ศาลาชุมนุม

[KruThomas]

For all of you who are interested in teaching in Thailand, there have been a few changes since the beginning of 2010.

The Teacher's Council of Thailand has decided to enforce the rules that they established a couple of years ago.

FYI, The Teacher's Council approves all requests for Teacher's Licenses before they go to the Ministry of Education for issuance of said License. This is the first step in getting your Work Permit and Visa. If you don't meet their criteria, you won't get a license nor work permit nor visa.

The rules can be found at http://www.pathum2.net/grp4/pvcht(E).pdf

The major change is that you can no longer come to Thailand with just any Bachelor's Degree and expect to teach. They want people here who have BEd or MEd degrees and preferably current Teaching Certificates from their home countries.

If you do not have an education degree, there is still a way to teach. However, it will cost you 60,000 baht to take the courses. You will get a Thai Teaching Certificate that is only good in Thailand.

There is still some confusion about the requirement to have 1 year previous teaching experience in Thailand if you don't have an education degree. I will post more as I find out more.

You can check on http://www.ajarn.com for more information, but be advised: Ajarn.com is an open board and there is a lot of misinformation up there.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I will try to answer them, but as I said, the information available is still confusing. It appears that there will be a shortage of qualified teachers soon as many people don't want to pay the money for the classes to get a piece of paper that is only good in Thailand. We are waiting to see what happens.

[mangkorn]

"...there has been a few changes..."

Written by a teacher.

[David and Bui]

Khun Mangkorn:

Perhaps the writer is British. With respect to verb/noun agreement following the word "there", there is this from http://www.corollarytheorems.com/Gramma ... ve1_q9.htm

"As you can see, even the English Language Authorities[stunning!] either British or American are of different opinions on this subtle grammatical point. What I am trying to say here is that, it would be morally wrong and unfair of you to give me an answer that has even a hint of harshness and meanness ...""

I am loath to discuss English grammar at all in these forums because my personal failings in this area are particularly glaring. But you did raise the point . . . .

"...there has been a few changes..."

Written by a teacher.

[R.E.G.]

Khun Mangkorn:

http://www.corollarytheorems.com/Gramma ... ve1_q9.htm

"...there has been a few changes..."

Written by a teacher.

Either it has been changed to read 'have been' or it was never 'has been' .
Thanks for the reference David I do enjoy reading that stuff.
Reminds me of the งูมีอยู่ทัวไป post; I would say that มีอยู่ appears to be the equivalent of 'There are' = 'they exist'; no 'there' in the meaning at all.

[Glenn Slayden]

Perhaps we could reply on-topic to the OP. He is a long-time, close personal friend of mine from Seattle who has been teaching in Thailand for many many years now, and from whom I'd like to encourage further participation here. I'm sure we would all benefit from that. Thomas is not in fact British, but rather in this case fell victim to, I'm sure, the type of slip-of-the-finger to which we are all subject, from time to time.

[John]

Thank you Kru Thomas,

I see a retirement dream slipping away.

Are these requirement motiivated by high educational standards or protectionism for Thais who teach English?

[David and Bui]

John,

You could teach English to dentists at one of the medical schools. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_me ... s#Thailand

I suspect that one of these schools would be very happy to have you!

[John]

David,

A dental school sounds like a good option. Hopefully someday . . .

The list of medical schools is interesting. There sure are a lot of them.

[KruThomas]

I thought I would post an update on the status of teaching in Thailand.

Things are quite messy now if you don't have an education degree (BE or ME) or a teaching certification from your home country.

As I mentioned before, the Thai Teacher's Council mandated that every foreign teacher in Thailand either have a 1) BE or ME, 2) Certification to teach from their home country, or 3) take a series of courses to get a Thai teaching certificate. All of the courses in Thailand for this teaching certificate have been recently decertified by the Council. So the only option available to us already working here and not meeting either 1 or 2 is to study online. The Teacher's Council has approved degrees from online institutions in the US for 2 teachers at my school so far and issued five-year teacher's licenses. These five-year licenses are good anywhere in Thailand, so that is very nice. (Previously, your license was only valid in the province where it was issued.)

My school had several other teachers whose licenses were up and they didn't meet the requirements for a five-year license. The teachers were very worried that their visas would be cancelled. Fortunately the Thai guy at my school who interfaces with the Teacher's Council was able to sweet talk them into giving the teachers 3 month extensions. You have to be enrolled in a course to get a 2 year temporary license. So now those teachers are getting themselves enrolled. (You have to finish the course within 2 years too.)

Some good news: If you are interested in getting a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from the UK, you can now do that in Bangkok. It is very pricey, £2,900, but probably a good value as it is recognized all over the world.

So, the good news is you can still teach in Thailand as long as you have a Bachelor's Degree. But you will need to get a teaching certificate to stay teaching in Thailand for more than two years.

And of course, this information is only valid today! 10/5/10. Everything could change tomorrow. Afterall, this is Thailand!

[balvisT]

thanks for your great information