Topic: YES School AKA Yuthawut Suksa

[Uncle Che]

Another message rescued from the old board

Worked at this school for two years. They only had a quota of two WP's and I was the third farang teacher, so they got me a WP from their school in Ubon. We all knew it was illegal, the owner even made jokes with me about if the school passed the EP inspection from the MOE that I would be able to "move" from Ubon because the WP quota would go up. One of teachers with a legal WP resigned and I was promised the heavenly move to BKK. Well, the school gave the WP to another teacher and explained to me my Ubon WP was no problem here in BKK. I kind of lost my temper and called the Thai boss a liar, in Thai, in front of the office staff. Needless to say, they cancelled my WP almost immediately, but didn't inform me until a month later. Asked them politely to pay for the incurred overstay on my visa and they said no.

Moral of this rambling story is:
1. The owner will promise a WP to every white face that walks in. The school's quota is two WP's .......do the math. And at last count he has way more than two working for him.

2. When you go to interview there, ask how many farangs have been there since the school opened (2 years). Then ask why? What didn't they like about the school?

3. The head of the English program has a Doctorate in English. Needless to say, its from India. Its a proud thing to say that many of the G6 and G7 students English is better than his.

4. And lastly, after talking to two lawyers, if an employer terminates your WP BEFORE your last pay stub, they are liable for the minimum of 8 months of the employee's wages in fines to a max of 10 months. Thought about doing it but it would be whipping an already dead horse. Its much more fun to watch someone fudge themselves, the owner doesn't really need my help to do that.

[hotproton]

Hi, all ...

There is a private school, called YES - Youth Exchange School.

****  Do yourself a favor and avoid it like the plague ****

The school cheats teachers of 2 weeks of vacation at the end of their contract.
They do not want to pay and keep saying that "we only pay 2 weeks for foreign teachers."

You will not get to see or keep  a copy of your contract, it is the "school's property".
They also cheat teachers of a promised bonus. And if the person insists, they will make up some
bogus charges - like, "you touched the students", things of a very serious nature, as happened to
another teacher. He was a great guy till he asked for the mentioned 20,000 B bonus.
 
The school is run in an autocratic style, and the management is not receptive to any ideas.
For example, the students' textbooks arrived 3 weeks after the beginning of the semester.
The curriculum would't match with the books.

Please, Mr. XXXXX, behave in an adult and ethical manner.
Give the teachers the money they deserve.

Sincerely, your former employees ....


XXXXX name deleted Mods

[hero]

Sounds like another example of teachers getting treated like shit

I've never heard of this place, where is it?  Purely to satisfy my idle curiosity I'd like more info

[nzteacha]

Hi there,

I had the terrible experience of working at this ridiculous excuse for a school when it first opened in 2003. Needless to say myself and two other colleagues left after 3 months of being constantly lied to, exploited and so on. However, we did manage to get our airfares reimbursed and were let go with a months salary as well. We managed to get this because we basically just sat down one day and refused to teach any more classes after it finally became apparent that we were never going to get our work permits because the school wasn't actually supposed to have foreign teachers working there in the first place. In my experience of working at YES there was a culture of bullying teachers both by the Thai administration and by one foreign teacher in particular. This made it one of the very worst experiences of teaching for me and one that I will not forget for a long time.? I would strongly advise people to avoid working at this school!? There is no real emphasis on providing the students with quality learning experiences, it is all just a farce, everything they do there is done for show. In fact I'm actually amazed to hear that they are still in business. Interestingly after I quit there, quite a number of the Thai teachers left as well. I had one Thai colleague who was a very lovely woman and a wonderful teacher who spoke fantastic english that was treated very poorly and laid off by the management for the most unfairest of reasons. It's all just about how much money they can suck out of unsuspecting parents who genuinely believe that their child will receive a quality education for the amount of money they pay, which is a significant amount in Thai terms.
Avoid this school most definitely, because the levels of stress and despair you will experience are not worth it whatsoever!!!! And as for the curriculum and access to decent teaching material forget it! By the way I still have a copy of my old contract, I guess I've kind of kept it as a reminder of how not to be treated in the future. Perhaps that is why they no longer allow foreign teachers to keep a copy any more because we used our contract to illustrate to the management that they were acting in breach of their contract with us and therefore should reimburse us our airfares and so on. I could go on and on and on listing all the reasons why no-one should ever work there but hopefully I've made that clear enough!? ?You have been warned!

[hotproton]

Salary list :

Fr*** = 38,000 B  -----> A step down from 41,000 B last year
Da*** = 30,000 B

Also, be aware - no sick days. You stay at home, you don't get paid.
5 required Saturdays work
Teaching evaluated by Mr. Ti** , who is a person quite difficult to describe. I'll take a stab at it ... "The Offender of the Universe"
 

[hotproton]

I fully agree with the previous comment.

You will not get a work permit there.

You will get shafted of 2 weeks vacation.
Contract says 4 weeks. Their ads on Internet say 4 weeks.
in practice, they refusse to pay for the 2 week vacation at the end of the contract.

The teaching materials are horrible - for 8th Grade English - 5 hours a week, I received a textbook that barely covered the first semester.

You are not allowed access to copy machines.
There are no printers available to the teacher. Even recycled paper is sometimes hard to come by.

The Thai teachers are treated no better. You'll see teachers crying, having nervous breakdowns ...
I fought the administration an year to get them to supply soap for the bathroom.

One day a week, you'll be expected to do "duty" - wai to the students, wai to the parents, wai to the parents' car, etc.
The contract - forget everything about it. You will not get a second copy. Apparently the owner, knowing he operates under the radar, does not let the farangs a copy of contract.

Boycott this YES School, you will not be sorry.

[Tricky Aspect]

Hello everyone,

I was browsing the forum as a guest when I read this post and had to become a member simply to post a warning about this school.

My girlfriend and I worked there for six months when we first came to Thailand. At first it seemed ok (being newbies), but as time went on we began to see that it was all lies. We were told we would get WPs then we found out they only had the two (as written in the previous post). There is NO material provided to teach. The kept changing the goal posts over vacation and I have to agree with the previous post about how the Thai teachers are left crying and depressed. One of the reasons for this is the owner of the school basicaly traffics people around the world by training them up and sending them of to places like the middle east to work for next to nothing and he reaps the bigger payments. One teacher left to work in America, He would pay for the flights and the oppotunity and she would repay him with pretty much all here wages (He put people in his pocket). HE IS ONE OF THE MOST EVIL MEN TO HIS OWN KIND!!! so you can imagine how he is to Farrang teachers.
Please be warned - Stay Away from Y.E.S school. there are far better schools in the same area, one of which we now have happly worked at for a year and a half!!!

[Tricky Aspect]

This was the worst teaching experience i've ever had too. But the kids were great!

And to think they just built a matyom school along side to drain yet more money out the parents who think their children are learning somthing.

[hero]

I merged two threads here, it seems they refer to the same school.

If I'm wrong let me know and I'll unmerge them

[RobRoy]

Hero,

Yes, they are the same school.  YES and Yuthawut Suksa are the same.  They had to change their name from the original YES to Yuthawut (actually Yuwathoot) Suksa because the MOE would not let them use the YES name.  From what I've heard from pretty reliable sources is that the complete administration has been changed (the owner isn't playing principal anymore) and that they have finally passed their bilingual test by the MOE to be certified as a bilingual school.  I was the poster of the original thread you brought over from the old website and am glad to hear from other teachers that have worked there.  I too miss the students and still live within sight of the school.  Being a newbie and listening to promises from the owner really taught me a lesson about living and teaching in Thailand.  While I'm completely in contempt of the school, I'm happy for the EARLY lessons that it taught me.  And after teaching there for two years, I too miss the students and wish I could visit, but I just don't want to be around a group of money grubbing management type people like that.

Hopefully we will hear from other teachers working there this semester and they will explain how things have changed for the better.  As I said before, the kids are great and they deserve a great school.  Hopefully the change in administration will give the students and the teachers to create a great school.

[RobRoy]

Hero,

Its just off Nuan Chan road in Buengkum...close to Fashion Island...Kilo Pad. 

[traveler]

I was about to apply to this school.  They recently posted a job ad on Ajarn.  I wonder if the situation is better now as Rob Roy suggested a few posts above.

[westernfarang]

Guys & Gals

Be careful of this place, they advertise over 40k, but its really a max of 35k plus housing 3k and medical 2k, but thats not the problem, here is a list

They pay you on the 5th of each month, so if you leave you leave at end of month you leave a months money on the table or at least 5 days

The contract says they can fire/dismiss you with a seconds notice, but get this, then you are in breach of contract and they keep the final months salary

You must give one months notice

They dock you 2k every month for damages, total 20k which you get back at end of contract, if you dont stay well you guessed it you lose it

No holiday pay is every paid you are fired on the day before holiday commences

You could teach KG to grade 12

You must make books to sell to parents

There is no curriculum

You MUST DEPOSIT YOUR ORIGINAL DEGREE AND TRANSCRIPTS FOR SAFE KEEPING, you guessed it, you leave and you leave them behind too!!

You have to do duty every week at 7am to greet the parents and show how subservient you are

THE Teachers however are a great bunch of Guys & Gals trying to their very best, but most teachers dont stay long, the last one two weeks, the one before about a month, the one before less than a month. But its the teachers who are at fault, really avoid unless you have nowhere else to go!!

Like all schools paper work hits you before the last week of term then its a guess, just fill in with a number.


Sounds like a good place to work?!!!!!

[Andy]

Bad school for three teaching years in a row, sounds like a trip to the Hall of Shame is in order.

[RobRoy]

Andy,
Sounds good to me.  While its been awhile since myself and my wife worked there, apparently nothing has changed.  A couple of weeks ago I was doing EP interviews with my current school and had a P6 student from YES that I had taught there.  Her mother basically said the same thing.....the teachers were great, but the administration of the school ...lacked...in basically every regard.  YES is a school that the HoS is designed to highlight.

[RobRoy]

Actually thought about my comment last night...we should get at least one other current teacher's opinion before it goes to the HoS.  After all, the last poster could just be an unhappy camper....just my opinion.....and I really don't like the school!

[angryfarang]

I have a friend there and he says it sucks, also today on Ajarn they want 5 teachers, they only have 6 natives anyway, sounds like the annual cull is about to begin, just before the holiday pay