted at least 10 minutes and I am sure there would have been many furious motorists. I would have been enraged but I am a farang.

The truck finally made it to the school, I am sure the students and the important guests were very excited at the arrival.

And one last little comical event was the truck ripping some wires out across the driveway of the school. The truck was stopped for a food 4 or so minutes while they removed and lifted wires out of the way.

This award is important to win. It is important to the school’s powers to be as it is a very big bragging right to have over other schools.

Any school can apply for this award. The process on receiving it is very long and drawn out. It disrupts classes and learning and also takes up a lot of time of teachers.

But for me it is all a façade, what the school ahs to do to win the award goes way and above just being a school. I won’t go into things that happen during inspections from the King’s Committee but have in detail in other posts.

The disruption the award causes for the normal day to day running of the school to me outweighs the benefits, but I am looking at this as a teacher and not as a power to be.

For me having students miss classes for practice marching, greeting important people, how to sing the National Anthem and school songs is not something that benefits them.

For me, the students being in the classroom learning is the most important thing, on many occasions I have been told a class is cancelled and when I enquire, ‘why?’

And when I am told it is for some ridiculous reason and I then say that my class will not be attending the practice, pandemonium can break out. Teachers will say that this is not possible; they must attend practice and sing the school song and how to politely greet someone. To me this is insane but to some this is Thailand and their way.

Most the time I just accept it and go about my day. Like this day. My small year 1 students were meant to study for the first period of the day. I arrived at the class and they weren’t there. I found out they were already lined up on the balconies of the school building, waiting for an hour for the parade to arrive.

This parade and ceremony went on until about 10.30 am, the marches started at 7.30am. I took a few pictures and went back to the office and completed marking, paperwork and other stuff.

When I senior teacher came in after the ceremony had finished and asked, if I attended, I replied with a very simple ‘No’.

That evening the school was very generous and had a party for all the teachers for the hard work they had done to win these awards. There was food and drink laid on for all. I also didn’t attend this as I had much more pressing engagements, the Ashes cricket was on TV.

So that was just another day in a Thai school in Thailand.

Brunty