Dear fellow teachers.
Our goal in Thailand is...overall, very common...We are here because it is a beautiful land and we care about its children and educational future. What's making life difficult is the capacity of the administration at most schools. I am a teacher who, until very recently, worked for a Sarasas school. The reason I resigned was obvious, if you'd care to look at the numerous posts left by the 'resigned staff' from those schools. Along with over fifty dedicated staff, our reasons for creating this post is to ask you all...all of 'US', to come together and not just express our grievances, but to act towards a resiliant strategy which will help the admin in most of these schools lift their heads up out of their common fear-based belief systems and join us as one. Whether you are a Philippino, a Thai or a 'Farrang', our goals as teachers are the same. Sadly, Thailand still believes that 'height is right' in most cases, so Thai staff are susceptable to falling victim to pleasing the 'height' in their school. They will learn from us and hopefully create less choices from their fear of termination and more decisions based on what is healthiest for their schools and their foreign staff......and students. As for the rest of us, we need to understand that the reason why Thailand is still, after centuries of development, a developing country, is because of the ancient belief windows through which most Thais look at the world..."If it doesn't quiver, leave it. If it causes a problem, discard it, If it smiles with fruitlesness...just smile and maintain the peace." If we are to be content teachers here, we must either accept it as it is, or do our best to make it not only tolerable for ourselves, but even pleasurable....not only for the first few months of naive and 'exotic' new experiences this beautiful place has to offer us all. The Thai educational community needs our help. This ENTIRE forum is about teaching...this one in particular is about Thailand's teaching problems and a good example.....people are crying out for help. I came to this country years ago and have been teaching for a long time. I have seen the respect for our farrang staff go from being abundant to seeing Thai admin try and put us more in line with their own, quivering staff. This won't do. Bottom line: The foreign staff in Thailand MUST form a unison of support. Even if it is as a small group. Certainly, democracy at this capacity will appear foreign to Thais for a while, however they must learn this if they are to help their future generations live in comfort AND speak in fluent, unbiast English. We must choose what we do carefully and not think of ourselves as individual teachers with differing problems. This forum is a blatant example of the mentality we are up against. Why is it that we must hide away under this cyber-rock to speak out......that's the Thai way and we are conforming unecessarily. Our two cultures must come together in a healthy compromise so that we both can live in comfort and professional peace. The white face is like a flag in your school that brings in good money for your school owner's pocket. You are very valuable and although you can be replaced, you must remember that your replacement may NOT be in the your kids' highest interest, or Thailand's bilinbgul future.....hence stronger economy etc. (After all, what kind of basis and foundations are being left in the eyes of these children when not only many of their parents are away but then have to deal with inconstent teacher-student raport as well).? To give you and example of HOW we may repair this over-stayed, destructive pattern....please read the following:
I left Romklao....Sarasas, three months ago. While I was there, I noticed a high turn over of staff. The good teachers stayed a lot longer than the rest but still not long enough. Suddenly, Thai Admin decided ALL foreign coordinators should be dismissed, bar one, (who's job it was to liase between three schools of the Sarasas chain in area 5), and the foreign staff were suddenly being represented by Thai coordinators who were swiftly put in their place if suggestion of any discomfort from farrangs was suggested. Surprisingly and certainly what seems to be a first for our teachers, a group of young, foreign staff members bonded together and formed a small commitee. They compiled a letter asking for some changes that would make Thai admin stick to its schedule relating to annual leave dates. (Many staff had planned flights out of the country and they changed the dates, whereby several days were deducted for no reason other than making us stay at school for the sake of it......no students etc). The letter was received by a very senior admin lady and promptly dismissed so it never reached the director. So, a petition was written asking for the school to recognize its errors in constantly changing leave dates and inconveniencing staff throughout all three schools. (The same director runs three in area 5). Out of 107 staff, over 80% signed the paper. And, the Nimitmai staff supported the petition also by starting their own...totalling over 100 supportive staff. To cut the long story short, the school apologized, stated they would offer prior notice with future leave changes, gave ALL three schools three days extra of undisturbed leave and offered a memo to this effect to ALL THREE schools....even the one that wasn't aware of the problem because it was being filled with newcomers from overseas who had no idea what their 'rights' were. Moral of the story?.....Stick together and you WILL get what is fair. Another example....the bus that Sarasas Nimitmai lost....causing farrang teachers to catch taxis to their school, (which breached their contracts),......their bus was reinstated because a group of staff at a close by school offering a petition of support. The bus WAS reinstated but the Philippino staff are now NOT allowed to ride on it. (One step at a time). What was wonderful was that both schools wrote something to the admin and something was DONE about the problem.
DON'T think you are alone. Look at the poll on this board about dishonourable conduct with contracts and salary problems etc. Please support your fellow teachers because you are actually supporting yourself in the process.....and let's not allow these problems to fester and continue to create a high turnover of staff at our schools. The youth of this country needs to learn not only what is in books but also to believe in their role-models and how to become fair and just people. If we continue to leave them because of adimin's decisions without a fight because of the mentality that we are in 'their country and must bow to their ways'.......what kind of role models are we? Let's do this....together. Please EMAIL me with and ideas you may have. Thailand deserves it!
Topic: NEW-Teachers uniting for first time-PLEASE READ (Read 8378 times)