Foreign Teachers: Thousands To Be Recruited

[rstrauss]

FOREIGN TEACHERS: Thousands to be recruited

Published on May 23, 2005

10,000 native speakers needed to boost primary level English-language skills

The Education Ministry is to recruit 10,000 native English speakers to teach primary school students at government schools nationwide.

Advertisements will be posted on the ministry’s website, with Thai embassies assisting in selecting candidates. Applicants must at least hold a bachelor’s degree.

“We offer a one-year contract and free accommodation,” Education Minister Adisai Bodharamik said yesterday. The expatriate teachers would be sent to upcountry schools, he said.

They would mainly be sent to primary schools with less than 200 students, he added.

“During their one-year contract, we will rotate [them] to new schools four times so that they will see new things every few months and won’t get bored while staying here,” he said. He also believed that students would pay fresh attention to their class when new teachers arrive.

Adisai said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agreed in principle with the plan to employ native English speakers because it would help boost students’ command of English. So far, he said budget for the plan had not yet been finalised.

The education minister was speaking after he visited a school in Hanoi.

During his trip to Vietnam, Adisai met with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Minh Hien. The Vietnamese minister promised to support his plan to convene meetings of Asean education ministers a few times each year. The meetings would aim to promote educational co-operation among countries in the region.

Thailand has offered to host the first meeting.

Adisai added that Vietnam government had expressed interest in educational services provided at various Thailand-based institutions such as Ramkhamhaeng University, Chulalongkorn University and Kasetsart University.

He planned to invite his Vietnamese counterpart to visit Thailand in the near future.

Vietnam’s vice education minister Tran Van Nhung expressed confidence that Thailand and Vietnam would be able to learn from each other’s educational system and drew out the best management plan for their own country.

Asked about Vietnamese students’ talents in science, he said the tip was to have great teachers.

Thammarat Kijchalong

The Nation

[Ajarn]

Regarding the Education Ministry's plan to hire 10,000 Native English

speakers to teach English in upcountry schools, I think it's a great

idea. Improving language skills in students will increase their job

options in the future, to be sure.

But, in the article in The Nation, Khun Adisai said that that they would

rotate each teacher four times per year, his expressed reasoning being

that the teachers won't get bored, and "that students would pay fresh

attention to their class when new teachers arrive"

I really disagree with this thinking. He seems to feel that students

will be in this perpetual 'honeymoon period', as long as new teachers

are coming and going, and that this will somehow take care of any

classroom management issues that occur.

This honeymoon period never lasts very long and, in my estimation, his

plan will make more management problems for teachers because students

will never get enough time to bond with teachers, nor teachers with

students. The relationships between teachers and students that are so

valuable in a classroom will be lost because of not enough time

together. The students will realize that the teacher will be gone in a

few short weeks, so there is likely little chance that they will feel as

committed to learning when you have this kind of turnover, and poor

classroom behavior is likely to increase without good teacher/student

relationships...

Teachers also need the time to learn about their students and design

learning programs best suited to their students. Bringing in a new

teacher every few weeks mean that the students are much less likely to

reap the benefits of the teacher, in my experience.

I taught in Thai public schools for 16 years, and saw many improvements.

Khun Adisai has some great ideas, but some details must be given more

consideration. Otherwise, these ideas will not only fail, but will make

more problems than existed before.

[The_Moog]

This would be a good scheme for someone in a gap year before university. It would be a nice experience. Obviously its more of a lifestyle thing than a $$$ earner

...but by then they wouldn't have a degree, and Thailand gets snooty about educational qualifications.

I don't think people would be so keen to take a year out after they have studied hard for their degree and they want to get on with their careers. After all these things don't come cheap.

[Ijustwannateach]

The rotation plan is a disaster in the making. Schools already have problems and disappointments with teachers who drop out every few weeks under the current system; stability is needed more than "freshness." From personal experience I can guarantee that a teacher is unlikely to get bored within one year at a single Thai school- things are simply not that predictable. In fact, it's necessary to be at a school for at least 3 years simply to learn how things work. In Japan, the JET system works on a 3 year rotation, and most teachers coming out of that barely feel they've begun to figure out how to do things.

Other interesting questions suggest themselves from this announcement:

1. Who will be funding this? Will they REALLY fund it, in advance, or one-quarter of the way through the year, will thousands of young, fresh graduates find themselves stranded once the "flavour of the month" program has lost its "freshness" financially?

2. Will schools have any say over their teachers? How MUCH say? Will they have right of refusal? Hire and fire? What if the teacher is unhappy (crazy director or boss)? Is this a roundabout way for the central government to get more leverage on the schools?

3. If the contracts are one-year, will they be renewed? Will raises come into the picture? Is this viewed as an ongoing, life-building program? If not, what is to become of the "thousands" of immigrants as their growing needs (and possible families) require more than the entry-level that the ministry will no doubt pay? [Japan handles this in the JET program by requiring all participants to quit and return to the home country if they want to receive the free plane ticket back] What about paperwork, visas, and residency for all of these people? What kind of guarantees will they have on coming over? Will the visas be arranged ahead of time? Will flights be paid for? Or will the ministry simply officially hire all the backpackers who are on the ground?

4. I'm not saying that this program can't work educationally- the initial requirements for the relatively successful JET in Japan are no greater- however, JET has an application and screening process for the Japanese posts, and once candidates are flown in they are supervised, taken care of (even to the point of having housing pre-rented), well-paid, and constantly attended in the classroom (they must teach with a Japanese teacher's supervision- many of the Japanese teachers use them as no more than advanced live tape recorders). Will the Thai system be so carefully managed? If not, can new graduates- just kids themselves- on their own succeed out there as language trainers with no further TEFL training?

This announcement raises a lot of questions; no doubt not one of them were raised before anyone important prior to the announcement.

"Steven"

[Plus+]

"The budget for the plan has not been finalised".

They are simply daydreaming. They call it "creating a vision" or something like that. Just another politician trying to think big and impress his boss.

[Ajarn]

"The budget for the plan has not been finalised".

They are simply daydreaming. They call it "creating a vision" or something like that. Just another politician trying to think big and impress his boss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not 'daydreaming' ...'Trialballooning', as usual

At least it's not total silence from the Ministry

[moebius]

I thinks it's a great idea!

Rotate the teachers out so they dont' have to get to know anybody - especially those pesky students.

No commitment and you wouldn't have to plan beyond the upcoming Friday night!

Sounds like a dream. I'm sure the students will benefit tenfold. Or at least threefold throughout the year.

But I don't see why one needs a degree to not give a ###### about what they doing.

Let's hope this plan goes the way of highway planning in my neighbourhood.

[PeaceBlondie]

Steven and Ajarn have said it well. It won't happen, and if they actually tried it in 2011, it wouldn't work. Why? Because the 'systems' they already have don't work, for the reasons Steven outlined.

Also, the teachers probably won't get feedback. They won't know what they did, right or wrong. I just finished my second year, at two schools. Never got evaluated, positively or negatively. The only clues I got about my full-time work was so indirect I had no idea. I'm sure I did a great job, but maybe i had body odour or bad breath; we'll never know.

This is a very ambitious program - 10,000 teachers. It may as well be a million. Ain't gonna happen. As Papa Bush used to say, "...not gonna' do it. Wouldn't be prudent."

[sriracha john]

No specifics on salaries or visas, although the 4 times a year rotating schools matches nicely to 90 day visa runs, doesn't it?

"Mr. Robert, now that you are finishing your three months here at Nong Khai Primary... would you be so kind as to step over into Laos for a 1/2 day before you begin your next assignment in 2 days at Yala Primary?"

"well, uhmm... if I have to, I guess so, Khun Sombat. By the way, when do I go to Udon to catch my flight to Hat Yai?"

"Ohhh... Mr. Robert... so sorry, we can not pay for that. But there's a bus direct from Nong Khai to Yala that leaves right after you get back from Laos. It's only 26 hours to Yala. We hope you will enjoy your new assignment that begins the following day."

"Hmmm, Khun Sombat, if they had been paying more than the 15,000 baht all along, I would have bought my own plane ticket. Well, off to a new adventure."

[Foggy Bottom]

This sounds about as thought out as the plan a few years back, to offer retirees long stay visas in return for teaching in Universities ... unpaid!!!!

In this case they're talking about primary schools, so will they be checking applicants criminal records, especially with regards to a paedophiliac history?

"Schools with under 200 students" so it's going to be back-of-beyond village schools with no provisions for the requirements of farangs.

"free accomodation" in a 10x10 students dormitory room with squat toilet and a rattling old fan that only works when the buffalo hasn't knocked over the power pole?

As to the salary - important one this - will it comply with the new laws about minimum taxable salary by nationality introduced last July? i.e. 60k per month for yanks and japs, 50k for Brits, Aussies etc. Will the schools arrange all visas, work permits, teachers licenses, tax numbers (and tax payment) etc.

This actually sounds more like an empire building exercise that a genuine education improvement scheme - i.e. increasing the department's budget and staffing to administer the scheme, thus increasing the civil service grade and salary of the boys at the top.

Gaz

[jaloochapurr]

Can anyone tell the website for the ministry handling this.

In the past I was given infromation about getting a visa for one year if you volenteer your time teaching. Has anyone else heard of this in the past?

[califdann]

Hey, where do I sign up? Wonder if I can use this to stay in Thailand for a year without the border/visa run concern.

Dann

[baht&sold]

AJ, Steven, thoughtfull posts. Thx for the insiders insight both.

[Fidel]

I taught English in Thailand for 3 years and I'm wondering who they're going to hire.

I know there are many well qualified, committed Farangs teaching English in Thailand but I would say that 60% of Farang teachers are alcoholic whore-mongers who don't give a shit about the kids, don't know what they're doing and are only teaching cos they don't want to leave...

Thai schools have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for years... what are they gonna find underneath it?

[timpatco]

FOREIGN TEACHERS: Thousands to be recruited

Published on May 23, 2005

10,000 native speakers needed to boost primary level English-language skills

The Education Ministry is to recruit 10,000 native English speakers to teach primary school students at government schools nationwide.

Advertisements will be posted on the ministry’s website, with Thai embassies assisting in selecting candidates. Applicants must at least hold a bachelor’s degree.

“We offer a one-year contract and free accommodation,” Education Minister Adisai Bodharamik said yesterday. The expatriate teachers would be sent to upcountry schools, he said.

They would mainly be sent to primary schools with less than 200 students, he added.

“During their one-year contract, we will rotate [them] to new schools four times so that they will see new things every few months and won’t get bored while staying here,” he said. He also believed that students would pay fresh attention to their class when new teachers arrive.

Adisai said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agreed in principle with the plan to employ native English speakers because it would help boost students’ command of English. So far, he said budget for the plan had not yet been finalised.

The education minister was speaking after he visited a school in Hanoi.

During his trip to Vietnam, Adisai met with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Minh Hien. The Vietnamese minister promised to support his plan to convene meetings of Asean education ministers a few times each year. The meetings would aim to promote educational co-operation among countries in the region.

Thailand has offered to host the first meeting.

Adisai added that Vietnam government had expressed interest in educational services provided at various Thailand-based institutions such as Ramkhamhaeng University, Chulalongkorn University and Kasetsart University.

He planned to invite his Vietnamese counterpart to visit Thailand in the near future.

Vietnam’s vice education minister Tran Van Nhung expressed confidence that Thailand and Vietnam would be able to learn from each other’s educational system and drew out the best management plan for their own country.

Asked about Vietnamese students’ talents in science, he said the tip was to have great teachers.

Thammarat Kijchalong

The Nation

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[timpatco]

Don't you just love the way otherwise apparently intelligent farang debate topics of Thai nonsense as if they have substance?, No foolish people, just another empty vessel flapping his jaws after being aced by a competitor. Vietnam does, Thailand daydreams. The most foolish part is that newspapers are compelled to print his drivel, maypenrai!

[udon]

At 03.00 nearly 200 members were reading this topic.

Are you all outside Thailand?

Some good contributions guys!

[kogrutter]

I taught English in Thailand for 3 years and I'm wondering who they're going to hire.

I know there are many well qualified, committed Farangs teaching English in Thailand but I would say that 60% of Farang teachers are alcoholic whore-mongers who don't give a shit about the kids, don't know what they're doing and are only teaching cos they don't want to leave...

Thai schools have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for years... what are they gonna find underneath it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not to disparage the Brits, but I recall several years ago when a young acquaintance from Liverpool with a cockney accent so thick it was just not understandable was excited to tell me he had landed a job teaching English. God help those kids if they really think they are speaking English. This guy was not a college or university graduate, yet because he was a "native speaker" he was hired. He was a young guy with the libido to match. Hope his classes were/are supervised. I was astounded he got the position with his credentials. I accept that standards are a bit lower in the LOS but that was ridiculous.

[DavidUK21]

I taught English in Thailand for 3 years and I'm wondering who they're going to hire.

I know there are many well qualified, committed Farangs teaching English in Thailand but I would say that 60% of Farang teachers are alcoholic whore-mongers who don't give a shit about the kids, don't know what they're doing and are only teaching cos they don't want to leave...

Thai schools have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for years... what are they gonna find underneath it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not to disparage the Brits, but I recall several years ago when a young acquaintance from Liverpool with a cockney accent so thick it was just not understandable was excited to tell me he had landed a job teaching English. God help those kids if they really think they are speaking English. This guy was not a college or university graduate, yet because he was a "native speaker" he was hired. He was a young guy with the libido to match. Hope his classes were/are supervised. I was astounded he got the position with his credentials. I accept that standards are a bit lower in the LOS but that was ridiculous.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fairly stupid reply.

[kayo]

Regarding the Education Ministry's plan to hire 10,000 Native English

speakers to teach English in upcountry schools, I think it's a great

idea. Improving language skills in students will increase their job

options in the future, to be sure.

But, in the article in The Nation, Khun Adisai said that that they would

rotate each teacher four times per year, his expressed reasoning being

that the teachers won't get bored, and  "that students would pay fresh

attention to their class when new teachers arrive"

I really disagree with this thinking. He seems to feel that students

will be in this perpetual 'honeymoon period', as long as new teachers

are coming and going, and that this will somehow take care of any

classroom management issues that occur.

This honeymoon period never lasts very long and, in my estimation, his

plan will make more management problems for teachers because students

will never get enough time to bond with teachers, nor teachers with

students. The relationships between teachers and students that are so

valuable in a classroom will be lost because of not enough time

together. The students will realize that the teacher will be gone in a

few short weeks, so there is likely little chance that they will feel as

committed to learning when you have this kind of turnover, and poor

classroom behavior is likely to increase without good teacher/student

relationships...

Teachers also need the time to learn about their students and design

learning programs best suited to their students. Bringing in a new

teacher every few weeks mean that the students are much less likely to

reap the benefits of the teacher, in my experience.

I taught in Thai public schools for 16 years, and saw many improvements.

Khun Adisai has some great ideas, but some details must be given more

consideration. Otherwise, these ideas will not only fail, but will make

more problems than existed before.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

100 % completely agree...

ex'ajarn Chris

[mbkudu]

I love Thailand and its people with a deep passion, but if I was a young (or older

teacher) looking for a country to teach in I would circumvent this big circus and go to China, Vietnam or Taiwan. For the life of me I can't understand why Thailand makes everything so difficult and botched for the expat teacher. Even Indonesia is more welcoming and accommadating than the LOS. Oh well.

[snoophound]

Well,I think its a global thing,not many places in the world if any pay their teachers well.

I cant see how Thailand can afford to either.

Guess I can understand teachers from the UK wanting to teach anywhere but there.

One of the concepts re accent is valid.

My daughter is at a very good state school in Auckland.

She has had a problem with a teacher of Indian extraction in that he talks to fast and she cant understand him....another is South African with a very thick accent.

Seem to remember a history teacher from my day with a scotts accent so thick you struggled to know what he was blathering on about.

I had to raise this with the Head who said well....Its hard to recruit.

In my opinion their are two groups of important people that if good are truly underpaid,thats Teachers and Nurses.

I love Thailand and its people with a deep passion, but if I was a young (or older

teacher) looking for a country to teach in I would circumvent this big circus and go to China, Vietnam or Taiwan. For the life of me I can't understand why Thailand makes everything so difficult and botched for the expat teacher. Even Indonesia is more welcoming and accommadating than the LOS. Oh well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[IsaanAlex]

Never happen in a million years; if they tried they would have 10,000 people getting flown over, staying for 90 days-and then splitting due to massive frustrations.

Just hope the government doesn't do a purge of 'drug dealers' or stack Muslims like kindling during anyones stay ; fresh graduates especially don't like that sort of thing.

IA

[Rhys]

yada yada.... An another honest mistake in Critical thinking.. by TRT

[Som Nam Na]

Amazing Thailand.....

OK.

1. Who are these people that the scheme is targeted at?

2. Do they think that with the miserable wages they pay here for teachers (oh...and it is less than the required amount for the public sector) they can "entice" decent foreign teachers?

3. The people that they do "entice" do they really think they can teach English?

I am not an English teacher...for one very good reason. The money (as a farang) isn't enough to get out of bed for. I could retire with the amount of money I bring in and have in my FOREIGN bank accounts (but don't because of the no interset for farang means that it is better to leave it outside of Thailand) but cannot because I am too young and I don't have (want) a wife. I could teach English, but I was a programmer and could (and have) knock the shit out of any Thai programmer. I also speak, read and write Thai.

So. Reading between the lines. They want cheap foreign labour. What they are going to get is more backpackers. Som Nam Na!!!!!!!

[Pseacraft]

I'd like to do this but not the constant changing of schools and students. As a retired servicemember with of teaching experience in a military school house I know that the longer the exposure to the students by the teacher the better the teaching. I would be one of those rare non-college graduates who would (and does) give a hoot about the quality of teaching and learning. I'm sure the pay would suck but I see that a kicker for doing something that I plan to do anyway.

[rexall]

3.  If the contracts are one-year, will they be renewed?  Will raises come into the picture?  Is this viewed as an ongoing, life-building program?  If not, what is to become of the "thousands" of immigrants as their growing needs (and possible families) require more than the entry-level that the ministry will no doubt pay?

Steven, the "ESL Ghetto" you describe is hardly unique to Thailand or the public schools. The only winners in TEFL shell game are the "professionals" who obtain advanced degrees, work very hard and treat as a career (with a capital "C"), and those on the other end who treat it as an adventure and an opportunity to enhance their resume before moving getting on with their "real" career. Others who might come out ahead are retired teachers returning to the workforce and housekeepers whose spouse represents the primary source of income. Teachers not in those categories who simply want a secure job with benefits, a decent standard of living and some possibility of advancement are ultimately gong to find themselves stuck in the ESL ghetto.

Aloha,

Rex

[mnoorsapl]

FOREIGN TEACHERS: Thousands to be recruited

Published on May 23, 2005

“During their one-year contract, we will rotate [them] to new schools four times so that they will see new things every few months and won’t get bored while staying here,” he said. He also believed that students would pay fresh attention to their class when new teachers arrive.

The Nation

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is not "TEACHING".

"He also believed that students would pay fresh attention to their class when new teachers arrive ". That is a lot of bulls.

[paully]

It's all hot air, just a soundbite. It hasn't been funded, the figure of 10,000 teachers has been seemingly plucked out of the ether, and the 'rotation' proposal is eyecandy, completely unworkable, too. As Steven says, if this initiative bore any relation to the JET programme for Japan, it might be a half-decent idea. But that is a well-organised, well-run, well-funded programme, three adjectives one doesn't associate with Thailand. Nothing is said about the proposed pay for the teachers: may one hazard a wild guess, er, 26,000 baht a month? No, I forgot, must be less because free accommodation (no doubt, a non-air con room) is included. That should have them flying over in droves from Missouri and Manchester.

[lannachiangrai]

Last night I talked with a Thai teacher from Mae Fah Luang University. She has done extensive research with MFL students regarding studying with foreign teachers. One of the most overlooked benefits she found from having foreign teachers in the classroom was that students gained confidence in their ability to talk to foreigners. With the interaction between students and teachers, foreigners stop being objects of curiosity and are not just seen as "farang." It might not be much but it is certainly a step in making Thailand a more international place.

Imagine what will happen if their English gets good enough to understand the international press and what a sham Thaksinomics really is . . .