School Raid Report

[jauntyjohn]

Perhaps teachers and employers could report any "raids" which have occurred since the deportation of the suspected murderer. Sunbelt reports two "alphabet" schools being raided. Does anyone know of this or others?

[Loaded]

Perhaps teachers and employers could report any "raids" which have occurred since the deportation of the suspected murderer. Sunbelt reports two "alphabet" schools being raided. Does anyone know of this or others?

Unlikely, but possible. The MoE are focussing on International Schools, and bilingual programs at state and private schools - not language schools (ref: front page Bangkok Post 22/08/06). Where can I read the sunbelt report?

[PeaceBlondie]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=79832

mentions the raid mentioned by somebody from Sunbelt. Without more evidence, it's hearsay, but where there is smoke, there usually is fire, sooner or later.

[kenkannif]

^ Well maybe not in Thailand....probably more like dry ice mate.

I actually had a school ring me a while ago that was raided (and paid Imm off with some office furniture).

Imm basically told them that they don't want to raid schools as they offer a service that is wanted and needed....BUT if someone reports (generally a disgruntled former staff memeber) a school they have to go there, even though nothing really happens at the end of the day.

Lot of scare tactics popping up on here?

If they WANT to shut all the schools down tomorrow and arrest a high proportion of the teachers for some law breaking or other...they can...very easily....but who will teach little Somchai come Monday?

[PeaceBlondie]

Lot of scare tactics popping up on here?

If they WANT to shut all the schools down tomorrow and arrest a high proportion of the teachers for some law breaking or other...they can...very easily....but who will teach little Somchai come Monday?

Thai teachers of English, where I used to teach, were going to 23 classroom hours per week when I left. Now they have a couple of Filipinas helping out. Two years ago, one of the elder male English teachers looked at his next semester's teaching load, and he took early retirement, with no replacement.

Either the Thais will end up teaching 29 hours per week to classrooms of 62 students, very poorly, or else the administrators will dip into their slush fund to pay the bribes to the authorities, and those administrators might finally be willing to pay and certify to help the farangs get work permits.

[Sunbelt Asia]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=79832

mentions the raid mentioned by somebody from Sunbelt. Without more evidence, it's hearsay, but where there is smoke, there usually is fire, sooner or later.

Thought this might happen. People thinking it was smoke.

Any way, these schools were small. Never heard of them before. One school, the "teachers" were back in the schoolroom the next day, but of course working with a stamp in their passport" stating working without a work permit"

The other school is going to have the teachers get legal. This will be a hard road with the ones arrested. It can't happen for a year.

That was my point. Thinking of going legal, you better do it now.

Maybe no more schools will get targeted. I have no clue. Just reporting the stamp and handwriting we have seen on different passports from "teachers."

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

[Loaded]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=79832

mentions the raid mentioned by somebody from Sunbelt. Without more evidence, it's hearsay, but where there is smoke, there usually is fire, sooner or later.

Thought this might happen. People thinking it was smoke.

Any way, these schools were small. Never heard of them before. One school, the "teachers" were back in the schoolroom the next day, but of course working with a stamp in their passport" stating working without a work permit"

The other school is going to have the teachers get legal. This will be a hard road with the ones arrested. It can't happen for a year.

That was my point. Thinking of going legal, you better do it now.

Maybe no more schools will get targeted. I have no clue. Just reporting the stamp and handwriting we have seen on different passports from "teachers."

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Maybe other readers have heard of them. What's the names?

[migs]

The immigration police came to our school today asking to see passports of foreign teachers. They aere coming back next month and want to interview all foreigners, check passports and work permits. The school lawyer seems to be pretty worried about it.

[PeaceBlondie]

The immigration police came to our school today asking to see passports of foreign teachers. They aere coming back next month and want to interview all foreigners, check passports and work permits. The school lawyer seems to be pretty worried about it.

Thanks for the report, migs. Well, if the school lawyer is worried, maybe the school gets fined if the teachers don't have proper visas. Now, that's where the 'wheel hits the road.'

[mbkudu]

I noticed something in the Bangkok Post today that I've never seen in the many years that I have read

this paper. It's in the classified section; two different ads:

SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, for sale, very profitable, owner relocating, 12,100,000 baht, Located on Sukhumvit.

Established Language Center, for Sale or Rent, prime location in Chonburi, three classrooms.

I wonder if the enforcement is scaring people into selling schools. It's pretty rare to sell a

'profitable' school, isn't it?

[mbkudu]

If busting language schools really is what they are going to do and be serious about, it will just push the business underground even further where privates have been for decades.

[Savage]

Tiu Pai Ngam bilingual school was raided yesterday. Teachers without work permits have 1 month to get them, non degree teachers are out the door by the end of the month.

[Loaded]

Tiu Pai Ngam bilingual school was raided yesterday. Teachers without work permits have 1 month to get them, non degree teachers are out the door by the end of the month.

That's strange because as far I understand it there is NO law that says you need a degree to obtain a wp. Also near to impossible to obtain a wp within 1 month.

Where's the school located that you quote? I just googled and couldn't find anything.

[otherstuff1957]

It is true that you don't need a degree to get a work permit, but you usually need a degree to get a Teaching License, and you usually need a TL to get a WP for teaching.

I've never seen this in writing, but I've heard that the exceptions are Government Schools, where teachers do not need Teaching Licenses. Of course, most Government Schools use Agencies to supply teachers and the Agencies are considered to be private schools, so you are back to needing a TL!

[Ijustwannateach]

^That's right, as far as I understand it. Clear as mud, ain't it?

[PeaceBlondie]

At least to us farang, hasn't Thai law often been 'as clear as mud' because it's so unevenly enforced? These ThaiVisa forums don't propose breaking a law, but when you get down to details (if there are any), you still have laws that are enforced very irregularly or indifferently.

Poster #1 will say you have to have a degree to teach in BKK, and #2 will say no, not in many other provinces. Poster #3 says it depends if the school is on good terms with the officials. No matter what hard and fast examples you try to cite, Posters #4, 5 and 6 will say, "No, my mate from the Midlands, and his mate from Akron Ohio, got treated differently."

But what if, just for a month or three, Thai officials all around the kingdom, in random places and ways, decide to enforce whatever law is on the books, as they wish to interpet it?

The Thai TEFL sky isn't quite falling, but it's shaking.

[kenkannif]

It is true that you don't need a degree to get a work permit, but you usually need a degree to get a Teaching License, and you usually need a TL to get a WP for teaching.

I've never seen this in writing, but I've heard that the exceptions are Government Schools, where teachers do not need Teaching Licenses. Of course, most Government Schools use Agencies to supply teachers and the Agencies are considered to be private schools, so you are back to needing a TL!

If you're an 'owner' of the language a degree is not needed (officially) but often is needed.

You do not need a degree to get a TL...I know people that have obtained them without one (and even without the need for a TL I'm pretty sure you still need to go through the MoE or educational dept. in your area).

Edited September 4, 2006 by kenkannif

[richard10365]

We have spotters in the trees and cans tied to barbed wire but I'm still think when the immigrations folks want to get through our permiter they will.

I'll just put on a school uniform and try to pretend I'm an exchange student.

Maybe I can get the school to broadcast a special warning when they come. Something like the red alert alarm on the old Star Trek shows. Or maybe, "Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert. Man your battle stations"

[Ijustwannateach]

I have just heard my first reliable firsthand report of a school raid on a school. The raid was executed against a private school with a largish EP program in the greater Bangkok area. 3 teachers who had been working there without WP's were subjected to particular scrutiny.

The school itself had refused to sponsor them because as a private school, it's harder for them to get WP's for people, especially without college degrees- which was true in the case of these 3 teachers [public schools can sponsor TEFLers without degrees for WPs, as far as is known at the moment]. They were doing TEFL. The other teachers at the school had degrees and WP's.

They were told to get their paperwork straight by the end of September or get out of Thailand.

I don't know if any disciplinary measures were taken against the school. Certainly labour law advocates pretty strict measures. Maybe there was a grace period for both the illegal employees and the school.

"Steven"

[mbkudu]

We have spotters in the trees and cans tied to barbed wire but I'm still think when the immigrations folks want to get through our permiter they will.

I'll just put on a school uniform and try to pretend I'm an exchange student.

Maybe I can get the school to broadcast a special warning when they come. Something like the red alert alarm on the old Star Trek shows. Or maybe, "Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert. Man your battle stations"

Just like the upstairs bars in Patpong. Whoops, now I've done it; I've violated forum rules.

[infusion]

Tiu Pai Ngam bilingual school was raided yesterday. Teachers without work permits have 1 month to get them, non degree teachers are out the door by the end of the month.

That's strange because as far I understand it there is NO law that says you need a degree to obtain a wp. Also near to impossible to obtain a wp within 1 month.

Where's the school located that you quote? I just googled and couldn't find anything.

I think he meant Thewphaingarm School. And yes the school was raided and teachers without the workpermit (or one in the process) are out the door. NOT a good vibe at the school now...... Lots of teachers are now having to leave.

No degree = No workpermit at Thewphaingarm.

[kenkannif]

^ They'll probably find a way to get them now without a degree.

[infusion]

^ They'll probably find a way to get them now without a degree.

Unfortunately it doesn't look that way.

The man who is responsible for getting the paperwork together at Thewphaingarm won't get a work permit for anyone who doesn't have a degree so those teachers without degrees are having to leave at the end of the month.

[PeaceBlondie]

^ They'll probably find a way to get them now without a degree.

Unfortunately it doesn't look that way.

The man who is responsible for getting the paperwork together at Thewphaingarm won't get a work permit for anyone who doesn't have a degree so those teachers without degrees are having to leave at the end of the month.

That's unfortunate, because it might be possible for that paperwork man to get it done. But maybe some boss told him not to bother with the undegreed teachers. Maybe he doesn't have time, or maybe he doesn't want to take the trouble. It will be hard enough to get the degreed teachers permits.

[kenkannif]

Might change their minds when they have a classroom full of kids....and no one to teach them.

[Loaded]

Might change their minds when they have a classroom full of kids....and no one to teach them.

...and parents will ask where are the farang teachers that we pay a premiun for?

[kenkannif]

^ You know that mate.

Gotta laugh (as crying ruins my mascara)

[richard10365]

If I was a desperate farang English teacher recruiter, I would be standing around immigration getting contact information of English teachers forced out of work to hire them somewhere else.

[paully]

Might change their minds when they have a classroom full of kids....and no one to teach them.

Yes, after the usual short-term panic, expect the new 'strict' rules there to be relaxed in a few weeks. You know how it works, Ken.

Edited September 6, 2006 by paully

[MissAnge]

I know of 3 International schools that have been raided over the past couple of days. Am I allowed to mention the names? One school (a deep shaft with water at the bottom and a bucket attached to a pulley) was raided and all foreign teachers taken to 'jail' till late last night. Just wondering if I am ok if my work permit is in process?