Teacher Qualifications, Cheering, Paperwork, Casino and Holiday, Isaan Thailand.

Well it has been a while since updating, not a lot has been happening really. I have been spending plenty of time with my niece and Miss Noot as well.

We are coming into what I call the “silly season” as we have so many things happening at the school that we hardly seem to teach this last semester.

Starting next week we start cheering practice, which I can only describe as absolutely mind numbing. For a week our periods are cut 10 minutes shorter, break times are reduced and then for the last hour of each day, from 3.00pm to 3.50pm it is cheering time.

In this time the students will sit in their team colour and go over various chants for sports day. The thing that kills me is, it is the same chants every year. They never seem to change. And you look at the students faces and 90% of them just do not want to be there.

We had our staff meeting on Wednesday; this is meant to be a weekly event but sometimes turns monthly when we are really lucky. There was the usual tripe about us doing a great job and so on and so on and then we were hit with more paperwork.

At school teachers will have between 15 – 20 contact hours, actually in the classroom face to face teaching. I teach 20 contact hours. We start work at 7.45am and clock out at 4pm making it an 8hr and 15 minute day. We have 1hr for lunch and two 15 minute breaks, so in all we are required to work 6hrs and 45 minutes. But in reality no teacher is near this as we all arrive early and work most of our lunch hour and break times trying to keep up with paperwork.

Planning lessons, making worksheets, correcting, photocopying, browsing the internet researching and so on takes up so much time but on top of this we have to do so much paperwork.

The powers who be, who sit in their office and don’t have to teach keep hitting us teachers with more and more paperwork. Most of it to me is unnecessary. It is usually to show committees that come to the school, to show them how wonderful our department is.

What it means now, that I cannot make extra worksheets for my classes to cover topics in more depth. It means I have less time to research topics I am teaching. It means I teach less in the classroom and use some of my 50 minute period to correct work.

What it comes down to is the students are missing out. They are suffering as some blue collar tits want paperwork. There was a day I used to give so much of my own time but not anymore, now I do my job 100% in the time available.

Also many teachers are pissed about all the rules brought on by the Teacher’s Council Thailand (TCT) and the Ministry of Education (MOE). They introduced a Thai Culture Course that every teacher at kindergarten, primary and high school level, they must take to get their visa to work. It costs anywhere between 2,500 – 5,000 Thai baht depending on where you take the course.

Then you have to add in travel expenses, accommodation, food and so forth for the two days away (No courses in most parts of Thailand, only Bangkok and some of the other major cities). It becomes an expensive weekend on a certificate that is useless anywhere but Thailand.

Most people have said it is a money making scheme and this seems to be the case, as when you look at the course structure it is absolutely tripe. If you were new to Thailand, just off a plane then maybe you might learn something small, but for most it is just frustrating bullshit.

And once you have this qualification you are still required to sit 4 more exams to get a teacher’s licence. These exams cost 2,000 baht per test, fail or pass, and reading what has been written and the pass and failure rates they are near impossible to take. Every two years you have to show the TCT that you are trying to become qualified. That means sitting one exam every two years.

You can take a course that all Thai teachers are required to take. The Thai teachers pay 20,000 Thai baht I think, but for a foreigner they pay 50,000 baht up, for exactly the same course. Why the difference, it fucks me.. The same as when you go to a national park and pay 10 times more or to a toilet and you pay 5 baht but a Thai pays 2 baht.

And even if you do this course you still have to pass the 4 tests to get your teaching licence. And when you do qualify it will be recognised across the world, okay I am just bullshitting you, after you have spent say in excess of 60,000 Thai baht or around $3,000 Australian dollars the qualifications you have will mean absolutely shit anywhere else in the world but The Land of Smiles. The people doing this must be insane.

What many teachers are doing now are getting waivers, each teacher new to a school gets a two year waiver to become qualified. But what the majority of them are doing is either; going to a new school every two years or taking a test and then retesting at the end of the two year time period. Some teachers are paying for the exam, showing up, signing their name and then leaving as they get their two year waiver.

The easiest thing to avoid all of this is work for a language school or tertiary level, so teach at a university as you are not required to have any of this. The universities didn’t agree with the TCT or MOE on teachers being required to have these qualifications.

There is a shortage of teachers in Thailand, many schools have vacancies and there will be more positions next year as more government schools will be teaching maths, science, English in English. This means more native speakers.

But schools will still take of foreigners without these requirements, I know of some who teach without the required work visa, but retirement or say a marriage visa, they get cash each month and they and the school are happy. This will just continue on.

Anyway, enough on that as even I am bored.

At home things are great, we are spending lots of time together, I don’t bring any work home anymore, haven’t for a while now. We get out as much as we can on weekends, even if it is just window shopping at one of the shopping centres or markets or out to a new restaurant for lunch.

This weekend is Loy Kratong but I am not going into that here. It is on Sunday night and Noot will be going out to see her grandfather, to pay respect to him and coming back mid week. I will hang around here and go and watch my daughter (Noot’s younger sister) Benjawan dancing at Rajabhat University. Taking a few pictures of the night as there is always something interesting to photograph.

At Christmas we are lucky as we get a holiday from the 25th till the 4th of January, so 10 days off. We are thinking of going across to Laos, Savannakhet to the Sawan Vegas Hotel and Casino. I only become aware of it as I saw the VIP bus driving around here in Ubon Ratchathani. Googled it and wow, what a place to get away for a few days. When mentioned to a few people, there was a couple who have been there and stayed and said it is very nice.

I am looking forward to a small punt, a game of golf and just getting away from Thailand for a few days. Just have to wait and see if this all pans out as things change so quickly in Thailand and we could end up going anywhere or staying home, depending on my better half.

Well that is it, enough for now.

Brunty