Schools Checking Up On Qualifications?

[PeaceBlondie]

Again, thanks to mopenyang to the link to another news article which says what the police colonel said. Yes, there are totally unqualified teachers out there, who should not be given visa extensions, work permits, teacher licenses, etc. However, this lengthier article mentions nothing that the colonel said about how the schools are supposed to meet the requirements. He refers to "the law issued on 8th September 2006, which demanded being implicated from 1st October 2006, should be finally respected." Almost four months later, the law should be enforced. How? Is that the law that says you have to have a B.Ed. from an accredited university in certain unspecified countries, or a state/national certification, or xx 'hours' of educational courses earned somehow, unless you've been teaching three years already (in what capacity, where, etc.?)?

Yes, Thailand should learn HOW to know one farang from the other; a good teacher from bad; a real teacher from a phony. Will all school administrators be sent to a course in Chicago or Aberdeen to learn HOW?

[mopenyang]

The most telling sentence in the article to me is:

"It was agreed that it is time that foreigners applying for work as teachers as well as foreigners already teaching here in Thailand should be seriously inspected and interviewed."

This seems to suggest that teachers at renewal time (perhaps, even before, i.e., "visits" to schools?) will be subjected to greater scrutiny than before. I wonder how many schools are going to stand up for teachers who may be lacking certain qualifications?

In fact, I wonder how many such teachers will even be around to face the heightened scrutiny?

[Ijustwannateach]

This may also be prior warning regarding the ongoing fake degree raids... clean house or be ready to face the consequences....

[otherstuff1957]

I renewed my TL and WP two weeks ago. I resubmitted my Uni transcript (my Degree was lost years ago) and a load of other paperwork, including my halfassed online 40 hour TEFL Certificate, and was renewed without a glitch.

No B.Ed., no 15 hours of Graduate work in Education, no police check from my home country or from Thailand.

FYI, I renewed in Bangkok, I have a B.S. and have had TL's for almost two consecutive years.

[Ijustwannateach]

Ok- our first confirmation, thanks! That's a mild hassle but not a big deal for most of us, unless we have to give them a new "original" copy every year- did you get your copy back, Otherstuff?

[Ijustwannateach]

(there's also that annoying thing about certs with languages other than English, e.g. *Latin*- I suffered through that the first year I got the TL- am I going to have to go through that again and again and again every year? I sorry sir, your degree say "Artium Baccalaureate"- not say you have Bachelor's degree!!!)

[mopenyang]

Many schools that issue diplomas in Latin will provide a certified translation. If not, there are generic translations available on the Internet:

http://www.georgian.edu/registrar/lattrans.htm

I have not heard of one case where a renewal has been held up due to lack of a transcript. However, in the case of Pattaya, that was before last Friday's meeting.

Let's hope the "bird watchers" are able to report back with what happens from now on.

[PeaceBlondie]

The most telling sentence in the article to me is:

"It was agreed that it is time that foreigners applying for work as teachers as well as foreigners already teaching here in Thailand should be seriously inspected and interviewed."

What? Is the good colonel telling private schools to SERIOUSLY INTERVIEW applicants? How refreshing. How serious!

[mopenyang]

Possibly, but I believe he is telling them that Immigration will also be doing it. Having the schools do it has simply not worked. The schools will still do their part but I believe Immigration is going to be looking over their shoulders and doing things like interviewing foreign teachers and asking for more proof as to claimed educational qualifications.

There's no reason for the good Colonel to have held the meeting if it was just going to be business as usual.

We will have to await the reports of the bird watchers before we know what is actually happening.

The meeting was only held last Friday, so it will take a few days before we start hearing what happens when someone goes in for a renewal or even an extension.

Stay tuned.

[paulmw]

Problems of Unqualified Teachers in Thailand

Pattaya Immigration Chief, Police Colonel Ittipol Ittisarnronnachai held a meeting at Pattaya Immigration Office on 26th January at 10 pm for international school administrators,

and all divisions involved discussing the problems of having an overload amount of unqualified teachers illegally working in Thailand.

Many documents have been handed in from educational institutes to request allowing foreigners to extend their stay in Thailand in order to hire these people to teach.

Since Pattaya is a tourist city, many people start their families here so there is no surprise that the educational institutes want international standards of teaching for the students in order to correspond with the parents’ desires of their children having a good education. However, this leads to a problem of having more and more illegal teachers in Thailand.

There are many so called teachers already working or applying for teaching jobs in Thailand that are not qualified at all. They haven’t been trained as teachers, with no qualifications, license or degrees. Some have received only secondary school education. Further, there are very little checks made about the person’s past and background and often, like we have seen in the news, they sometimes sexually molest their students.

It was agreed that it is time that foreigners applying for work as teachers as well as foreigners already teaching here in Thailand should be seriously inspected and interviewed. Therefore, the officers explained to the schools and teaching institutions about the problems and according to the law issued on 8th September 2006, which demanded being implicated from 1st October 2006, should be finally respected.

About a week ago, a fake Degree was found that a foreigner used to apply for a work permit to become a teacher in Thailand. The person had no teaching qualifications at all. On further investigation it was discovered that 63 unqualified people are working as teachers here in Thailand, mostly from Britain, USA, Canada, Philippines, and more. Two of these people have already been through the law procedure and they were sentenced to 3 months in prison.

Now the rules and regulations from the Immigration Department must be changed again so that problems like this will stop occurring. Foreigners that don’t have any teacher’s qualifications cannot teach in Thailand any longer.

[Ijustwannateach]

Thanks for the post, Paul- I've "merged" you here, as we've already been discussing this.

[Scott]

This is the same old stuff. Nobody knows for sure what is happening. I still think that schools are not in a good position to "authenticate" degrees. This is a job for the relevant ministry to do.

Thus far, all I have been able to do is write to the school and have them tell me the applicant (or actually hired teacher) did receive a degree.

The problem I'm encountering is with the police clearance. I have one person who was refused a Non-Immigrant B because he didn't have the clearance, they gave a 2 month extention on his visa, but so far we haven't been able to get a clearance from his home country.

[Ijustwannateach]

Is it that you've been refused one or they simply haven't responded? Did your school request the clearance or did the individual try to request it? Any information about what works and what doesn't work would help...