Does the Thai MOE actually certify coursework or are claims being made based Simply on schools having a lisence to do business? In otherwords, if I were to use the cert to teach here - obviously it should/must be from an 'approved' school/coursework.

Any list of 'unapproved schools? Any way to check any of it out prior?

Both to be honest. Some are approved by the MoE, some are said to be but are not. Either way you'll generally get a TL with them (currently).

I know which ones are not certified, and which ones are.

So errrr .... do you wish to pass that on or is that secret? Could you emailme at least the suspect schools? Why is evryone so tight lipped about outing these schools (eg ajarn.com). If it is 'secret' than I would presume schools stating "MOE Approved/Lisc." are scam schools -although onemight get decent there. Thank you.

www.thaischoolwatch.com may be more up your street if you want the dirty on schools

Are we talking about TEFL certificates here? If so, the MOE told a friend of mine that there are only three Thailand based TEFL schools that are approved by the MOE. Text and Talk and two others that I don't remember. However, if a school is part of an overseas company or chain that is certified in their home country, then the MOE will recognize TEFL certificates from those schools as being valid in Thailand.

Of course, TIT and the person sitting behind the desk when YOUR application is being considered my have an entirely different interpretation.

People are reluctant to give firm answers to these questions because there really ARE no firm answers.

PM me mate with the names and I'll let you know.

> Are we talking about TEFL certificates here? If so, the MOE told a friend of mine that there are only three Thailand based TEFL schools that are approved by the MOE. Text and Talk and two others that I don't remember.

Please, will somebody list the TEFL schools that are approved?

Thank you.

> Are we talking about TEFL certificates here? If so, the MOE told a friend of mine that there are only three Thailand based TEFL schools that are approved by the MOE. Text and Talk and two others that I don't remember.

Please, will somebody list the TEFL schools that are approved?

Thank you.

Edit:

Also, what does "approved" mean? Or that is, how are they different? Lastly, not clear as to why there are so many schools with so many students and yet only three are approved? And then...the list of approved ones is secret?

I tried to skype chat with the director of Text and Talk. In no way did he make it clear what "MOE approved" meant. He just said, we're approved. Then he said he was busy.

At this point I have no idea which TEFL program I can trust and I would really like to resolve that.

Any TEFL course has to be licenced by the MOE or they would be closed down in two minutes by the authorities. Ask for their school licence/registration number if in doubt. A reputable school will publish these on their website so you won't need to ask.

There's one school based in BKK that proudly proclaims they are the only cert accepted in Bangkok and publish the name of someone at the MOE so that you can verify this information - sounds good, but they supply a mobile phone number!! and give you only the person's first name!!! why can't they give the person's landline number and full job title? Anyway if this were the case, forums would be full of people complaining that their cert was rejected and that has never happened. Ethics is probably a consideration when you choose your trainer.

I suggest that readers go to the top of the Teaching Forum and click on either of our advertisers/sponsors. Chances are the license number is shown, or you can easily contact them for the license number.

www.thaischoolwatch.com may be more up your street if you want the dirty on schools

Blind Link

www.thaischoolwatch.com may be more up your street if you want the dirty on schools

Blind Link

Try this:

http://www.teflwatch.com/

or,

http://teflblacklist.blogspot.com/search/label/Thailand

thanks for the replies and the links to other sites....

however, there is something broken about a community that can't answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer.

thanks for the replies and the links to other sites....

however, there is something broken about a community that can't answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer.

If a school has a MOE school licence, it's kosher - a straightforward answer

You won't find a central list of any sort of information from the MOE and that's why nobody can give you the list you require (straightforward answer). Thais don't work this way. Ask the school for its licence number if they haven't published it on their Website (straightforward answer)

A school is licenced by its local MOE office hence the Chiang Mai office licences Chiang Mai schools (TEFL, private, government, international and language) and the Chonburi office licences etc etc. (straightforward answer)

You may not be satisfied with the lack of unambigious and easy-to-follow published information available to the plebs in Thailand. Welcome to Thailand. You will have to get used to it.

It is against subforum guidelines to make inflammatory comments about the general group of subforum posters. Gabrieldowntown, you will be checking out the subforum guidelines for awhile.

Are there any checks done in Thailand with regard to the reasons why someone wants to be around young children and TEFL? If a teacher is caught in an unsavory situation with a minor, what are the ramifications?

'twould really be best if one man on here not receive any information on teaching. He really needs to stay as far away from young girls as possible. In honor of the guidelines, I will not point that man out. I only wonder how thai culture responds to this sort of behavior from a "teacher".

Are there any checks done in Thailand with regard to the reasons why someone wants to be around young children and TEFL? If a teacher is caught in an unsavory situation with a minor, what are the ramifications?

'twould really be best if one man on here not receive any information on teaching. He really needs to stay as far away from young girls as possible. In honor of the guidelines, I will not point that man out. I only wonder how thai culture responds to this sort of behavior from a "teacher".

I'm sure the MODS will be looking at your first post and are wondering about the veracity of it.

The short answer to your off-topic post is that there are no preemptive checks done. The difficulty of checks being done from a multitude of different countries has been discussed extensively in the 'police checks' threads.

Our school contract, and i'm guessing 'most' other school contracts, have clauses against having inappropriate relationships with students or children. We would instantly dismiss anyone breaking these rules.

Back on topic. It's my understanding from the new TCT rules that there is now no requirement to have a TEFL certificate of any description in order to obtain a teachers licence.

However, as an employer, someone with no experience and no TEFL certificate would be pretty much at the bottom of our list of suitable candidates.

If you want to teach, you should have at least 'some' training. Having a bona fide TEFL cert, particularly one from a provider here in Thailand, will certainly not hold you back. It's not a legal requirement any more, rather, a preferred requirement.

The trouble with not being able to give any firm answer is that all the 70-odd provinces interpret the rules slightly differently. There is no one guaranteed correct answer.