Are you required to have a police check from your home country in order to get a visa to teach English in Thailand?

I think all schools should stop hiring teachers without such certificate, specially issued for the teaching and interacting with minors.
Other offences, p.e. a DoI offence, would (usually) not be considered as prohibitive to issue a Certificate for Teaching.

Getting a certificate of good conduct is neither difficult nor expensive.
If such demand worries someone, that person should not be teaching.

 

The Thai Embassy or Consulate in Laos accepts police checks from police HQ in Bangkok when applying for a non-immigrant B visa for teaching. Embassies and or consulates in Malaysia require police checks from the home country or from both the home country and police HQ in Thailand. 

I believe it would be a great idea to do so however, at this time the answer is 'No'

Like many things in Thailand it is totally random whether you will be asked for one or not.  If you are in your home country, I would get one before coming here.

It was never mandatory, I taught at many schools over 7 years and was never asked.

2 hours ago, KKr said:

I think all schools should stop hiring teachers without such certificate, specially issued for the teaching and interacting with minors.
Other offences, p.e. a DoI offence, would (usually) not be considered as prohibitive to issue a Certificate for Teaching.

Getting a certificate of good conduct is neither difficult nor expensive.
If such demand worries someone, that person should not be teaching.

 

Pretty simple. An English degree is not enough, even for a native speaker. You need TESOL, TEFLA or CELTA, plus for Thailand, I'd suggest at least Por 6 Thai certificate, otherwise you'll fail to teach your students properly. Taught at Chula and  BC for ten yrs, 96% re-registration rate, but it's up to you. BTW Thai is a bloody hard language, harder than Chinese (which I learned for wife's parents).      

It is required for teachers to get a criminal record check in order to get the Non-B visa.

It can be done in country at the police forensics office. It takes about 2 weeks.

24 minutes ago, Colabamumbai said:

It was never mandatory, I taught at many schools over 7 years and was never asked.

It's mandatory now since  about two years ago. 

1 hour ago, jgarbo said:

Pretty simple. An English degree is not enough, even for a native speaker. You need TESOL, TEFLA or CELTA, plus for Thailand, I'd suggest at least Por 6 Thai certificate, otherwise you'll fail to teach your students properly. Taught at Chula and  BC for ten yrs, 96% re-registration rate, but it's up to you. BTW Thai is a bloody hard language, harder than Chinese (which I learned for wife's parents).      

Teaching Qualification goes without saying for someone to teach.
And I agree with you that to teach a foreign language, teachers should have sufficient command of the Thai language to explain what is different in construction of sentences, word order in general, use of verbs and particles, not to mention present perfect or more intriguing tenses. 

However, the Topic mentioned was a "Certificate of Good Conduct" issued in connection with teaching minors.

1 hour ago, jgarbo said:

Pretty simple. An English degree is not enough, even for a native speaker. You need TESOL, TEFLA or CELTA, plus for Thailand, I'd suggest at least Por 6 Thai certificate, otherwise you'll fail to teach your students properly. Taught at Chula and  BC for ten yrs, 96% re-registration rate, but it's up to you. BTW Thai is a bloody hard language, harder than Chinese (which I learned for wife's parents).      

What English degree? All that is needed is a BA/BSc in any subject plus TEFL or equivalent. Thailand is like me home Province in Canada: If you can speak English, you can teach English. NOT! English education in Thailand is a joke because like in Canada, they don't hire English teachers. That said, in the words of my sister - in - law, "Why would I want to go teach English in Thailand? At the least I'd be making 1000$C and at the most 2000$C. That's less than I'd make straight out of university. Now, I've been teaching 20 years and make 65000/year."  Personally, I'd love to teach English here. I'm am formally educated in the English language, but I did not graduate because I could not afford to finish my degree, and now I'm 61 and hoping I can tutor once I have my TEFL and a work permit under the new rules.