Mods, if this is out of line, delete it please.

In the part of my brain that harbors strange conspiracy theories I wonder if the entire TCT was created when Thai politicians saw the proliferation of many TESOL certificate courses in Thailand. Someone said to themselves "Why should all these foreigners be making money on these teaching qualifications. We need a piece of that pie!"

And thus the TCT was born.

I know. It's a ridiculous theory.

I prefer to be a little less paranoid and skeptical, but then I am probably wrong.

I think the TCT had little to do with foreigners. The Council regulations apply to Thai Teachers as well.

I think it was one more attempt to upgrade education in Thailand. Thailand's attempts at improving education are dictated by people with little experience in the field. It's a little like watching Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder play tennis.

Most countries have a Teacher's Council or Association which provides certification for teachers.

The TCT isn't that different to it's equivalent organisations in other countries.

The qualifications for a teacher's licence in Thailand (For either a foreign or Thai teacher, as the qualifications required are almost identical), are roughly similar to the USA I think? (But a lot more relaxed than most other western countries)

Likewise, the organisation is reasonably beaucratic and doesn't necessarily complete things as quickly as what we'd like. But the same is usually true in our home countries as well.

The teacher's licence exams sometimes have bad translations of questions, but at least there's a translation available. I very much doubt that the USA's teacher's licence exams, if they have them, would be translated into any other languages?