Apart from local Primary schools (weak English Education Plus a VERY heavy homework load) and KIA, are there any other options for foreign children (under 10 Primary years) in Kunming?

There is KIY(Korean school in the north). I'm not exactly sure what classes they have for younger kids. I know middle school and high school kids can pick to have more Chinese classes or English classes. I can ask tomorrow or Friday..

There's an international (aka bilingual English-Chinese) primary school somewhere near the airport - cheaper than Beijing - but last time I checked the annual tuition (not including books and supplies) was somewhere around ¥10k per kid. Attendance will probably require you to have a car (or an e-scooter with a severely powerful and long-lasting battery).

If you send your kids to local (Chinese) schools - be careful - they'll try to rape (I use the word correctly) you for up to ¥25k per child (Americans benefitting from the largest fees, of course) - but this is illegal despite some pseudo-official looking paper that they won't let you copy or take home.

Beijing and Hu Jintao's government legislated primary schooling for ALL children in China is FREE - from grades 1-9.

Its true that primary education is free. However I think that only applies to kids with a local hukou. Children with foreign passports do not tend to have a local hukou (if they did it would be illegal but thats a discussion for another time).

Infact the hukou system only allows you to go to a local school so that if you are from Panlong District you would have hard time getting into a primary school in Wuhua district.

As a foreigner your hands are pretty much tied and you almost definately will need to pay some kind of bribe to get into a local school. Its all about hukou and citizenship, that both parents are taxpayers in China and contributing to the economy is unfortunately irrelevant.

Greg
My kids go to local school in Kunming for free - just like everyone else. I got ticked when they tried to extort money from me. If you want to send your kids OUT of district - then extortion is understandable. My kids couldn't get into the neighborhood schools in Beijing so I sent them to one of the best primary schools in zhongguancun - but that only cost (non-refundable of course) ¥6k per year - not ¥25k for some subpar crap rural school in kunming.

This is something where gaoxing would have a legit gripe to flame KM and YN in general. Stinks of corruption.

It seems that the option of finding something in KM that is a mix of international and local school in Kunming is not an option.

Anyone know anything about 海贝双语学校?

Thanks Laotou, that's good to know. not something we'll have to deal with for a couple of years but helpful nonetheless. I got the impression all kids without local hukou (so that naturally includes foreigners) have to pay. Good to know its not the case.

Does anyone have contact information for the Korean school in the north (KIY), or the one near the airport?

Homer: www.christianvolunteering.org/[...]

was the closest I could get. Be aware though, if this is the right place it looks more like Jesus Camp than anything deserving of the word "school" in the title.