Sarasas Ektra school currently is posting for 20 new teachers. After that it will post for 20 more and then 20 more etc. Why? After several consecutive years of full time teaching at Ektra School, to include having been lead foreign teacher,? I can point out major problems at the school which account for the high annual turnover of foreign staff. In fact, Ektra always is looking for foreign staff, as some leave after one day, or one week, one month, one semester. This year Ektra needs in the neghborhood of 80 new foreign staff to reach its total need of approximately 130 foreign teachers. Imagine all of the eyebrows that would be raised if Ektra posted for 80 new teachers! Thus, 20, then 20, then 20....
The principal problem is that the foreign teacher is always wrong while the students are always right. One needn't elaborate on this anomaly as to the effects on classroom management and the attempt to present lessons. Second, The school is in a compact space, which means there is noise pollution which is regularly unbearable to foreigners. The reaction of the school is "That's too bad for you. Just get used to it!" The band and chorus, for example, in an adjacent building can be heard in nearby buildings, as can the boom, boom, boom of the drum as scouts rehearse their marching immediately outside the secondary building. The PE area is centrally located on the grounds so, consequently, its noise permates buildings all day. Some foreign teachers wear swimmer's earplugs all day to mute all of this this constant, regular and maddening noise pollution.
Also, most foreign teachers who provide proper departure notice are shorted money when they leave (in a rare exception, I wasn't). Further, at the beginning of each year each foreign teacher begins with a measly Baht 1,500 salary increment to take effect in the contract of the following year (the school has never ending optimism!). However, during the course of the year punative deductions are taken against the Baht 1,500? increment so that typically the foreign teacher ends up with an increase of perhaps Baht 500 (five hundred)
Another major reason is that the secondary school corrdinator is a wild, arbitrary, whimsical man who is known to burst into a classroom, to boistrously direct the foreign teacher to sit down at the back of the classroom while declaring that he will show how to teach the subject to the class (this never happened to me, as he wouldn't have dared!) Secondary students refer to this coordinator, the person in charge of the secondary department of Ektra school, as the Buffalo. This is due to the fact that the human-animal resemblance is remarkably similar and, because of what students think of him personally and profesionally.? He is also know to have the foulest mouth in all of Thailand (I can't speak as to his native Australia, although he has a certai personality type--y'kow?!?.)
Moroever, the school views foreign teachers as intruders into the society and culture of Thailand and has a long-standing, conscious and deliberate policy of reducing and humiliating foreign teachers to show students how dumb foreign teachers (farangs) are and how smart/clever the Thais running the school are. Indeed, one departing teacher during her one and only year commented, "I'm tired of being made to feel guilty," when of course there was nothing in reality for her or, typically, for any foreign teacher to feel "gulty" about. There is a problem but it begins and ends with? the negative attitude of the school toward the foreign teacher(s) (foreign devils).
n short, the school knows it needs English from native speakers of English, but does everything it can to prevent the foreign teacher? from doing any more than teaching some English to students.
FOREIGN TEACHER PUBLICLY CANED: Yes, so bold and aggressive is the Ektra school Thai directoral staff that one morning, during one of 5 morning assemblies each week, one foreign teacher was assaulted from behind , being caned on the back of the right calf by a Thai assistant director. The reason? The foreign teacher, one of many foreign teachers not reciting required public pledges, was singled out? for a public caning before all of the assembled students, Thai teachers and foreign teachers for non-recital of mandatory pledges. At each morning assembly foreign teachers have to recite two of ten weekly pledges, eg, "I will be loyal to your king and country;" "I will be a good teacher;" "I will obey the school's rules," and other like vacuuous platitudes, although Pledge No.1 "I will be loyal to your king and country" clearly is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted by the UN General Assembly effective 1976).. The public caning of a foreign teacher at a public event, ie, a morning assembly is yet another indication of the deliberate, shameless and systemic low regard and abusive treatment Ektra school owners and their top operatives have toward foreign teachers.
FOREIGN TEACHER THREATENED: In the Prathom (primary) school a 2nd grade boy urinated in his pants while in class. As "punishment" the Thai teacher made the boy remove all lower body clothing and required the boy to stand genitals exposed before the whole of the class. When the foreign teacher in the class strenously and vociferously objected, he was swiftly and decisively removed from the classroom building to the director's office. The foreign teacher, a European, spoke of reporting the barbarous treatment of the child to the Ministry of Education. However, the foreign teacher emerged from the director's office pale and gaunt and said nothing for days. The foreign teacher later stated that he had been told to remain silent or suffer the (ultimate) consequence. Many foreign teachers believed that much more than the teacher's job was at stake as a result of his vehement objection to this so-described traditional and customary Thai practice, something one would expect with historical shame to read in a Dickens' novel. Yet, the Chinese-Thai ownership of the school saw the farang's strong reaction as a direct challenge and as a most serious threat to Thai history, customs and tradition.
Do beware these Ektra people......
Topic: Sarasas Schools- All campuses (Read 17509 times)