Part 2. Why I Changed Schools, Isaan Thailand.

I was going to write a few parts of my leaving my last school, Assumption College Ubon Ratchathani but really cannot be bothered going over all the small things that built up and up. If you can be bothered part 1 is here.

I am writing this second instalment as I ran into a group of parents the other day; these are parents of students I used to teach many years ago. I taught them in primary 1 but now they would be primary 4 or 5.

When I left Assumption people knew I was leaving but didn’t know when. Many thought it was the end of the school year being March. But I planned on leaving earlier than that as I had no choice as you will see a little bit later in this post.

So the parents did the usual small talk and asked about the new school and how it was going and so forth. Then they said, ‘it was a shame that I couldn’t agree to stay at Assumption.’

When I enquired to what they meant and they told that the director of the school, Brother Fern had told them this in a meeting, I was gob smacked.

They had been to meet the brother on other issues they were worried about, teaching, and use of books and somehow I was mentioned. I do not need to make anything up, don’t need to lie or pad the story as simple as that.

The parents apparently asked about teachers leaving and mentioned my name. This is when Brother Fern said, “I wanted him to stay, I asked him to stay but he wanted to leave as he was going to get more money.”

What a loud of absolute bullshit! If this fell out of Brother Fern’s mouth I am disgusted as this is a downright lie again.

I had no choice but leave and a pay rise, how about a 4,000 baht pay cut. And when I told the parents what had really happened and why I left they were surprised and maybe a little bemused as well.

Why I left Assumption College Ubon Ratchathani. The final straw came in October, late October into early November. Each year when a teacher finishes their contract they are paid a bonus between 20,000 and 30,000 baht.

My bonus was due late October and the head of the English department I will call Miss B, she was going to be away in America with students, so I asked that she have all the paperwork submitted before she left and I would be able to pick my bonus up on the due date.

Of course it wasn’t done; it really wasn’t a big problem. Then the students and Miss B were stuck in America after missing a flight, they then had to stay another 10 days or so. When she finally arrived back at school I asked her to get my bonus payment organised.

So a week went by, and I asked if it was ready yet, it was waiting for Brother Fern to approve, once he signed the paperwork the money would be ready. It was around then another teacher alerted me to something that made me see red.

Another teacher had their bonus deducted, your bonus can be deducted for many different reasons listed in the conditions of the bonus, one is for each sick day you have. Now this is a load off bullshit in itself as you have 7 paid sick days per year, in 5 years I had 4 sick days. The amount deducted is between 700 – 1,000 baht per day you have off sick depending on your bonus.

Now this teacher had never had a sick day, he always hands in all his work, does a lot of extra work for the school and so forth. So I could not understand why his bonus was deducted.

I went to see him. I asked him straight. “Was your bonus deducted?” He replied, ‘Yes, it was.’

“Why did they deduct it?” I asked. He replied, ‘They took 5 days as I didn’t sign in the first week of school.’

School started on the 10th of May 2010. That was the first day of school when the students came back. In our contract it states we must have 11 weeks holiday per year. To complete our 11 weeks holiday for the year meant we did not have to be back until the 10th of May.

This was worked out in a meeting we had on the 03/03/2010 just before we broke up and went on holidays. In that meeting chaired by Miss B we discussed collecting all the books and CDs and tapes and place on the head’s desk. Summer course dates for students who failed and needed extra credits, report cards for students and the sign in time as the students were no longer at the school.

How do I know all of this? I have always taken notes of every meeting I attended at Assumption, right back to the first year I was there. I learnt the importance of diaries and note taking in my old job and have always recorded everything that might be needed at a later date.

Anyway, Assumption College wanted to deduct 5 days, from the dates the 3rd to the 7th of May 2010. The Thai teachers had to be back then as they had books to sell and also prepare for classes. Of course preparing for classes is important and I had already done this.

So I approached Miss B and said to her, “The school cannot and will not deduct money from my bonus for the dates 3rd to the 7th of May” and went through the notes of the meeting and what she had told us in that meeting on the 03/03/2010 about the starting dates.

After making sure she understood everything, I asked her to relay this to the administration and the people who arrange the bonus and also brother.

So time goes by, about a week and I finally got the “your bonus is ready.” I made my way to the finance department and the lady who is lovely and I have never ever had a problem with ever, found the sheet needed to be signed and handed it to me.

I looked at it and I think for the first time ever in that office I swore, and loud. I think my words were, “what the fu#k is this? Why has 6,000 baht been deducted?”

Now the lady who has nothing to do with this other than handle the money found the details for the bonus. And there in black and blue was 5,000 baht for the week of 3rd to the 7th of May 2010 and another 1,000 baht for a sick day. The sick day I could not have given a rat’s ass about. It was the week that made me see red.

I made my way back to the English department, pulled the head of the department aside and asked pretty much, “what the fuc#en hell was going on? Did she explain everything to them?” I was assured she had and she was sorry but Brother had to treat us like any other teacher, such as the Thais or Filipinos.

Now I was ready to blow as I have never expected to be treated any different from any person be them teachers, waiters or a street sweeper. I asked, “what that meant?” And when I was fed that the Thai and Filipino teachers had to sign in from the 3rd of May; I did blow.

Miss B, we were not told that we had to sign in on the 3rd, you told us the 10th and that is when the 11 weeks of holidays went to. I again went over the meeting, the contract and what she said and I had recorded in my diary.

By now, she was nearly in tears, she was sorry and again said she had told the people but this was their decision. Miss B has been great to me over the years; there were times where we also were not speaking. But I respected the hard job she had. She had foreign teachers who expressed their ideas and thoughts, people who would say “no” if we didn’t agree with something.

The Thai teachers and Filipino teachers don’t do this. There is one Filipino teacher at the school stuck so far up the ass of the hierarchy you would not be able to suck him out with a plunger. Miss B doesn’t have these sort of people and never will.

I pretty much realised there and then that I would have to go and see the brother myself, sit down, show him my diary, the contract and explain it as simply as possible that what Assumption was doing was wrong.

And that is what I did, I walked across to his office, saw his secretary and with luck he was in and had no one with him.

What happened in the meeting will be part 3. For another day but he did not beg me to stay but I am sure as soon as I walked out, he had decided to get rid of me, but that is my opinion.

Brunty