Council finds only 98 of 411 Sarasas teachers have valid licence, school claims it's a database malfunction

[webfact]

Council finds only 98 of 411 Sarasas teachers have valid licence, school claims it's a database malfunction

By THE NATION

 

TCT secretary-general Dissakul Kasemsawat

 

Just 98 out of the 411 teachers at Sarasas Witaed Ratchaphruek School in Nonthaburi were found to possess a valid licence during a Teacher’s Council of Thailand (TCT) investigation, with the school claiming it could not find the documentation of other teachers due to a database malfunction, TCT secretary-general Dissakul Kasemsawat said.

 

Sasasas has come under investigation by educational agencies after an incident in which a female teacher was seen on CCTV assaulting kindergarteners.

 

The recordings showed teacher Onuma Ploadprong physically assaulting the children, banging their heads on their desks, pushing some to the ground and twisting the ears of others until they screamed out in pain.

 

The school announced on Monday that it had fired Onuma and three other teachers involved in the assaults.

 

“The four affected teachers, comprising three Thai nationals and one Filipino, have no licences. The school had promised the council that it would apply for an extension period during which their staff could try to obtain the licences while still working, but we never received any application for such an extension,” Dissakul said.

 

“We estimate the investigation would take about a week to cover all teachers of the school. We plan to work with the Office of the Private Education Commission to investigate 42 other schools under the Sarasas Group,” Dissakul added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30395414

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-10-02

 

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[timendres]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

with the school claiming it could not find the documentation of other teachers due to a database malfunction

That is exactly what I told the IRS.

But they are still insisting that I pay my taxes...

[Thaiwrath]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

with the school claiming it could not find the documentation of other teachers due to a database malfunction,

For a country that has an obsession of photocopying nearly all paperwork, banks are a prime example, I fail to see how the school did not have hard copies of the information, supposedly, held on the database ! 

 

[lust]

Blah blah blah... teachers have been teaching in Thailand without teaching licenses since the 70’s. Now people care for some reason.. Change the record

[colinneil]

Data base malfunction my a++e, as is the norm here money before anything else, clearly Sarasas group were fully aware they were employing illegal teachers just to save money.

[Colabamumbai]

Half the schools that wanted my services failed to provide Work Permits, none asked for a teachers license. 

[mr mr]

deny deny deny. 

 

its a national pastime. 

[kingstonkid]

How big is this school that it has 411 teachers.  Some people are missing the point that we are not talking about forerunners this isostly thai teachers

[lust]

22 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Data base malfunction my a++e, as is the norm here money before anything else, clearly Sarasas group were fully aware they were employing illegal teachers just to save money.

There hasn’t been any “illegal” teacher reported. Unqualified doesn’t mean illegal, hahaha 

[teacherclaire]

Data base and brake malfunctions all over the country. 

[colinneil]

Just now, lust said:

There hasn’t been any “illegal” teacher reported. Unqualified doesn’t mean illegal, hahaha 

If you drive a vehicle without a license thats illegal, same as teaching without a license is illegal.

[lust]

9 minutes ago, colinneil said:

If you drive a vehicle without a license thats illegal, same as teaching without a license is illegal.

Umm, nope. Driving a car without a license endangers lives. Teaching without a teaching license won’t result in deaths.

 

also, it’s quite common for teaching licenses being waivered for YEARS and the teacher being permitted to teach. Try seeing if you can get a waiver for a drivers license. 

[ThaiFelix]

4 minutes ago, lust said:

Umm, nope. Driving a car without a license endangers lives. Teaching without a teaching license won’t result in deaths.

 

also, it’s quite common for teaching licenses being waivered for YEARS and the teacher being permitted to teach. Try seeing if you can get a waiver for a drivers license. 

Huh?  A waiver for a drivers license is readily available for a hundred baht (cash) at any roadblock nationwide.

[Chassa]

8 minutes ago, lust said:

Umm, nope. Driving a car without a license endangers lives. Teaching without a teaching license won’t result in deaths.

 

also, it’s quite common for teaching licenses being waivered for YEARS and the teacher being permitted to teach. Try seeing if you can get a waiver for a drivers license. 

Easy! just need the money

[ChipButty]

4 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

For a country that has an obsession of photocopying nearly all paperwork, banks are a prime example, I fail to see how the school did not have hard copies of the information, supposedly, held on the database ! 

 

Along with the immigration

[otherstuff1957]

It is common for teachers to start on waivers.  Theoretically, a teacher with a BA/BS in any subject can get up to 6 years of waivers (if they stay at one school).  When their waivers run out, they can usually get another 2 years by showing proof that they have signed up for a graduate course in teaching/education.  

 

The situation at Sarasas is that they couldn't even be bothered to apply for waivers or hire teachers with BA/BS degrees!  The Sarasas schools usually have very high teacher turnover and so they don't bother to go through the long and difficult process of getting all of the paperwork needed to make a teacher 100% legal.

[ThaiFelix]

8 minutes ago, otherstuff1957 said:

It is common for teachers to start on waivers.  Theoretically, a teacher with a BA/BS in any subject can get up to 6 years of waivers (if they stay at one school).  When their waivers run out, they can usually get another 2 years by showing proof that they have signed up for a graduate course in teaching/education.  

 

The situation at Sarasas is that they couldn't even be bothered to apply for waivers or hire teachers with BA/BS degrees!  The Sarasas schools usually have very high teacher turnover and so they don't bother to go through the long and difficult process of getting all of the paperwork needed to make a teacher 100% legal.

I completely agree with your post except the first sentence.  Unless things have changed since I retired, all their teachers start illegal.  Standard procedure with this organisation was that all new (and returning) teachers must pass a three month probation period before any applications are made for teacher's licenses or work permits.   However, in my experience, this only applied to the minority as the vast majority had no credentials/degrees at all.  They were instructed to do border runs and for a while the school even reimbursed them for their tourist visas.  I also know teachers who had degrees and were desperate to get legal but were told it was far cheaper and easier to take a paid holiday to Vientiane for a tourist visa.

 

I am of course referring here to farang teachers only as I am unaware of the status of Thai teachers except that they are grossly overworked and underpaid.  I would imagine that all Filipino teachers are qualified as there is a steady stream of qualified Filipino teachers lining up for work here and I have never heard of any complaints from them re the school getting them work permits/licenses etc.

 

 

 

 

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

1 hour ago, otherstuff1957 said:

The Sarasas schools usually have very high teacher turnover and so they don't bother to go through the long and difficult process

Indeed. Same could be said of most schools in Thailand. Working conditions and practices are never improved, as they never feel they have to relying upon the steady stream of teachers always coming in. Well, a day of reckoning has come with Corona and closed borders, and thus the good teachers remaining have all jumped to better schools, leaving behind vacancies and the troubles you see here.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Just 98 out of the 411 teachers at Sarasas Witaed Ratchaphruek School in Nonthaburi were found to possess a valid licence during a Teacher’s Council of Thailand (TCT) investigation, with the school claiming it could not find the documentation of other teachers due to a database malfunction, TCT secretary-general Dissakul Kasemsawat said.

Someone is going to be asked some serious questions about how this whole school set-up really operated.

98 registered teachers while 313 are un-licenced is truly appalling.

[Foghorn]

There was a report a while ago on TVisa that many teachers who passed their exams were waiting long long for their licenses and here you have people pretending to be teachers ,did they buy their jobs , maybe not kill someone as someone said about driving license, but ruin children’s lives because can’t teach ,won’t teach , just there for money . 
When if the people revolt and a good government is in place let’s hope after the police are disbanded and a working police force is in place they could start on an education system that teaches the children of the country

[cnx101]

3 hours ago, lust said:

Umm, nope. Driving a car without a license endangers lives. Teaching without a teaching license won’t result in deaths.

 

also, it’s quite common for teaching licenses being waivered for YEARS and the teacher being permitted to teach. Try seeing if you can get a waiver for a drivers license. 

Banging the kids heads on the desks could cause death

[JusticeGB]

The school apparently charges 100,000 a term and doesn't have even a quarter of its teachers who are qualified! It should be shut down and fined heavily. Not only that a number of its teachers have been found to have been physically abusing pupils. Completely disgusting. 

[Solinvictus]

Some of those Sarasas schools not to mention many government schools seem to have cult like Filipino teachers.

 

Often times, there is a very group like culture within these schools. If the norm is to bully kids or flirt with colleagues outside of work it's fine as long as everyone is doing it. Normally, amongst Thais or Filipinos the first one to bring spotlight on the issue will be the first one to leave.

 

TIT

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

2 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

all their teachers start illegal

I'd go a bit further and say nearly all foreign teachers in Thailand start "illegal".

 

Consider this. When's the last time you saw a job posting that included: "Successful applicants upon being given a job offer, should expect to submit their documents and then await their work permit and visa. Once these are completed in about 4 months, they can plan their flight to Thailand". Haha. I'd say never. Rather, they say much the exact opposite, that applicants should already be in Thailand, and ready to start immediately. Just how do they do this given the system?

 

With what's "illegal" becoming the norm, the legal path having been made nearly impossible, the de jure guidelines have been superceded by de facto practice.

[KhunKenAP]

Copies and rubber stamps. The Nation would collapse in a heap of confusion without them.

 

Just a minute, they have already collapsed into a state of confusion!

[Orton Rd]

24 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

The school apparently charges 100,000 a term and doesn't have even a quarter of its teachers who are qualified! It should be shut down and fined heavily. Not only that a number of its teachers have been found to have been physically abusing pupils. Completely disgusting. 

where did you get that figure from? the Srarasas schools round us are more like 30k for over 7's Some are bi lingual some not the Thai only ones are cheaper

Edited October 2, 2020 by Orton Rd

[n00dle]

4 hours ago, lust said:

Umm, nope. Driving a car without a license endangers lives. Teaching without a teaching license won’t result in deaths.

 

also, it’s quite common for teaching licenses being waivered for YEARS and the teacher being permitted to teach. Try seeing if you can get a waiver for a drivers license. 

So the abused students were not in any danger?

[Surelynot]

Are all these high rise buildings in Bangkok and Pattaya built by reputable western companies? I am worried the Thais had anything to do with them other than dig ditches and guard the sites during construction.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Surelynot

[greenmonkey]

27 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

The school apparently charges 100,000 a term and doesn't have even a quarter of its teachers who are qualified! It should be shut down and fined heavily. Not only that a number of its teachers have been found to have been physically abusing pupils. Completely disgusting. 

It's nowhere near 100k per term. My son studied there for the last 3 or 4 years until I moved him for obvious reasons. They have 3 or 4 different courses available starting from 16k per term, then 30k per term and quite possibly nearing 100k per term for the International course. Either way the fallout from this will be massive. Thai parents will feel they have been conned... paying a premium to have their kids taught by random people who can walk in off the street and get a job as a teacher! It's a disgrace. And they haven't even got round to investigating the Foreign teachers credentials yet...

[n00dle]

5 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Are all these high rise buildings in Bangkok and Pattaya built by reputable western companies? I am worried the Thais had anything to do with them other than dig ditches and guard the sites during construction.

Not sure what this has to do with much of anything, but if thst is a genuine concern of yours, leaving the country or building your own shed in the woods and never coming out may be your only relief.