Believe it not


Thailand is desperately seeking Aussie to come and Fix the English conversation problems
The country developing population is starved of real English speaking people.. what the!

Many people from other Asean countries are dashing in with false "certificates" suggesting they have English speaking skills, when in fact they

Believe it or not .. if you made it thru High School then your a High profile candidate for a well paid andcertainly much acknowledged service Provider to the Thailand Government

Teaching is little more than showing a little patience, speaking slowing, clearly and refer to the basic skills sets / learning books provided and ofcourse smile and encourage development. Actually you just need to be ready to talk a lot!!!
 
The great rewards
you will be mushly recognised as a champion by the people and the Government will not forget you good deeds.
Oh yeah, the money is good (see news report below) and bonus you experience wonderful Thai culture, Thai Politeness, Community Respect, Great food and always warm weather

so as the Aussie tourism slogan said (badly) "so what are you bloody waiting for" !.. .this is Amazing

A Chance of a lifetime - working holiday - easy job - helping Community

The prerequisites for the job are nowhere as demanding as you might think
If you are interested please: join this forum (you will receive news bulletins) and "reply" to this post with any queries so we can find out more (if the demand is shown).



See the news report below Published 

November 1, 2010  
State schools worry lack of native speakers may reduce quality of courses if many more institutions are allowed to run such classes

October 11, 2010
It's too soon to declare English the second language for teaching in schools, Office of the Education Council (OEC) secretary-general Tongthong Chandransu said recently.


November 1, 2010  
State schools worry lack of native speakers may reduce quality of courses if many more institutions are allowed to run such classes

The number of Thai-English schools in the country has risen to 331 in response to growing demand. And 60 more schools are seeking approval for plans to run an English programme or mini-English programme. While students of current bilingual programmes have demonstrated satisfactory qualities including fine academic performances and self-confidence, the rising popularity of bilingual schools has raised concerns as to whether the quality will drop.

A key concern is that the pool of qualified native English speakers in Thailand is very limited. This is partly because remuneration packages for teaching foreigners are much higher in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Foreigners who agree to accept a lower wage for teaching jobs are often under-qualified.

"We have found that hundreds of native speakers have used fake certificates in applying for teaching jobs," St Stephen's International School director Wannasarn Worakij disclosed.

He expressed concerns at the quality of foreign teachers at a recent seminar
Schools conducting English programmes (EP) use English as the language of instruction at least 15 hours a week. Those with a mini English programme (MEP), meanwhile, conduct classes in English for between eight and 14 hours a week.  The Education Ministry has required that only native speakers with good academic credentials be recruited for schools with the EP/MEP. Relevant schools have followed the rule strictly but that does not mean all English-speaking teachers really have appropriate qualifications.

According to a study by the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec), it is difficult for each school to check the credentials of foreign applicants by themselves. The researcher recommended that a key agency under the Education Ministry help with this issue.

The survey also said the shortage of quality foreign teachers at state bilingual schools was caused by the ceiling on foreign teachers' salaries. The government requires that schools pay no more than Bt35,000 a month to each foreign teacher. "Great teachers deserve to get high pay," the survey said. Bilingual schools already struggle to find qualified foreign candidates. So if the number of schools with English or mini-English programmes rises further, it will be even more difficult to get qualified native speakers.

Dr Wattanaporn Ra-ngubtookm who heads ObecEnglishLanguage Institute, said when the demand for foreign teaching staff grows, the issue of quality will arise. "Schools will not have much choice because the pool of native speakers is limited," she pointed out. Wattanaporn is familiar with the matter because her institute has the job of checking the readiness of schools that want to launch English programmes.
"Many schools don't get the green light because they are unable to meet prescribed criteria, in particular about the teachers' qualifications," she revealed.
The Education Ministry has now allowed qualified schools to open EP/MEP at both primary- and secondary-education levels.

The MEP tuition fee is just Bt17,500 per semester, a rate much cheaper than the fee collected by schools with the English programme (EP) and international schools.
The EP tuition fee costs up to Bt35,000 a semester.
Wattanaporn said these rates were very cheap when compared with the fee charged by international schools.
"EP/MEP is an interesting alternative for parents who want their children to use English fluently but cannot afford to send their children to international schools," she said.
And schools with EP/MEP still provides a Thai-style environment, so students do not adopt "Western values".
These factors have made schools with EP/MEP increasing popular.
The trend, however, has raised concerns among relevant authorities that they must do something now to ensure the quality of |these English programmes doesn't drop.
An executive at a famous Bangkok-based school, which also offers EP, believed the Education Ministry should raise the ceiling on the salary that foreign teachers can be paid to make it easier for schools to attract good teachers.
"We also want to attract more capable native speakers," she said, on condition that her name was not disclosed.
She said her school's EP programme was profitable and could, in fact, offer higher pay to native speakers. However, due to state regulations, the financial profit had to be submitted to the Education Ministry.
"Now, we have to keep our EP quality by relying on money from the parents' association."

She revealed that her school had offered "fringe benefits" of at least Bt55,000 a month to top-class English teachers. This explained why its EP standard was high


SOURCE: OFFICE OF BASIC EDUCATION COMMISSION  (copy and paste of the article)


October 11, 2010
It's too soon to declare English the second language for teaching in schools, Office of the Education Council (OEC) secretary-general Tongthong Chandransu said recently.

News reports late last week said the Education Ministry planned to declare English the second language in schools on October 22.
But Tong thong denied there would be declarations related to the issue on October 22, as reported by the media.

"The education reform policy committee, chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has discussed improving or upgrading English language teaching in educational institutions. But the committee has not yet reached a conclusion of how to develop the teaching," Tongthong said.

He was not sure if there was confusion caused by initial news reports on the issue.
He said the issue to be announced on the 22nd would be about developing students' quality by providing 30 per cent of their study time to activities outside classrooms.
"To initiate a nationwide English language teaching improvement scheme is a big issue. We need to prepare enough basic structure, like instructional tools, technology and qualified teachers as well as arrange funds, which will take a long time."

He said the PM and Finance MinisterKorn Chatikavanij agreed in principle to upgrade teaching English and would support the scheme.
"We need to clarify clearly the term to be used to call the language teaching improvement scheme to prevent confusion. I'm not sure if the committee will state that English will be taught as the second language for teaching in schools or not, but I can now tell that it is considering the language teaching improvement scheme. And, it will be able to give an answer on how it will move this project forward within the next one or two months," he said.

Meanwhile, former Deputy Education Minister Varakorn Samkosessaidhe agreed with the idea of declaring English the second language in schools, as Thailand will be part of theAsean community in 2015.
However, he said, most Thai people were not ready for communication in English despite the comingAsean community. So, other sectors of society should prepare for the change, as well by seek strategies to help improve their personnel, especially the government and private sector.

"To move the education sector, we should start with training our Thai teachers along with importing foreign teachers," Varakorn said.
"The Basic Education Commission's English Resource and Instruction Centre should be the main agency responsible for the scheme. It should collaborate with universities to share their knowledge and train and certify teachers in each region.  "Schools should create an English learning atmosphere by placing boards in English with language vocabularies around the schools, having students perform English language stage dramas, teaching maths and science in English and having foreigners meet and talk to students," Varakorn said.
English is used as an official language in the Philippines and Singapore, but used n in Malaysia as a second language, according to Wikipedia.