Callmeishmael

The MOE arranged vaccinations for Thai teachers a few months ago. Foreign teachers were not included in the scheme, even if their school submitted their names. The real question is parents and grandparents. Despite masks and hand-washing kids are little disease vectors and many Thais live in multiple-generation families. Have all of the grandparents been vaccinated? The last time I checked the percent of over-60s who had been vaccinated was lagging far behind the percent of the general population that had been vaccinated.

My wife and I went to Immigration yesterday to get another annual extension for my "Thai Wife" visa. It took us 7 hours to get everything done! While we were waiting I was chatting with another foreigner and we both casually mentioned corruption and agents during our conversation. My wife thought that we were exaggerating, but after talking to an agent who was in line near us, she not only found out we were right, but had a price list for various types of visas! I do everything by the book, but I would swear that Immigration deliberately makes things difficult for us, so that we will be pushed into using an agent!

Most government schools have 35 - 45 students per class. With that many students in a classroom at one time even the best teachers will struggle to have any meaningful discourse with their students. This is the elephant in the room that all of these education reform proposals never discuss.

Speaking of legs.... I've watched a few of the BlackPink music videos, however, I usually turn off the sound so that I'm not subjected to their godawful caterwauling. ????

I'm not 100% sure of the current requirements, but having a license from your home country should guarantee that you will be given an Thai Teaching license. However, you will need to work in a Thai school for at least a year and get recommendations from your department head and school director before you can apply for that Thai Teaching License. You should have no trouble working for two or even four years before applying for the local license.

I don't know about those schools, but there are different kinds of EP programs. Typically, about 1/2 of the subjects will be taught in English, hopefully by NES (Native English Speakers). It's not unusual for a school to hire Filipinos, Indians, Danes, Dutch, Nigerians etc., especially to teach Science, Math, Health, etc... personally, I would be wary of schools that have non-NES teachers teaching English as a subject. Most EP programs have smaller class sizes, usually limited to 25 students for primary and 35 students for secondary. They typically have AC in their classrooms, along with computers/projectors and often the students have tablets or laptops that they can use for various lessons. Pay a visit to the schools if you can, in addition to asking about the things I mentioned above, find out how well the people in Administration can speak English. If they cannot speak English, how do they communicate with the teachers? Do they just issue occasional badly worded directives and then complain when the foreign teachers don't understand or comply? Or do they have at least one or two staff members who speak English well? Also ask about faculty turnover. Do most teachers stay for at least 3 or 4 years, or do they have a majority of new teachers every year. Without some continuity in the faculty, the teachers cannot really teach effectively.

When school opened last year, some of the Thai teachers sat all of the P4 - P6 students down and talked at them for about 1/2 and hour about wearing masks, washing hands, etc.. They then asked me to say a few words. First I asked the kids what would happen if they caught Covid. When they answered "We would die", I replied that of course they wouldn't die, 10 year olds don't die of Covid. Then I asked them how many of lived in the same house as their grandparents. About 1/3 of them raised their hands. I then told them that is the reason why they should wear masks and wash their hands. Not to protect themselves, but to protect their grandparents. There were no vaccines a year ago, but there are now. Students should get vaccinated to protect their grandparents and their classmates grandparents.

Double tracking the entire network, setting up proper freight depots with connections to container ports, upgrading tracks and rolling stock to increase the average speed from 90kph to 120kph... All of these things could be done for a fraction of the cost of a single high speed commuter train! These would upgrade the Thai train system to 1960s standards, but I don't see a single one of them mentioned in the OP!