Rajini School

Rajini School (, , lit. "Queen's School") is a private girls' school in Thailand, and one of the oldest in the country. It was founded in 1904 by Queen Saovabha Phongsri as a replacement for the recently closed Sunanthalai School, which she had previously also sponsored. The school is situated in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon District, at the southern tip of the historic inner Rattanakosin Island. Today it admits kindergarten to upper secondary students, with an enrolment of 2,861 in 2019, and is known for its traditional values. The historic Sunanthalai Building is a listed ancient monument. History During the late nineteenth century, Thailand, then known as Siam, was undergoing rapid modernisation of its education system. Schools were established by Western missionaries as well as the government of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). However, the King's focus was mostly on male education, and the creation of schools for girls lagged considerably behind those for boys. In 1892, the government-owned Sunanthalai Girls' School (or Sunandalaya, ) was founded under the leadership of Queen Saovabha Phongsri, partly in response to the rise of Christian schools—Wang Lang Girls' School (the precursor of today's Wattana Wittaya Academy) had been established by Presbyterian missionaries in 1874, and enjoyed support from both well-to-do commoners and elite families. Sunanthalai School was positioned much more traditionally, teaching royal domestic skills as well as academic subjects. However, while the school received interest from the extended royal family, the government and the King were less enthusiastic. The school struggled financially, and was closed down in 1902. On 1 April 1904 (some sources give 1903), Queen Saovabha established a new school using her own funds, and named it Rajini, meaning "the Queen's School". One of the main problems with Sunanthalai, in her view, was its curriculum being too Western (its initial teaching staff consisted of Western missionary women). Accordingly, Japanese educator Tetsu Yasui was hired as the new school's first principal, giving the school an Eastern orientation to counter the rising Western influence.