The new Thai teachers' license

Teaching in Thailand means paperwork. And as of januari 2008 it is not only your degree which ties in with your contract which ties in with your non immigrant B visa which ties in with your work permit in various ways depending on the province you live in, what kind of school you work in and how lucky you are in the gouvernment officials you meet.

The new part of the equasion is the teachers' license and a new set of rules surrounding that piece of paper. For horror stories, panic and angry discussions you can head for the forums here and here.

Or you can save yourself a lot of heartache and just wait. Do nothing. And especially: don't give anybody any money. This is good advice folks. You could worry about the 'cultural course' you need to take. The fact that you might not have worked in Thailand for a year yet (which you need to have done to take the course). The four exams. The masters university course that takes about a year. The exam that goes with that. And the money it will all cost you. But the fact of the matter is that at this time the whole thing is up in the air.

The Ministry of Education plus the Teachers' Council are bending over backwards trying to figure out this mess before all the teachers leave. (Or so I am told by someone Thai who knows some one who is related to someone who is someone in the MOE). Other fact is that there is a big wack of money to be made and teachers are already being pushed in taking and paying for courses sarting in the first week of April.

Yes: they are trying to up the ante as to get rid of the beer money teachers. So if you if you got your degree at the University of Ko San Road, you are probably in big trouble or you'll be teaching at home only. But if your papers are legit you have no reason to start packing yet. Also there is (in my humble opinion) no reason to start taking any of the courses and paying big money, because it is very likely that within the time you get to jump through these hoops (anywhere between one and three years), the rules will be changed to accommodate everybody again. You can get all the other paper work done with a receipt that shows you have registered as to later definitely take this course somewhere maybe never.

I have been lucky enough to have seen seen how the course is layed out and I've also seen the the curriculum. It's contents is completely pointless, the exams preceed the course and it can't hold a candle to any TEFL course. Can you spell E-X-E-M-P-T-I-O-N? Furhtermore the whole Masters degree in Education thing is going to be axed because it's too much, too expensive and nobody wants a Thai Masters degree anyway. And if you already have one you are probably in Japan making the big Yen. So everybody sit thight and don't pay. You guys who've paid already: don't pay any more. Deal?!

Let's wait for them to come up with a realistic and reasonable reform that is in touch with the problems present in Thai schools today. And if they don't we'll just leave after a year :)