Course+exams+course=you've got to be kidding me

And another update. The short and not so sweet of it: every foreign teacher's future in Thailand is up in the air. Especially if you have no degree in education and 'just' a TEFL course like me.

The latest can be found here and here and together with the previously posted account of what happens during the cultural course and what goes on at the various farangs in Thailand forums it doesn't paint a particularly rosy picture. For me (BA, work permit/Non B-visa, government primary school) it means this:

*I should first do the infamous cultural course for 3.500 Baht (or since I've refused to sign on for this one, later for +8000 baht in Bangkok) with my own money and in my own time.

*I should pass 4 huge and impossible exams for +1.000 Baht each and pay them again if I fail them even (which is very likely, since the questions I've seen online are either questions about Thai educational law or formulated in a language that only upon close inspection resembles English).

*According to the law as it is I should do all of this before the end of the school year or my visa and therefor my work permit will not be renewed. That's right: only the cultural course does NOT suffice, although at many schools people are being lead to believe differently.

*It is possible (but definitely not certain and not according to the law) that the government will grant last minute temporary licenses (no doubt for at least 500 baht) upon completion of the cultural course which can be used to extend your visa.

*It is possible (but definitely not certain and not according to the law) that the government will grant last minute temporary licenses if you sign on to/pay for the mandatory 1 year universal course in your own free time prior to doing the exams. This enormous course will cost you around 60.000 Baht 144.000 Baht.

This entire route to the coveted teachers license will set me back 8.000 + 4.000 + 500 + s>60.000 Baht 144.000 Baht= approximately 72.000 baht 156.000 baht(say 1.400 euros 3.100 eruos and I could get a real 1 year master's degree for that back home). Mind you, that is without taking into account the fact that I can not work on the side or spend my own time in other ways as I see fit. And it doesn't take into account that you might have to sit those exams again.

I can hear you thinking: what if you just pass those exams in one go. Alright. Let's assume that it's possible. Let's forget about the 95% that failed the exams that were previously held. That route would cost less: 8.000 + 4.000= 12.000 Baht (240 euros). Or cheaper still (had I signed up under the pressure of the Thai teachers): 3.500 + 4.000= 7.500 Baht (150 euros).

But I would still have to pay by myself and lose massive amounts of time doing nonsense. And although I usually do good at exams I'm not so sure I will be able to recall article 56 subsection D of the National Education Act without ever seeing it. Or the answer to any other question geared to making me fail and making me pay for the 60.000 144.000 Baht course for that matter.

Even if the school I work for would be so kind to pick up the tab (snowball's chance in hell), like some private schools have started to do, I would still either lose either tons of secondary income or the basic quality of life I came here for in the first place.

Worst of all: I don't feel like waiting around to see what happens and I simply can't afford to. It won't take long for most farang teachers to realize the same thing. We basically have until March and even that's a stretch...