Topic: Background Checks Revisited

[retiredstillteaching]

The only question as far as I'm concerned is who pays? If the employer requires we do something that costs money, the employer should pay.

Yes, a police background check in any country is a safety precaution, but who has to prove him/her self? We do. That places the presumptive burden on us, we teachers.  Accordingly, at a minimum, the employer should pay.

[Thai Me Up]

The only question as far as I'm concerned is who pays? If the employer requires we do something that costs money, the employer should pay.

Yes, a police background check in any country is a safety precaution, but who has to prove him/her self? We do. That places the presumptive burden on us, we teachers.  Accordingly, at a minimum, the employer should pay.

When I started working as a student tutor in 1973 in NYC, I had to pay 25 cents and swear that I wasn't a member of the Communist Party and that I wasn't plotting to overthrow the US Government.  I also needed a TB test and had to pay a little money to be fingerprinted three times - once for the NYPD, once for the State Police, and once for the FBI.  retiredstill, I like you, but is paying for a police clearance letter, medical exam, or university transcript really a deal breaker for you if a school or university requests you provide the same?

[SusanRichardson]

(duplicate post, just looking for some answers, please excuse me)
Has anyone heard of a teacher actually being denied an extention of her VISA because of a lack of a police clearance?

I was also informed that the new guidelines required a TEFL "Certificate" with some number of hours, a real college degree from an English speaking country, a culture awareness class certificate(about Thai culture),  and, lastly to my shock, that the teacher be a Native English Speaker. When all these are met, you will be paid the same wage as previously when none of these may have been met.

Please confirm or refute these aspects. Thanks. Susan, a woman in distress.

[SusanRichardson]

If the criminal check is less than say eighty dollars or forty pounds, and only has to be paid by the teacher once in five years, that is a reasonable fee to be able to show "I am not a paedo."  That assumes that the check can be gotten when the teacher is outside their earlier country, etc.

But then we have the Thais.  Thais who usually do not know about time zones, the internet, or the difference between Scotland Yard and the FBI.  Thais who are too ignorant or lazy to do anything more than operate a Thai school in the most terrible fashion.  Thai police who know how to dress up for a press conference after they catch paedo #103, but not how to read a background check off a computer screen.

By all means, set up a good system to vet foreign teachers (and Thai teachers!).  But they will not do so.  They will continue placing Thai citizens at risk at school, who ride to school on motorcycles without helmets, or who ride buses that are dangerously driven by untrained drivers.

What good is a criminal check from five years ago?

In addition, you didn't mention corporal punishment, the hitting of children by Thai teachers(and a few farangs). This is rumored to be illegal and in some circles thought of as child abuse and even clinically described as sexually motivated by some shrinks. So, we have the police wanting teachers to prove their backgrounds yet the same police ignoring this abuse and possible motives associated with same, by their own citizens/Thai teachers. Susan 

[SusanRichardson]

buses that are dangerously driven by untrained drivers.

BTW, flip flops are indeed considered safe and suitable for driving a public bus/song tow and even for work at a construction site. Susan

[Thai Me Up]

BTW, flip flops are indeed considered safe and suitable for driving a public bus/song tow and even for work at a construction site. Susan

You don't like flip flops that Thais wear?  Why don't you start a campaign to help Thai workers buy proper footwear?  And those Filipinos and Thais switching those students!  It's simply ghastly, ghastly I say.  I daresay these Thais are such uncivilized brutes.  And with all their teacher's license requirements.  Why, it's simply devilish of these heathens to require a teacher to hold a "real" degree and a police clearance letter.  This is all such a dreadful inconvenience Susan, dreadful.  Not to mention all those slimy teacher's agents working out of their taxi stands.  Why, I don't know if they're advertising teachers or trips to houses of ill repute at times.  They should all be locked up, the key thrown away.

[SusanRichardson]

You don't like flip flops that Thais wear?  Why don't you start a campaign to help Thai workers buy proper footwear? 

Sorry you mis-understand. It is not a financial issue, they can afford proper footware. It is the prefered choice and a result of not caring about injury and/or death. Just look at how they drive if you remain confused. There is no concern for human life or injury on the highways or work places. Susan

[Thai Me Up]

You don't like flip flops that Thais wear?  Why don't you start a campaign to help Thai workers buy proper footwear? 

Sorry you mis-understand. It is not a financial issue, they can afford proper footware. It is the prefered choice and a result of not caring about injury and/or death. Just look at how they drive if you remain confused. There is no concern for human life or injury on the highways or work places. Susan

From switching students to flip flops to your dismissive comments about Thai people.  Susan, you are living and working in a Third World country now.  If you want to apply your Western standards of "properness" to Thailand, you are going to be very dissatisfied with your experiences here.  Oh, and do you know how much those construction workers earn each day, the ones who "can afford proper footware?"

[Topper]

TMU,

I've never seen or heard of a Filipino teacher using a switch or even condoning it....another pathetic dig at the admin?

But I've got to agree with rest of the post.

Susan,
I want to do everything I can to help a fellow teacher, but the first thing everyone should realize is that Thailand isn't England, America or even Finland.  The construction workers here at the most are paid 200 baht/day.  I know, I've been there when they were being paid at a school that was adding a building where I worked.  I think it would be hard to buy a pair of steel toed boots on those wages and still be about to afford everything else.

If you have specific questions you would rather not post publicly to maintain privacy, you are welcome to PM them to any member of the mod team.

[SusanRichardson]

I see bus drivers wearing flip flops. These are the government buses and song tows. These drivers could certainly afford a proper pair of shoes for driving.

Lets leave the construction site safety alone. It is a sad sight as most know. A discussion for another forum.

The lack of concern for ones own safety and that of others is most certainly obvious in Thailand. Much more so than other "third world" countries. I don't know why this is, I'm only a guest.

Susan