Giving money to teacher, school/class bank?

[jimmi]

My four year old boy started school this year. The teacher has asked the kids to bring 5 Baht to school everyday and give it to her. She said, she keeps track of the money and keeps it for the kids. I did this for a while, but found it to be a little strange. I was a little concerned about where the money was going or what they plan to do with it. The teacher showed me the book that she keeps track of the money for each child. They have tried to explain this to me, my Thai family members, and said this is what they do. This seems to be a kind of bank account the class or school does for the kids. This is a new concept for me, as this is a school not a bank. Is this a common thing for thai schools to do? Has anyone else done or run into this. Can someone explain what they do with the money? I have stopped giving my child money until I understand what they are doing. If this is some kind of bank account, I think it would be better to put the money in a real bank. What are they doing?

[pinkpanther99]

I used to work in a school where a teacher did the same thing.

Turns out the teacher would use the money given by the kids (50baht per week x35 kids) to meet repayments on a loan of hers, before replacing the money at the end of each month when her husband got paid from his job. Apparently she did this for years. However, husband fell sick and couldn't work - meaning no salary and no way to replace the kids money at the end of the month.

The teacher ended up getting fired. I still to this day don't know if she ever managed to pay the kids back.

Now I've no idea if this same thing is going on in the situation of the OP, maybe there the teacher has good intentions?

[quandow]

I've worked at five different Thai schools and NEVER saw anything like this. I smell a scam.

[scorecard]

Here's a bit of a twist - the school my two granddaughters attend (not a gov't school) has a small branch of a good mainstream Gov't bank on site.

It's open at lunch time once a week and the staff are senior high school kids from the same school, under the close supervision of a visiting senior staff member from the bank. Teachers are not allowed to be involved and are not allowed to hold the bank books.

The seniors who staff the bank (I think it's 5 kids) rotate every term and on another day each week, at lunch time, they attend a class about banking, run by the senior lady from the same bank.

The kids all have real bank books, they cannot withdraw without a withdrawal slip signed by the kid and a parent (copy of parents ID card on file).

There is no minimum deposit, 1Baht is accepted.

[bigyin]

I have a different take as this happens in the school my step daughter goes to and she has had the money back out. My wife tells me this is quite normal in Thai schools. At 5 baht per day even if it was a scam it's hardly worth getting excited about but there is every chance that it is OK.

[Vogele123]

The junior school where my son went from the age of 4 until about 10 did the very same thing, however, each kid had their own book (kept by the teacher). No interest was ever accrued but the money was available to withdraw given a few days notice - I suspect it is a little scam creaming off interest etc.

There was another "savings" scheme at the same school that was probably more similar to your situation, where two or three times a week the teacher would ask the kids to bring in 5 baht, this was used to treat the kids to food and drink when they used to go out on the odd Friday jolly, it paid for dinner, sweets and Coke etc. (probably the teachers needed to do this otherwise it would have to come out of their own measly salary as the school was pretty mean!)

The 5 baht or so never really bothered me as the teachers there were decent people and there is no way I would even want them to have to shell out money from their own pockets for their pupils.

The Bank book scam is probably worse, if you think that they could be getting 5 baht a day from 200 kids (1000 baht a day, that is almost 300K a year that someone is using freely and collecting interest - I suspect it was the head guy at my sons school)

Some of the other schools in my area operating the same sort of thing have almost 1000 kids!

Edited July 10, 2015 by Vogele123

[lucifer666]

It happens at my missus's school also. Earlier this year they all went to the BKK zoo and the money was used for the childrens treats ( ice creams. drinks, elephant rides, giraffe food ECT)

[NoshowJones]

I've worked at five different Thai schools and NEVER saw anything like this. I smell a scam.

I don't think it was a scam. Some of the childrens parents will know each other and will talk about it, they

would soon know if it was a scam.

[dotpoom]

In a different thread a few days ago I nominated Sr. Joan from Galway, Ireland, as the most wonderful person I have met since coming to Thailand. She has been in Asia for over 50 years taking care of orphans and children from broken families, also children of poor families who's parents both work and need someone to care for the children during their working hours.

When she first showed me around the convent (that had at least 50 children there at the time) she talked to me about a system she had introduced which is the one you are talking about in your OP. I cannot remember all the details now (it was 10 years ago or more) but the jist of it was this. The convent provided all medical care free of charge to all the children and many other things like food and care etc., etc., etc,. One day she decided , as one of life's lessons for the children, to get them all together and point out all the things that was being done for them....then she asked them...."where do they think the money comes from to pay for that" . Obviously, they didn't have a clue, had never thought about it or cared about it. This was an exercise in responisibility and looking after themselves both for the children and for the working parents who had children there. To cut to the chase....she asked each child that went home every night to their families to bring in one Baht every day to pay towards their up-keep. She would also open a sort of account for each individual child if they wanted to bring in a little more like 2,3,4,5, etc., and it would be entered in a book for them which they could check any time they liked. After a period you would be amazed how it caught on and the children slowly began to see their money mounting up. Some of the parents even asked if they could hold an account and the effect was the same on them. After they even began to save up money like it was a bank A/C for their rent etc,.

I'm sure there is more to it than that but that's all I remember about it now. I do remember this however....I remember the joy in Sr. Joan's face and eyes as she was telling me about....and boy....was she a proud lady that it had taken off so well.

[gandalf12]

Are they trying to teach them about handling money?

[Mario2008]

Student accounts at schools are nothing unusual, but should be documented with a bankbook.

The government savings bank for instance has many 'branches" where students deposit money with bankbook at schools.

[Greenhill]

It keeps the teachers and kids occupied and it's better than teaching the curriculum!! We wouldn't want anyone at school to get a headache!!

[quandow]

I have a different take as this happens in the school my step daughter goes to and she has had the money back out. My wife tells me this is quite normal in Thai schools. At 5 baht per day even if it was a scam it's hardly worth getting excited about but there is every chance that it is OK.

One day I made some brownies for my kids. They smelled delicious, fresh out of the oven. They were about to dig in when I told them I put just a tiny bit of dog poop in the batter. They said, "Dog poop? We can't eat these!" I told them the amount was so small that they wouldn't really taste it, but they declined. Even a tiny bit of scam is still dog poop.

I hope I'm wrong as other posters have indicated this happens at other schools. I'd still make sure there's no poop in the batter.

[jacko45k]

Very dubious behaviour.

Surely teachers should not be soliciting money from the kids unless it is for some specific school reason (for a planned outing or general agreed levies).

I might visit the school and ask the head.

[jimmi]

Thank you for the responses. I am not sure if it makes me feel better that other schools are doing this. I agree with Jako, very dubious behavior. If the school plans for a special event, an outing or special treats, I am more than happy to pay my fair share. Two days ago when I went to get my boy from school, I heard the teacher tell my son to "remind" me about the money. He then promptly asked me for money for the teacher. I said no. The teacher may mean well, but I feel there is the opportunity to not correctly document all deposits.

I would like to ask some of the other parents out there where your school did this, what did your child eventually do with the money. Did they take the money out or did the school or class insist it be used for other reasons?

[krabi local]

They have done this at 2 schools I have worked with.

No scam at either of these.

It has been used to show the kids the value of saving and the money can be used by the kids at any time to buy erasers or pencils.

The cash was kept in a petty cash box in the teachers desk and a log was kept of all the transactions.

At the end of term they were all given their money back and the top 3 savers (whoever had most left) got a bonus of some fruit or candy paid for by the teacher,

[Pormax]

The same thing happens in our local infant school.

My wife's neices and nephews attend there.

One of the neices was given her money back at the end of the term .

The other two were told by the teacher that 'she had no money to give them'

According to my wife the same practise has been going on for more than 30 years at this school.

Slight change of subject but again about teachers/schools poor behaviour.

I have my wife's neice living with us after her parents divorced.

She now has only about 6 months at high school before her final exams then it should be off to University.

One would think that like in the UK that the final year is so very important and that a considerable amount of homework would be given out.

Not so, in the last 3 weeks, she has had only 4 hours of home work to do and some of that was just going on the computer and printing stuff off and then handed in to the teacher without being read first.

However last Saturday, she had to go into school for 6 hours to cut the grass in the school grounds.

Today she is back in school to prepare the ground then plant vegetables, no doubt for use by the teachers as there is no such thing as a school canteen where they could be used.

The children are told that if they do not show up on the Saturdays to do what someone should be employed to do, then they will fail their end of term exams.

What a fantastic education system Thailand has!!!!

[JMWPACIFIC]

The teacher's name is Ponzi!