When this school opened in June of 2004 it had 1 principal and a highly competent group of about 25 native English speakers which were frequently described as one “one of the best groups of teachers seen in a Thai bilingual school”, however, since that time there have been 4 principals and 3 or 4 “academic directors” and only 6 or 7 of the original team of native English speaking teachers are remaining, and that’s in just over 2 years. High staff turn over is nothing new to Thai Bilingual Schools, but most schools at least make an effort to hold on to their best staff. Do you think the teachers that left were replaced by teachers of similar ability? Well, to be fair, some were and some weren’t, but there was no-one talking about “the best group of teachers seen in a Thai bilingual school” last time I was there, and do you think those 6 or 7 remaining teachers are looked after and rewarded for sticking by the school through thick and thin right from the start? Not likely; more likely is that the longer you stay, the more you start to see, realize and know about what is really go on. The more you know about what is really going on, the less you will be wanted. It’s only a matter of a short period of time until the entire original team is gone, the other decent teachers leave, and the entire school is over run with average/below average teachers who can exist happily in the knowledge that no-one around them is any better. “So what’s really going on?” you might ask. Well, in a discussion I once had with some of my former colleagues, the conclusion was reached that not one member of the management team has any experience running a school or any idea of how to do so, and to make matters worse, they actually know it, so anyone who may actually have even half an idea of how to really run a school would absolutely not be welcome at this school because of the risk they pose to showing up the current management. Someone would with any idea of how to run a school would ask questions that the management can’t answer, and would become very unpopular very quickly. This applied to teachers also, to the point that a once very vocal group of British teachers were seemingly silenced by the reality that their difficult questions in staff meetings and constant positive suggestions on how to improve things were not welcome. This school had one guy who could have taken the school forward at an alarming rate but now he’s gone (wonder why?).
Even with all the above in mind, unless someone else knows something I don’t, I don’t think it would be fair to put the school in the “Hall of Shame” after all, being incapable of running a school and not looking after teachers aren't crimes. The school management have been known to go back on their word with airfares. They have also been known to cut down promised holidays for the sake of “training”, and if you want to get paid for teaching extra curricular activities then you are probably going to have to fight for it, but other than that you get your visa, you get paid on time, you get your weekends (mostly), you get some paid holidays, and the work isn’t that difficult. There are worse schools out there.
Topic: Satit Bilingual School of Rangsit University (Read 4275 times)