Teaching waivers - Who is actually being turned down?

[BruceMangosteen]

A friend of mine is onto his fourth contract now and hasn't had any issues regarding his waivers. It's never even mentioned unless he asks about it.

It is quite normal to get two, two year waivers. Our context is getting the third, fourth onward without enrolling in or graduating from, a real or Thai University(apx. 150,000.Baht) and showing progress towards a degree with a major in Education. Thanks for your contribution, please ask your friend about the fifth year.

[alex88]

A friend of mine is onto his fourth contract now and hasn't had any issues regarding his waivers. It's never even mentioned unless he asks about it.

It is quite normal to get two, two year waivers. Our context is getting the third, fourth onward without enrolling in or graduating from, a real or Thai University(apx. 150,000.Baht) and showing progress towards a degree with a major in Education. Thanks for your contribution, please ask your friend about the fifth year.

Each of his contracts have only lasted one semester. He has only been here 1.5 years but is already onto his fourth waiver.

[BruceMangosteen]

Each of his contracts have only lasted one semester. He has only been here 1.5 years but is already onto his fourth waiver.

Got our adviso, many thanks. One could think the TCT has it together enough to count the number of years total, despite changing schools, but one could also think all this stuff is linked in the Thai system. It was also mentioned some place that if you get a new passport, you may start the waiver restrictions/limits/requirements over again. So, just collecting information and experiences. Cheers.

[alex88]

Each of his contracts have only lasted one semester. He has only been here 1.5 years but is already onto his fourth waiver.

Got our adviso, many thanks. One could think the TCT has it together enough to count the number of years total, despite changing schools, but one could also think all this stuff is linked in the Thai system. It was also mentioned some place that if you get a new passport, you may start the waiver restrictions/limits/requirements over again. So, just collecting information and experiences. Cheers.

If a new passport is all it takes that is a very interesting possibility to keep in mind for the future.

[Scott]

A new passport used to work, but I think they use a different tracking system, so that might not work.

The waiver is not given to the teacher, it is given to the school to employ a teacher without a License. That is the reason when you leave a school the waiver expires and the next school has to apply for another waiver.

Where I work, the school pays whatever costs are associated with a waiver, but doesn't pay for a Teacher's License because the TL actually belongs to the teacher and that goes with the teacher when they leave.

[bangmai]

Is it possible to get a TL before you seek employment? That's generally how it is done in the US; except it is often called "certification."

[Jay1]

Is it possible to get a TL before you seek employment? That's generally how it is done in the US; except it is often called "certification."

Think you need evidence of 1 year teaching at a Thai school first.. So would need to begin with a waiver, and it's the school who applies for and who the waiver belongs to so would have to be employed first Edited February 13, 2016 by Jay1

[bangmai]

That's a shame, because it would give a lot of leverage to those teachers, who play by the rules, as opposed to those schools, who do not. It would also reduce a ton of paperwork for the schools. An independent licensing body, issuing licenses to individual teachers would be logical (not that logic means anything).

[attrayant]

Logic means nothing and schools love paperwork. At my school there are some weekly reports all teachers must generate -get this- entirely by hand. In most countries, hand-written office/business reports became extinct with the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century, over 100 years ago.

[BruceMangosteen]

Logic means nothing and schools love paperwork. At my school there are some weekly reports all teachers must generate -get this- entirely by hand. In most countries, hand-written office/business reports became extinct with the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century, over 100 years ago.

Do the foreigners have to also produce weekly reports, written by hand or otherwise? One would assume this policy was introduced by the Director as a form of discipline and/or punishment. Despite what many on here think, not all Thai teachers as exactly happy with the situations they find themselves in.

[attrayant]

Can't speak for other departments, but all teachers in my department (the English Program) must do it for each subject they teach, so for me that's six or seven reports every week. Then it gets handed to the head teacher who briefly scans it - not actually reading it, just momentarily glancing at it to verify it's been done - and gives it back to us to file away into the teaching plan for that subject. Then at the end of the term all the teaching plans (a hundred page document, give or take) gets tossed into the recycle box.

Yes it does feel like a punishment - doing manual labor that generates no benefit and goes directly into the trash can.

[BruceMangosteen]

Can't speak for other departments, but all teachers in my department (the English Program) must do it for each subject they teach, so for me that's six or seven reports every week. Then it gets handed to the head teacher who briefly scans it - not actually reading it, just momentarily glancing at it to verify it's been done - and gives it back to us to file away into the teaching plan for that subject. Then at the end of the term all the teaching plans (a hundred page document, give or take) gets tossed into the recycle box.

Yes it does feel like a punishment - doing manual labor that generates no benefit and goes directly into the trash can.

But you do it? Where I've been, the NES's and other "westerners" would refuse to do such a thing. Only the Filipino's and other non Native Speakers who actually were paid as I've mentioned, triple upwards of their home country wages, would succumb to such a thing. Your previous post indicated it was a school policy but now I read it as if a department thing? If it isn't even read the refusal to do it seems quite in order. It will not and doesn't ever stop. The other topic on extra duties and expectations applies to this as well. The foreigner must just ignore the demand for such puppet string duties. She is only being made to look subservient to the Thai's. Of course, saying that, as was also mentioned elsewhere, we have "teachers" here without even 20,000.Baht to their name.

Edited February 14, 2016 by BruceMangosteen

[attrayant]

I initially did it when I started three three years ago, but nobody ever said how verbose we need to be, so as the weeks and months passed I began to submit highly abbreviated reports.

Minimum wage = minimum effort.