Volunteer Work On Government Schools? Who Really Know?

[Mario2008]

I wouldn't pay immigration to do charity work. Hope you find something interesting to do, let us know how you go!

You don't pay immigration to do volunteer work, you pay immigration for your application to be allowed to continue to stay in the country.

[Suradit69]

As a general note, the person who heads a school is a principal, not a principle.

Relatively minor spelling issues aside, not everyone who speaks some English is qualified to teach. Simply going into a classroom and blathering away in English while engaging a few of the already better speakers and putting the remaining 90% of the class to sleep serves no other purpose than to convince most of the students that English is unfathomable.

It might be most useful if you spent an hour or so with a small group of students who were already reasonably fluent, but even with them you would need to have some clearly planned and measurable/testable objectives. If you don't know what your goals are and you don't have any way of deciding if those goals were met, then you are simply on an ego trip and patting yourself on the back for wasting everyone's time.

Good intentions alone have little value.

I've had years of experience dealing with volunteers who come to third world countries to show the locals how wonderful they, the volunteers, are. A few have indeed made useful contributions. Most just had a fun adventure that benefited no one.

If you know a few words of Thai, try listening to people speaking on Thai TV for an hour or two and decide if listening to them "chat" really helped you learn much more of the Thai language or if your mind started wandering and you felt the need for a nap.

Edited April 13, 2013 by Suradit69

[a99az]

"What is amazing, is that there are thousands of retired foreigners who would volunteer if Thai law allowed it."

Thai law does allow it.

Does your country allow unvetted 'retired foreigners' to work with young school aged students?

Yes, simply being a foreigner is hardly a qualification.

I would assume, depending on what it is he feels qualified to do, that some facility in the Thai language or English or possibly another regional language would be important.

Claiming he wants to "help" is rather vague. I think the first order of business would be to decide what he would be bringing to the table.

I'm quite sure the OP is well-motivated and earnest in his/her wish to help out, but let's be blunt, there are people staying in Thailand who may not be well suited to "working with" children (and unfortunately some of them are supposedly qualified foreign teachers).

In my country the Teacher's unions would go on strike, they know wages could be held down

by people doing it for free.

If the country requires its teachers to have a specific standard why should the volunteer be given a free pass. If I was to volunteer as a medical worker, I think it would be expected of me to have some

training and experience.

I not aware of any Thai people volunteering to teach for free, maybe it has something to do with the

Thai teacher's union having an issue with non-paid volunteers.

Would you get someone to do it for free "In your country"?

[bamukloy]

"What is amazing, is that there are thousands of retired foreigners who would volunteer if Thai law allowed it."

Thai law does allow it.

Does your country allow unvetted 'retired foreigners' to work with young school aged students?

Yes, simply being a foreigner is hardly a qualification.

I would assume, depending on what it is he feels qualified to do, that some facility in the Thai language or English or possibly another regional language would be important.

Claiming he wants to "help" is rather vague. I think the first order of business would be to decide what he would be bringing to the table.

I'm quite sure the OP is well-motivated and earnest in his/her wish to help out, but let's be blunt, there are people staying in Thailand who may not be well suited to "working with" children (and unfortunately some of them are supposedly qualified foreign teachers).

In my country the Teacher's unions would go on strike, they know wages could be held down

by people doing it for free.

If the country requires its teachers to have a specific standard why should the volunteer be given a free pass. If I was to volunteer as a medical worker, I think it would be expected of me to have some

training and experience.

I not aware of any Thai people volunteering to teach for free, maybe it has something to do with the

Thai teacher's union having an issue with non-paid volunteers.

I would also suggest that there are many organizations here that set themselves up as language schools under the banner of "summer camps" and as such, access forieners to work for a very minimal amount.

These guys aim to recruit the short term tourist, retired expats or people who are so desperate for money they will work for peanuts, as the compensation they do offer is so low that its akin to donating your time anyway.

Meanwhile these "summercamp" business operators collect ??? fees from the schools/students but tell the farang workers that the school/students hardly pay anything for the service, adding the claim that he (the business operator) barely covers his costs after expenses and sundries.

I have never heard mention of any work permits or any other such other provisions gained that would make such a venture legal.

IMO when the authorities intend to make the next CRACKDOWN, they should do so on these kinds of exploitive businesses, instead of going after individual people and/or schools.

[connda]

"What is amazing, is that there are thousands of retired foreigners who would volunteer if Thai law allowed it."

Thai law does allow it.

Does your country allow unvetted 'retired foreigners' to work with young school aged students?

Yes, simply being a foreigner is hardly a qualification.

I would assume, depending on what it is he feels qualified to do, that some facility in the Thai language or English or possibly another regional language would be important.

Claiming he wants to "help" is rather vague. I think the first order of business would be to decide what he would be bringing to the table.

I'm quite sure the OP is well-motivated and earnest in his/her wish to help out, but let's be blunt, there are people staying in Thailand who may not be well suited to "working with" children (and unfortunately some of them are supposedly qualified foreign teachers).

In my country the Teacher's unions would go on strike, they know wages could be held down

by people doing it for free.

If the country requires its teachers to have a specific standard why should the volunteer be given a free pass. If I was to volunteer as a medical worker, I think it would be expected of me to have some

training and experience.

I not aware of any Thai people volunteering to teach for free, maybe it has something to do with the

Thai teacher's union having an issue with non-paid volunteers.

I would also suggest that there are many organizations here that set themselves up as language schools under the banner of "summer camps" and as such, access forieners to work for a very minimal amount.

These guys aim to recruit the short term tourist, retired expats or people who are so desperate for money they will work for peanuts, as the compensation they do offer is so low that its akin to donating your time anyway.

Meanwhile these "summercamp" business operators collect ??? fees from the schools/students but tell the farang workers that the school/students hardly pay anything for the service, adding the claim that he (the business operator) barely covers his costs after expenses and sundries.

I have never heard mention of any work permits or any other such other provisions gained that would make such a venture legal.

IMO when the authorities intend to make the next CRACKDOWN, they should do so on these kinds of exploitive businesses, instead of going after individual people and/or schools.

If the business was run my a Russian near Phuket, I'm sure the authorities would be all over them.

[asupeartea]

Half the so called volunteer get foreign volunteers to promise a semester or two and the organization contracts the volunteers out. The agency collects and keeps the entire salary budgeted by the school.

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