Crackdown On Backpack Teachers

[george]

Probe into complaints over backpack teachers

"Teachers not properly trained or tested by ministry standards

BANGKOK: -- The House committee on consumer protection has set up a team to probe parents' complaints that many bilingual schools hire backpacking tourists as teachers, lowering educational standards.

The committee's deputy chairman, MP Vicharn Minchainant, said on Friday there had been many complaints that lessons did not meet Education Ministry standards despite high tuition fees.

The committee invited relevant agencies to a joint meeting, which yielded an agreement to establish a fact-finding team led by MP Torpong Chaiyasan to investigate the problem. "The team will look into the curriculum and tuition fees to see if they're too tough on Thai students, because we have heard from parents that the foreign teachers are mostly tourists from Europe, Australia and Asian countries," Vicharn said.

He added that this type of teacher was not properly trained or tested by ministry standards, leading to a reduced quality of education in the bilingual schools.

"These tourist or backpack teachers can be found in many schools in Bangkok and upcountry," he said, adding that a random check had identified 96 schools in Bangkok alone with poorly qualified teachers.

--The Nation 2005-09-11

[baghead]

Are you telling me the Thais don't know who's a teacher and who isn't?

You'd think they check it out before they hire just anyone who walked up off the street with a white face and a native English speaking accent.

[Rigger]

and they just relized this

half the teachers in Australia are not Mentaly quilifiyed

Edited September 10, 2005 by Rigger

[ajarnmark]

Yeah a great nice move by the government. I hope that this practice will eliminate the teachers with fake degrees and the real teachers will come to serve the education community.

[Lifelover]

Whether they are 'backpackers' or not is not an issue. Whether they are qualified to teach English (or any subject) certainly is.

Fact is (and everybody knows it) that practically any semi-literate native English speaker can land a job at most educational establishments. It is bad for the reputation of that establishment but much more seriously, it is a crying shame for the students who inevitably receive poor tuition.

[Abandon]

Can't say that the Thai teachers are up to much either.

[RailaeBeach_Bum]

Can't say that the Thai teachers are up to much either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats true, However the Thai Teachers find it a little more difficult to buy thier on line T.E.F.L.E qualifications,

[Sunburn]

Yeah a great nice move by the government. I hope that this practice will eliminate the teachers with fake degrees and the real teachers will come to serve the education community- Ajarnmark

Yeah, and I'm sure there will be a steady stream of legally qualified (Degree & TEFL) teachers, just queuing up to work for £100 a week in poor conditions, with long hours & little or no help from the Thai staff in a country where they have a shortage of teachers as it is.

That'll show 'em

Edited September 10, 2005 by Sunburn

[Foggy Bottom]

The establishments would of course be able to hire better qualified teachers if they paid a decent salary + health care + visa + work permit + teachers license, and provided pre-prepared lesson plans and support materials. All of which are minimum demand from professional teachers.

The Government's cop-out double standards in the 2003/04 visa rules rewrites regarding minimum salaries only applying to foreign investor/owner businesspeople, instead of all foreigners employed in the kingdom has been a license for usury of all but the very best overseas recruited teachers (i.e. those with Masters or Doctors degrees teaching conversational English recruited from home countries but delivering lesson plans barely as advanced as any BG can pick up while touting her body).

Professionalism in Thai Education - don't make me laugh - rarely exists and at the end of the day, the government big shots don't want it as it'll spoil the status quo.

However the blame doesn't stop there, a great deal of it must be laid at the door of the students parents - since when was 30 Baht per hour an exhorbitant fee .... unless you're an Isaan rice farmer or Chiang Rai hilltribe tea cropper?

[uncle paul]

my thai wife was/is a qualified english teacher, however, after 9 years in the uk she still cant spell and has no idea whatsoever about grammar lol.

[randyksf]

The funny thing is the Thailand is caught between a rock and hardplace. The fact is they need English speaking people to teach their young however they make it so hard for people to come to the Kingdom.

Not just for teachers, I.T, Sales, ETC... The simple fact they say how much they someone has to be paid based place of origin is crazy. I am from the US and they say I need 60 per month.. Well I lived there for 11 months on less than 40k No Problem.

Simple standard for teachers is a state run Class and test though an respectable origination. (yeah yeah if it can be found.) Say 4 week of basic English to Thai teaching and curriculum, that also has basic Thai and how to live in the Kingdom. Make it expensive enough and strict standards to week out the bad apples.

Then biased on their test scores tell what level of English they can teach.

Also putting a rule of English must be the native Language of the teacher. (exceptions can be made) This would weed out all the white folks that can speak a little English.

Just ideas I know this will never come to reality so I am just typing I know...

rk

[NiceFarang]

The funny thing is the Thailand is caught between  a rock and hardplace.  The fact is they need English speaking people to teach their young however they make it so hard for people to come to the Kingdom.

Not just for teachers, I.T, Sales, ETC...  The simple fact they say how much they someone has to be paid based place of origin is crazy.  I am from the US and they say I need 60 per month.. Well I lived there for 11 months on less than 40k No Problem.

Simple standard for teachers is a state run Class and test though an respectable origination. (yeah yeah if it can be found.)  Say 4 week of basic English to Thai teaching and curriculum, that also has basic Thai and how to live in the Kingdom. Make it expensive enough and strict standards to week out the bad apples.

Then biased on their test scores tell what level of English they can teach.

Also putting a rule of English must be the native Language of the teacher. (exceptions can be made) This would weed out all the white folks that can speak a little English.

Just ideas I know this will never come to reality  so I am just typing I know...

rk

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Randyksf

Your english is really appalling. It is almost nonsense. Spelling even worse. I only mention this due to the subject you are supposed to be writing about!

[John K]

A good thought by the Thais, but it will only happen if they push the wages to 70000. Any truly qualified teacher wont work for 30000 unless they love the place. If they want the best, they better be ready to pay them.

[Anon999]

my thai wife was/is a qualified english teacher, however, after 9 years in the uk she still cant spell and has no idea whatsoever about grammar lol.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My wife came to England in 1987 from BKK at the age of 33 and her English spelling was excellent although some of her grammar left a bit to be desired. Her spelling was better than many of the people I interviewed to work for my business.

When she was in Thailand she worked for the Water Supply company in BKK and learned her English at school and university along with her maths which was far better than your current crop of school leavers and in many cases graduates in the UK.

Like every country the quality of the educational establishments varies wildly so the results are bound to reflect that too. Good schools will always have properly qualified staff producing excellent results regardless of the country. It's probably fair to say that like the UK the quality of the teachers is not up to the level that it was many years ago often due to the dilution of the curriculum and attention span of the students.

Edited September 10, 2005 by Anon999

[geronimo]

Probe into complaints over backpack teachers

"Teachers not properly trained or tested by ministry standards

BANGKOK: -- The House committee on consumer protection has set up a team to probe parents' complaints that many bilingual schools hire backpacking tourists as teachers, lowering educational standards.

The committee's deputy chairman, MP Vicharn Minchainant, said on Friday there had been many complaints that lessons did not meet Education Ministry standards despite high tuition fees.

The committee invited relevant agencies to a joint meeting, which yielded an agreement to establish a fact-finding team led by MP Torpong Chaiyasan to investigate the problem. "The team will look into the curriculum and tuition fees to see if they're too tough on Thai students, because we have heard from parents that the foreign teachers are mostly tourists from Europe, Australia and Asian countries," Vicharn said.

He added that this type of teacher was not properly trained or tested by ministry standards, leading to a reduced quality of education in the bilingual schools.

"These tourist or backpack teachers can be found in many schools in Bangkok and upcountry," he said, adding that a random check had identified 96 schools in Bangkok alone with poorly qualified teachers.

--The Nation 2005-09-11

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Be interesting to see exactly where they draw the line, if they ever do!!!

[udon]

and they just relized this 

half the teachers in Australia are not Mentaly quilifiyed

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

G'day Rigger.......

Let me guess, you're an English teacher. ...

[prairieoyster]

Hi

I live in Canada where the top pay for a teacher with a 4 year degree is $65,000.00/ year plus benifits and they can be very very good. Education faculties have low acceptance requirements at times in Canada, it depends upon what the needs are seen to be at the time.

How does Thailand expect to get the best for 25,000 baht a month.

oyster

[Rigger]

and they just relized this 

half the teachers in Australia are not Mentaly quilifiyed

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

G'day Rigger.......

Let me guess, you're an English teacher. ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No but I have @#$% a few

[DJ Moore]

Probe into complaints over backpack teachers

"Teachers not properly trained or tested by ministry standards

BANGKOK: -- The House committee on consumer protection has set up a team to probe parents' complaints that many bilingual schools hire backpacking tourists as teachers, lowering educational standards.

The committee's deputy chairman, MP Vicharn Minchainant, said on Friday there had been many complaints that lessons did not meet Education Ministry standards despite high tuition fees.

The committee invited relevant agencies to a joint meeting, which yielded an agreement to establish a fact-finding team led by MP Torpong Chaiyasan to investigate the problem. "The team will look into the curriculum and tuition fees to see if they're too tough on Thai students, because we have heard from parents that the foreign teachers are mostly tourists from Europe, Australia and Asian countries," Vicharn said.

He added that this type of teacher was not properly trained or tested by ministry standards, leading to a reduced quality of education in the bilingual schools.

"These tourist or backpack teachers can be found in many schools in Bangkok and upcountry," he said, adding that a random check had identified 96 schools in Bangkok alone with poorly qualified teachers.

=============================================

As I see it, just don't wear a backpack...............DJM

[craigt3365]

my thai wife was/is a qualified english teacher, however, after 9 years in the uk she still cant spell and has no idea whatsoever about grammar lol.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had a friend whose wife was a Thai English teacher. I could barely understand her! Just relied on my wife to speak to her in Thai and then translate to English for me. How crazy!

[RDN]

...

=============================================

As I see it, just don't wear a backpack...............DJM  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

DJM, could you leave the fonts alone? Some of us don't have good eyes any more...

[sadako]

And ? English language can only help Thais , no matter how its taught .........fact of life

[Jomtienwow]

Would buying them suitcases help?

[chonburi]

Would buying them suitcases help?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Who, the students or the teachers?

[z21rhd]

The establishments would of course be able to hire better qualified teachers if they paid a decent salary + health care + visa + work permit + teachers license, and provided pre-prepared lesson plans and support materials.  All of which are minimum demand from professional teachers.

The Government's cop-out double standards in the 2003/04 visa rules rewrites regarding minimum salaries only applying to foreign investor/owner businesspeople, instead of all foreigners employed in the kingdom has been a license for usury of all but the very best overseas recruited teachers (i.e. those with Masters or Doctors degrees teaching conversational English recruited from home countries but delivering lesson plans barely as advanced as any BG can pick up while touting her body).

Professionalism in Thai Education - don't make me laugh - rarely exists and at the end of the day, the government big shots don't want it as it'll spoil the status quo.

However the blame doesn't stop there, a great deal of it must be laid at the door of the students parents - since when was 30 Baht per hour an exhorbitant fee .... unless you're an Isaan rice farmer or Chiang Rai hilltribe tea cropper?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

----------------------------------------->

Gaz, the best response so far - Having lived and worked in Thailand's sticksville for the last 6 years - I have yet to find a school , where the teacher of english is able to hold a decent conversation in english. A good Thai friend who has been teaching english for the last 25 years cannot SPEAK comprehensible english. I am willing to bet that this situation is duplicated in > 90% Thailand's schools.

I believe the retention of the Thai script is a contributing factor in holding back literacy - also, how many times have you observed a Thai child reading an english text ? Africa and India are generally way ahead in the ability to speak reasonable english. I understand that the monks have over the years resisted any changes to

the present system, this challenge has meant that the government of the time has been unable (or unwilling) to bite on the bullet.

[richard10365]

What do they consider a bilingual school? How many of these schools are there compared to other schools (public) of the same grade in Thailand? Is this only the rich complaining without consideration of the poorer schools in Thailand?

I think the parents have a valid complaint if they are paying for their kids to go to a private school. They should have a fully qualified teacher teaching English. I wouldn’t expect “coach” service in a “first class” institution.

But I don’t see a problem with backpackers helping in schools that don’t require high tuition fees. I have seen the English teachers in the village where I live and they usually have to have a translator to talk with me.

I think the backpacker teachers should be allowed to help in these schools because the quality of the teacher is less than the quality of the backpacker.

But I don’t think the backpacker should be left alone in the class. The teacher should use the backpacker as a tool to assist in teaching the lesson.

I don’t think the assistant backpacker teacher should be paid as much as the teacher either. If they want that benefit they should go to school, raise their qualifications, and be fully certified by the Education Ministry.

[pakwan]

I don't usually bother with replying to much that I see and read in here but geez people. "A top rate teacher will draw 65,000 in Canada so how can they expect someone to work here for 25,000 thb?" You obviously don't teach Economics or your math just sucks, I'm not sure which. Let's start with something simple for you: ever buy a pack of cigarettes in Canada? "No decent teacher would work for 30,000thb unless they just loved living here." DUH! If you DON'T love living here, why are you here?!? If your respective counties were so great then why did you leave? Sit back and chew on that for a minute before responding. Yes, this country, like so many others, has it's issues but if you're not trying to be part of the solution then......well, you should know how that ends. How much did whining and crying help where you left? Yes, there are poorly qualified teachers here and everywhere else for that matter. "A random check revealed 95 schools with poorly qualified teachers in BKK alone." Let's see, there are what, 5,000-8,000 schools in BKK alone. The "random check" was 95 out of how many checked? Where's the full report? This kind of drivel is why I don't turn on BBC or FOX news. I keep expecting them to hire "Sideshow Bob" to boost ratings because their reporting is, well, crap. "70,000thb + health + housing + benifits + visa + wp + preprepared lesson plans is what a truely professional teacher would demand." Gimme a break! Would you like them to follow to the toilet and wipe your butt or shake your 'dew drops' off when you finish or can you handle that much. Write your own d#@n lesson plans. Your mind and your command of the English language is why they hired you. I work for one of the top schools in Thailand but I had to rewrite the entire computer curriculum before teaching it. They were still using Pascal as an up to date programming language. Any IT people out there will know what I mean by this. Ok, I'm geting alittle long winded here. All I'm saying people is, take a bite of reality, calculate the percentages of income kept in your pockets, (not what it's worth 'back home') go out side and look back at the house you couldn't afford before and just smile and relax a bit. Sermon over, flame if you must. ps. I don't own a backpack Edited September 10, 2005 by pakwan

[JimsKnight]

  I don't usually bother with replying to much that I see and read in here but geez people. "A top rate teacher will draw 65,000 in Canada so how can they expect someone to work here for 25,000 thb?" You obviously don't teach Economics or your math just sucks, I'm not sure which. Let's start with something simple for you: ever buy a pack of cigarettes in Canada? "No decent teacher would work for 30,000thb unless they just loved living here." DUH! If you DON'T love living here, why are you here?!? If your respective counties were so great then why did you leave? Sit back and chew on that for a minute before responding. Yes, this country, like so many others, has it's issues but if you're not trying to be part of the solution then......well, you should know how that ends.  How much did whining and crying help where you left? Yes, there are poorly qualified teachers here and everywhere else for that matter. "A random check revealed 95 schools with poorly qualified teachers in BKK alone." Let's see, there are what, 5,000-8,000 schools in BKK alone. The "random check" was 95 out of how many checked? Where's the full report? This kind of drivel is why I don't turn on BBC or FOX news. I keep expecting them to hire "Sideshow Bob" to boost ratings because their reporting is, well, crap. "70,000thb + health + housing + benifits + visa + wp + preprepared lesson plans is what a truely professional teacher would demand." Gimme a break! Would you like them to follow to the toilet and wipe your butt or shake your 'dew drops' off when you finish or can you handle that much. Write your own d#@n lesson plans. Your mind and your command of the English language is why they hired you. I work for one of the top schools in Thailand but I had to rewrite the entire computer curriculum before teaching it. They were still using Pascal as an up to date programming language. Any IT people out there will know what I mean by this. Ok, I'm geting alittle long winded here. All I'm saying people is, take a bite of reality, calculate the percentages of income kept in your pockets, (not what it's worth 'back home') go out side and look back at the house you couldn't afford before and just smile and relax a bit. Sermon over, flame if you must.  ps. I don't own a backpack 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Listen to this dude! He speaks reason, I personally know qualified english teachers (who learnt in england the trade) who are on 40000 baht a month! More than enough to comfortably live in BKK!

However I also know a lot of people who allege themselves to be 'teachers' who choose to drift into the 'teaching' and get the job even now with all the supposed TEFL regs in place!

The teachers in question knew hardly any thai! One could hardly even count in thai! But in the Issan provinces.. no problem! They happily chucked her 18000 baht a month! She was happy on s**te wages cause she (and no doubt others) are so desperate to stay in thailand) has nowhere else to go! The system needs addressing!

[swervie2000]

this article like most western oriented media here in asia and around the world is GARBAGE. the moe here does not enforce schools to hire to any governmental standards per se. schools here are free to hire who they would like to teach, be it backpacker from canada with maple-leaf patch, short-haired farang loser, whoever. it is up to the schools to hire the person who they deem qualified. once again...this article is GARBAGE.

[Thai-Aust]

The establishments would of course be able to hire better qualified teachers if they paid a decent salary + health care + visa + work permit + teachers license, and provided pre-prepared lesson plans and support materials.  All of which are minimum demand from professional teachers.

And I thought these expenses should be the workers' responsibilities? I have never seen any employers who want decent staff have to pay for all these!! In particular pre-prepared lesson plans and materials are absolutely teachers' duties and not schools'. How arrogance!! English is the only one in many subjects kids need to learn to prepare themselves for future career. And if they can't speak or understand English, it really doesn't matter. That doesn't make them stupid than those who can speak fluent English. Get a grip!!

Edited September 11, 2005 by Thai-Aust