New requirements for proof of degree. Khurusapha

[smotherb]

I saw a report card from my daughters respectable private school written by her qualified Philippine teacher,,, a good child in class she be very. I actually thought the thai teacher had written it until I checked with the Philippine teacher who proudly assured me it was her marking and comment,, priceless

quote "smotherb"

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

True, I should have added that not all Filipino, or any other nationality of, 'teachers' can put together a simple sentence without grammar or spelling errors. However, NES teachers should be capable of proper written and spoken English.

[smotherb]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

You uphold the virtues of uneducated farang teachers and defame the virtues of educated Filipino teachers. Certainly, anyone who can speak some English--even a bar-girl--can teach a few words of English to someone who speaks no English. Of course, there must be some uneducated NES teachers who do a good job, but to what depth can they teach the language and how many utter failures did the system go through to gain that few?

The Thais are trying to develop better educational systems for their children. Requiring educational standards for teachers is a step in the right direction.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

grammar ???? try grammatical

So if you wanted your children to learn English and you had a choice between a Thai national who had a degree in English communication and a native speaker you would choose the Thai with the degree, right? Hmmmm i wonder ??

Would it not depend upon the English language competency and teaching abilities of the teacher?

[smotherb]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

grammar ???? try grammatical

Well noted gerry123. Especially since smotherb is making a point about the written English of TV posters.

Also "an NES farang" or "a" NES farang?

Thank you both for making my point. Grammar errors are errors in grammar. The pronunciation of the letter "N" is "en," which begins with a vowel.

[casualbiker]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

You uphold the virtues of uneducated farang teachers and defame the virtues of educated Filipino teachers. Certainly, anyone who can speak some English--even a bar-girl--can teach a few words of English to someone who speaks no English. Of course, there must be some uneducated NES teachers who do a good job, but to what depth can they teach the language and how many utter failures did the system go through to gain that few?

The Thais are trying to develop better educational systems for their children. Requiring educational standards for teachers is a step in the right direction.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

Unless you are working at a good international school or perhaps a good Thai private school; most "teachers" are not really teaching; if they "really" taught and assessed properly they would probably be fired.

I doubt many of them even know the difference between summative and formative assessment; not to mention how to use it to improve student's learning.

" I doubt many of them even know the difference between summative and formative assessment; not to mention how to use it to improve student's learning."

I doubt that the schools academic departments actually know either!

Teachers generally do as they are told by said department as they want to keep their jobs!

Note that a lot of ESL teachers see their individual English classes once a week. Their Thai colleagues may see the same class 4-5 times a week.

[smotherb]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

You uphold the virtues of uneducated farang teachers and defame the virtues of educated Filipino teachers. Certainly, anyone who can speak some English--even a bar-girl--can teach a few words of English to someone who speaks no English. Of course, there must be some uneducated NES teachers who do a good job, but to what depth can they teach the language and how many utter failures did the system go through to gain that few?

The Thais are trying to develop better educational systems for their children. Requiring educational standards for teachers is a step in the right direction.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

grammar ???? try grammatical

SMOTHERB ~ You are absolutely correct about the grammar abilities of many TV forum posters. But, try to be a bit more generous. Many of the TV participating posters, have learned English as a 2nd., or even 3rd. language. Many of them possess a better English "speaking" vocabulary than many Brits, or Americans have. So give them an "E" for having made the effort, at least. OK?

FYI ~ The British began teaching English in Thailand (Rama IV) in 1852. That's 7O years before they officially began to teach English, in their own SEA colonies of Burma, Malaya, and Singapore, in 1922. Thailand agreed to, and signed the ASEAN Treaty (about 40-years ago), which specifically stated that English was the median language of communication exchange, between member nations (info received from a Sino-Thai, of the era).

Bangkok (due to it's central geographical location) was slated to be the Capitol City (Hub) of ASEAN. Thailand built a First World Infra-structure, throughout Thailand, then promptly went back to sleep, like Brair Rabbit, in the "Hare and the Turtle" fable?

If the "powers-that-be" in the Thai MOE were so diligently concerned about the quality level of Thai children's education, then consider this: why is it, that after 163-years of teaching English, in the literally hundreds of colleges and universities throughout Thailand, that foreign visitors to Thailand, are hard-pressed to find a Bangkok Thai person (even with a university degree) who can speak even basic English, even @ both International Airports? Something is definitely wrong in the LOS, re: the general cognitive processing ability, within the Thai MOE. Capiche?

Perhaps I did not make it clear enough, but I was referring to the general lack of English competency among NES speakers. The fact that Thais, in general, speak little English even though, as you say, the English have taught it here for 163 years, is another issue. I simply wished to bring forth support of the Thai MOE for trying to set better standards for English teachers.

[jonnyscot]

We check their progress at school, the wife always reviews each exam taken, whilst I check on their report cards, I work away from home so difficult for me to give much more input although I do when at home,, the school is a bilingual school with teachers from Canada and UK although those teachers are mostly teaching the older classes, with the Philippine teachers teaching younger classes, we're not delighted about the quality of teaching, I did bring up the comment on the report card to the head of the English dept, who said the teacher in question did (scrape through) the selection criteria,, whatever that may be, I would say my feeling is that most of my daughters quality English skills have been taught in the home rather than at school

I saw a report card from my daughters respectable private school written by her qualified Philippine teacher,,, a good child in class she be very. I actually thought the thai teacher had written it until I checked with the Philippine teacher who proudly assured me it was her marking and comment,, priceless

quote "smotherb"

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

Is your daughter attending international school, bilingual school, or Thai school teaching ESL a few hours a week.

I hope that teacher isn't teaching English.

But if low tuition and low budget for salaries then maybe they choose the best available teacher for the salary and area.

What does the school mean by qualified? Education degree, NES, high Toeic?

Sending a report home to parents I would expect proper English.

Are you happy with your daughter's academic progress? Do you review her homework? Do you ask to see her tests?

Growing up my Mom knew tests were given in school and she would ask to see my graded tests for all classes.

When I occasionally do meet a parent, they tell me that their son tells him that he never has any homework and the parents believe them. I tell them I am giving homework and their son never does it.

Why don't parents check about their kids progress?

If seeing graded tests and homework then the final grade should be no suprise.

My parents always looked at my class notebook and returned assignments.

[casualbiker]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

You uphold the virtues of uneducated farang teachers and defame the virtues of educated Filipino teachers. Certainly, anyone who can speak some English--even a bar-girl--can teach a few words of English to someone who speaks no English. Of course, there must be some uneducated NES teachers who do a good job, but to what depth can they teach the language and how many utter failures did the system go through to gain that few?

The Thais are trying to develop better educational systems for their children. Requiring educational standards for teachers is a step in the right direction.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

grammar ???? try grammatical

SMOTHERB ~ You are absolutely correct about the grammar abilities of many TV forum posters. But, try to be a bit more generous. Many of the TV participating posters, have learned English as a 2nd., or even 3rd. language. Many of them possess a better English "speaking" vocabulary than many Brits, or Americans have. So give them an "E" for having made the effort, at least. OK?

FYI ~ The British began teaching English in Thailand (Rama IV) in 1852. That's 7O years before they officially began to teach English, in their own SEA colonies of Burma, Malaya, and Singapore, in 1922. Thailand agreed to, and signed the ASEAN Treaty (about 40-years ago), which specifically stated that English was the median language of communication exchange, between member nations (info received from a Sino-Thai, of the era).

Bangkok (due to it's central geographical location) was slated to be the Capitol City (Hub) of ASEAN. Thailand built a First World Infra-structure, throughout Thailand, then promptly went back to sleep, like Brair Rabbit, in the "Hare and the Turtle" fable?

If the "powers-that-be" in the Thai MOE were so diligently concerned about the quality level of Thai children's education, then consider this: why is it, that after 163-years of teaching English, in the literally hundreds of colleges and universities throughout Thailand, that foreign visitors to Thailand, are hard-pressed to find a Bangkok Thai person (even with a university degree) who can speak even basic English, even @ both International Airports? Something is definitely wrong in the LOS, re: the general cognitive processing ability, within the Thai MOE. Capiche?

Perhaps I did not make it clear enough, but I was referring to the general lack of English competency among NES speakers. The fact that Thais, in general, speak little English even though, as you say, the English have taught it here for 163 years, is another issue. I simply wished to bring forth support of the Thai MOE for trying to set better standards for English teachers.

The English teaching of 163 years ago was only for the Royals. Mainstream English came about in the late 70's again only in larger schools. Into the 80's things got better. To try and say it's been taught for 163 years is really trying to muddy the water..

But this thread was directly about the new requirements for degree verification which will be extremely laborious for many, if not impossible!

[brianp0803]

In America gun control keeps guns away from honest people but criminals still have guns.

All the new rules will mostly affect the honest people trying to follow the policy but there will still be the people getting around the policies.

[TuskegeeBen]

Virtually all of American universities will not have a mechanism to reply to this request for "a letter." Thailand lacks a clue how this verification of degree works from USA. In my case, Mahidol U wanted a photocopy of my Ph.D. diploma, the "sheepskin" handed out on graduation day. This easily faked and not legal document is just wall candy. I had mine superbly framed and I got a copy company to copy it still in the frame.

What counts in usa is an "official grade transcript" that will show all degrees awarded, grades, and official name of degree holder. It must be requested by either the employer or the degree holder, with a fee of about $25, and is mailed to the stated, required address all sealed, often with return receipt requested card on it.

There ARE a few things Thailand can benefit from listening to expert foreigners.

Of course this is how it works and how it should be done. They are just so clueless though. It will seriously probably take the another ten years to learn why they want what they are asking for, and in what form they need to ask for it. It's just too ridiculous to even put up with.

ENOUGH already! The main problem is that Thai people have earned for themselves, are labeled reputation for arrogance, among other SEA regional nations. That singular fact alone, will serve to be the "undoing" of Thailand, in a multitude of ways,

[kaorop]

K boord meeting:

We must stamp out the useless farang garbage!

To do this we will penalize everyone, and make them get another letter from their uni, becuase, as we know,

teaching in non ac'ed rooms in nokom-no-where or in the poluted Bkk urban jungle for the hi-so level of 30k is a

huge priveledge for teaching degreed farang, and is no way a futher imposition.

We have no doubt the schools will have zero trouble finding suitable and qualified applicants.

the chorus of "perfect" rings out.

(foods arrives)

gabel quickly knocks,

"meeting closed"

(the sound of scrambling for food)

Future teachers you only need about 25 different documents to teach in nutland.

Edited October 30, 2014 by kaorop

[NoshowJones]

Or a lot of people with fake degrees making extra scrutiny necesarry.

Rule breakers cause problems for honest people.

What is worse, they often feel justified believing they are a special exception to the rules.

Your first sentence is true in some cases, but if you want to obey every rule that is made, then you may as well not bother getting out of bed in the morning.

[NoshowJones]

Does this also apply for renewal of the full (5 yr) teacher's Licence?

What about colleges that have closed or been demolished since you moved to Thailand?

[NoshowJones]

Great, just what Thailand needs, more endless, bureacratic, pointless paperwork, plus, of course, additional costs for teachers to bear before they can teach. Education in Thailand is poor, English skills in Thailand are poor. Rather than making it more difficult to recruit, make it easier. I am sure most people here have some familiarity with the amont and varieity of docments, procedures, and processes needed to teach? It is discouraging.

As for the specific question of false qualifications, how about if you can teach, then you can teach. I have seen Philipine (no offense) teachers with certificates and degrees in English, who can just about construct a simple sentence. I have met old timers, even dead beat Australians, who have knowledge and experience, but are not allowed to teach because they have no "paper". What about grant to the schools the right to recruit and process work visas directly? Great, except for all those immig officials in all those embassies.

Had just some weeks ago a discussion with the Bss of english teachers in a famous school of my kids;

I also had some concerns about some Philipine english teachers in that school;

He told me relax:

They are tested, they are native english speakers when born,

and sometimes better in grammatic than an so called " English teacher from UK !!

I have to say that any teacher from the Philipines at my school have been as good at English as anyone.

[NoshowJones]

Very over the top. They don't ask for these letters in the likes of s.Korea or Japan, who also pay more. Paranoid thais and simply a lack of recruitment skills in order to appoint someone decent into the roll. rather than go to all of that effort to actually judge if someone is a good egg or not they prefer to have a tick sheet and rely on that. So they 'can't go wrong'...

My friend is a private classical guitar teacher, has a levels but no degree, has been teaching for 12 years, speaks like stephen fry and is very intelligent and a very good teacher, as an English teacher he'd piss it.. He'd be the best english teacher issan has ever seen yet wouldn't get employed based on the fact that there is no one intelligent enough in these schools to have the confidence to employ someone based on merit and skill. Not that he'd ever want to work in LOS anyway but just a point that if he did, he couldn't. Boxed must be ticked and red tape must be followed

I take it that your friend is not from a western country, but in Thailand, your appearance and skin colour are sometimes more important than your ability to teach.

[NoshowJones]

After 4 years teaching, Thailand is now requiring all teachers have education degrees or pass their qualification tests.

The last I heard it was 2 years, is it 4 years now? Doubt it'll be enforced as I'm yet to hear of a case yet where it has been.

The two year rule happened to me, I was officially told the first day of my second term that I would need to get a degree if I wanted to carry on teaching after the end of that term, then I was told unofficially by a senior teacher that it was cheaper to hire a Filipino, and that is what happened.

[NoshowJones]

What a bunch of cry-baby biggoted baggers.

You uphold the virtues of uneducated farang teachers and defame the virtues of educated Filipino teachers. Certainly, anyone who can speak some English--even a bar-girl--can teach a few words of English to someone who speaks no English. Of course, there must be some uneducated NES teachers who do a good job, but to what depth can they teach the language and how many utter failures did the system go through to gain that few?

The Thais are trying to develop better educational systems for their children. Requiring educational standards for teachers is a step in the right direction.

Look at the written English displayed by TV posters--the vast majority of whom are NES and several even claim to be teachers. Far too many cannot put together a simple post without grammar or spelling errors. Is that the type of English competency you want for teachers of your child, or are you just trying to justify work in Thailand for an NES farang?

grammar ???? try grammatical

So if you wanted your children to learn English and you had a choice between a Thai national who had a degree in English communication and a native speaker you would choose the Thai with the degree, right? Hmmmm i wonder ??

With very few exceptions, a Thai English speaker will take about two paragraphs to explain something, where a Westerner would only need one sentence.

[NoshowJones]

Wait a minute, did someone above say that a British speaker can speak English and so can automatically teach better than Filipinos? But why do I, an American, struggle to understand so many British-English speakers? I feel sorry for people who have to learn English from native speakers with strong accents. I have often been complimented in the five countries I have taught for my clear, paced, and easy to understand English. I learned that by speaking English around the world in my job. A person who is a native speaker must learn to speak clearly without local native slang and euphemisms. I have met several native English teachers who I struggled to understand. I wonder what the students think of them when they get one accent one time and a different accent the next time 'round.

Good point, but as a Scot, some Westerners have mentioned to me that I speak too fast, and sometimes they find it hard to understand me, but when I was teaching, I deliberately made a point of speaking slow and clear in the class room, and when I was talking to Thai teachers, and no one said they could not understand me.

[brianp0803]

Did you have no university degree or no teaching degree?

Did they give you a work permit for the 1st term and 2nd term?

If I understand, they told you they will not give you a new contract next year unless you get a degree.

Correct?

Most teachers are on 1 year contracts with expectations of renewal but no guarantee.

If a school thinks they can find a cheaper teacher and still collect the same tuition then that is business.

Schools are businesses interested in making money.

Maybe this is why TCT is trying to also require education degree to improve quality.

People with no experience teaching in Thailand can get work permits.

After 4 years and good references from schools they also require a degree in teaching.

I think better if schools sent ratings of teachers to TCT. After 4 years teaching, teachers with a minimum rating would be allowed to continue teaching with work permit.

Needing a degree in education seems a bit excessive for teaching ESL but should teaching history or science, at similar salaries, have much higher qualifications?

Similar salaries- similar qualification process?

[smotherb]

Whatever happened to 'Job Interview' - passed that - employed on probation - good at the job - made permanent...... No good - dismissed!

As usual, a total nonsense in Thailand as nobody is qualified to judge a person competent or incompetent. What a joke!

When it's your company and your money, that qualifies you to make the judgement.

[Phatcharanan]

a. Too much paperwork, costly and discourages teachers.

b. Allow schools to directly select, employ, and grant visas to teachers.

c. Rely primariliy on competence, not degrees for teachers.

Having said that, yes, great if you have a degree, a taeching diploma, previous experience, etc, but none of those automatically mean that you are a good teacher. Vice verse, there are many people without even a degree, who could teach English well in Thailand.

Same old same old boring rationale.

It's a requirement now to have a verified degree.

Get over it.

[Phatcharanan]

Wait a minute, did someone above say that a British speaker can speak English and so can automatically teach better than Filipinos? But why do I, an American, struggle to understand so many British-English speakers? I feel sorry for people who have to learn English from native speakers with strong accents. I have often been complimented in the five countries I have taught for my clear, paced, and easy to understand English. I learned that by speaking English around the world in my job. A person who is a native speaker must learn to speak clearly without local native slang and euphemisms. I have met several native English teachers who I struggled to understand. I wonder what the students think of them when they get one accent one time and a different accent the next time 'round.

Good point, but as a Scot, some Westerners have mentioned to me that I speak too fast, and sometimes they find it hard to understand me, but when I was teaching, I deliberately made a point of speaking slow and clear in the class room, and when I was talking to Thai teachers, and no one said they could not understand me.

It's the 'classroom voice' and should be part of every EAL strategy.

[brianp0803]

Whatever happened to 'Job Interview' - passed that - employed on probation - good at the job - made permanent...... No good - dismissed!

As usual, a total nonsense in Thailand as nobody is qualified to judge a person competent or incompetent. What a joke!

When it's your company and your money, that qualifies you to make the judgement.

Schools get government money and tax breaks.

I understand even private schools get a standard allowance o'er student.

Also school is a government mandate- supplying schools with students.

This gives the government the right to put requirements on the business.

Private tutoring centers ans language schools and universities are free from government control.

[NoshowJones]

Wait a minute, did someone above say that a British speaker can speak English and so can automatically teach better than Filipinos? But why do I, an American, struggle to understand so many British-English speakers? I feel sorry for people who have to learn English from native speakers with strong accents. I have often been complimented in the five countries I have taught for my clear, paced, and easy to understand English. I learned that by speaking English around the world in my job. A person who is a native speaker must learn to speak clearly without local native slang and euphemisms. I have met several native English teachers who I struggled to understand. I wonder what the students think of them when they get one accent one time and a different accent the next time 'round.

Good point, but as a Scot, some Westerners have mentioned to me that I speak too fast, and sometimes they find it hard to understand me, but when I was teaching, I deliberately made a point of speaking slow and clear in the class room, and when I was talking to Thai teachers, and no one said they could not understand me.

It's the 'classroom voice' and should be part of every EAL strategy.

Yes, some non Native English speakers are very hard to understand, and good pronounciation skills is a must in the classroom.

[GanDoonToonPet]

I'm the original source of this document & I don't remember 'providing' it for anyone; never mind...

I was also, during my recent 5 year licence application, given a similar document by the TCT. That one was identical except it didn't state that the verification letter must be sent directly to the TCT. A small problem in that my university doesn't provide such a letter, only transcripts, but after some cajoling they agreed to produce one as a special favour; 2 days after they sent it, the TCT approved my licence anyway.

I don't think this requirement will last very long. The problem is with the Civil Service as they rotate people around different departments every few months. Each new clerk reads up on the requirements & interprets them in their own way or (it seems) focuses on a single required document & makes it their sacred cow.

When I first applied, the clerk focused on the verification of 1 year's teaching experience letter - 1 year had to be at least 365 days, must be signed by the Director, must have the official school stamp etc.

When I returned a month later, letter in hand, the new clerk accepted it but handed me a document similar to the one in the OP, demanding a degree verification letter.

Last year, a teacher at our school had to get his degree notarised for his licence application & 2 years ago, another teacher had to get a residence certificate for his waiver.

Most of these requirements have existed for many years but (I suspect) due to the staff rotation policy the are not always implemented.

[casualbiker]

Gan. You provided it on the website referenced in the OP :-D

[LecheHombre]

I'm the original source of this document & I don't remember 'providing' it for anyone; never mind...

I was also, during my recent 5 year licence application, given a similar document by the TCT. That one was identical except it didn't state that the verification letter must be sent directly to the TCT. A small problem in that my university doesn't provide such a letter, only transcripts, but after some cajoling they agreed to produce one as a special favour; 2 days after they sent it, the TCT approved my licence anyway.

I don't think this requirement will last very long. The problem is with the Civil Service as they rotate people around different departments every few months. Each new clerk reads up on the requirements & interprets them in their own way or (it seems) focuses on a single required document & makes it their sacred cow.

When I first applied, the clerk focused on the verification of 1 year's teaching experience letter - 1 year had to be at least 365 days, must be signed by the Director, must have the official school stamp etc.

When I returned a month later, letter in hand, the new clerk accepted it but handed me a document similar to the one in the OP, demanding a degree verification letter.

Last year, a teacher at our school had to get his degree notarised for his licence application & 2 years ago, another teacher had to get a residence certificate for his waiver.

Most of these requirements have existed for many years but (I suspect) due to the staff rotation policy the are not always implemented.

I have a BS in Engineering, but all the TCT stuff that I had seen recently seemed to be insistent on a degree in EDUCATION. In the image in the first post (apparently your letter?) it makes no specific mention of the degree being in Education, it just requires proof of "successfully completing your course" etc.

Would you mind confirming if in your case your degree is in Education? I'm guessing yes since you mentioned "5 year license application", which would be for a full-on license, not a waiver?

My thoughts on all of this are:

If the TCT wants to make more stringent requirements to get a teacher's license... Fine. BUT, with those requirements most schools outside of Bangkok will have a really hard time finding anyone that actually meets the requirements and is willing to work for ~30k baht. So, they will go from few NES teachers to none. I don't think that will improve English education in Thailand.

Basically, when I came here almost 10 years ago to start teaching, I knew full well that I didn't have a degree or training in Education. That didn't matter, at the time. Now, I still have no education degree but I have almost 10 years of OJT. I think I can do a pretty good job of teaching given the right support structure and being used the right way. There ARE things that I'm legitimately not qualified to do that a person with a degree in education would be, and other things in general that they probably have better ideas about managing than me -- like planning an entire year's curriculum, or managing discipline in a classroom without Thai teacher assistance. So for schools that can afford to pay for those additional capabilities (read "International Schools in Bangkok"), NES teachers with a full teacher's license are probably legitimately worth more money than I am.

..BUT. Yeah, there's a big "but" coming. BUT, there was a system in place from the beginning (or at least, 10 years ago when I came here) designed to overcome those skills that I am perfectly happy to admit that I am lacking -- the system of assigning qualified Thai co-teachers to any class with a NES teacher. Many new NES teachers are poor at classroom management and discipline, but that is fine, because the Thai teacher can step in and help there. Almost all NES teachers are not qualified to design a level-appropriate curriculum that follows a logical progression through a full year, and then dovetails nicely into the precedeing or following years. But that should be fine, because a Thai teacher can do that -- they know the students and their levels better, they have the background in education, etc. That system SHOULD work fantastically to create a really excellent learning environment for students, especially in schools that can't attract or afford to pay real, 100% qualified NES *teachers* instead of just NES *people who are willing to teach*. The only problem is that in every school that I've worked in, the system wasn't used properly. Most Thai co-teachers never show up to classes. If they do, they work on other stuff in the back of the room. They don't plan a curriculum or even select a book for the NES to teacher from -- which would help mitigate the differences in ability and experience levels in NES teachers. But that generally isn't the NES person's fault -- the school should be requiring / enforcing participation by the Thai co-teachers, and rewarding those that make it work properly.

I'm not holding my breath.

Edited October 31, 2014 by LecheHombre

[casualbiker]

For a license you need a degree in education or a degree in any subject plus either passing 4 tests (currently suspended / postponed) or a teaching certificate, MAed. PGCIE. Or similar. These would take approx one year and 60-150baht to attain.

[GanDoonToonPet]

I have a BS in Engineering, but all the TCT stuff that I had seen recently seemed to be insistent on a degree in EDUCATION. In the image in the first post (apparently your letter?) it makes no specific mention of the degree being in Education, it just requires proof of "successfully completing your course" etc.

Would you mind confirming if in your case your degree is in Education? I'm guessing yes since you mentioned "5 year license application", which would be for a full-on license, not a waiver?

I have a BSc in Physics but don't have an education degree. I passed the TCT tests last year & was lucky as I passed the last 2 just before they cancelled them. Others weren't so lucky & there were many who passed 3 of the 4 but failed the dreaded 'test 2' multiple times; these tests will surely go down in history.

The letter in the OP isn't mine but was given to a colleague of mine last week, when he applied for a new waiver. I was given a similar letter last month during my licence application process, which I may as well reproduce here:

The requirement for the waiver is only a Bachelors' degree. For 3rd+ waivers, proof of enrolment onto an education degree has to be shown. However, there are reports that proof of enrolment onto a Grad DipT is enough.

The current requirements for the 5 year teaching licence, which have been in place for a number of years, haven't actually changed; namely:

1. Bachelors' degree plus Grad DipT or higher, BEd or higher or teaching licence from another country

2. Culture Course

3. 1 year's teaching experience in a K-12 school.

The education degree requirement for the waiver was introduced on the back of planned policy for the licence requirements. Ironically, its looking more & more likely that the Grad DipT requirement will stay for the licence but teachers will need an education degree for a waiver.

[GanDoonToonPet]

For a license you need a degree in education or a degree in any subject plus either passing 4 tests (currently suspended / postponed) or a teaching certificate, MAed. PGCIE. Or similar. These would take approx one year and 60-150baht to attain.

The educational requirements for the 5 year licence have not changed in the last 8 years & are unlikely to in the foreseeable future. There were planned changes to up the Grad DipT requirement to a degree & also to increase the Culture Course to 40 hours but those plans have been shelved (?)

BTW be careful with the acronyms. An MEd will be acceptable but an MAEd might not. 'Philipino' diplomas such as the CPT from New Era University or the Grad DipT from IFUGAO (if still offered) are acceptable & cost around B50,000.

I personally know several teachers who've received 5 year licences with the PGCEi from Nottingham University, UK, currently priced around B170,000 at today's exchange rates.

[Scott]

Please stay on topic. Discussion of different nationalities is not a part of this thread. Also, discussion of grammar is off-topic.

Some off-topic posts have been removed.