School holding me hostage over my work-permit and visa
I only have a few months left so I am not going to make a big deal about this but this is just one other reason why I can't really recommend that anyone come and teach TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) in Thailand. I would say that I am reasonably good at my job. I get along with the kids, they are learning stuff and doing well on the exams, and I am able to maintain much better control over my classrooms than a lot of my foreign compatriots.
Perhaps I was doing too well and this is what brought the latest problem upon me.
I was kind of warned about this before-hand about how the TEFL jobs are a revolving door and very few teachers stick around for even an entire school-year, let alone multiple years and there are a lot of reasons for this. I think the jobs just aren't very good: Classrooms are crowded, we are given very little support as far as bad behavior among students are concerned, and sometimes we are even treated with disdain by the Thai teachers and a lot of this has to do with the fact that we are paid considerably more than they are for a 1st year salary.
I took all that in stride and just "rolled with the punches" but after this last step the school has taken towards me I am quite certain that I am not going to renew my contract at the end of the term, which is coming up in April.
I did a good job up until this point, and was praised by the administration for the marks my grade 6 class was getting on their English exams... so what do you think they did to reward me?
a) got me a cake or something like that and had a small congratulatory party for me?
b) offered me a bonus or increased monthly salary?
c) gave me additional teaching hours with classes that are not my own for no extra money?
If you guessed c then you are a clever person! When I resisted and told them that it was already difficult enough for me to plan and execute 18 contact hours per week and that if i was going to be made to do this, I expect to be paid a bit more per contact hour (it is in my contract that I will not be required to do more than 18 hours contact per week,) the vice principal kind of threatened to have my work permit revoked and I would be forced to leave the country in 24 hours.
src
I had heard in the past that contracts in Thailand aren't worth the paper they are written on and honestly, I am not going to get a lawyer because it is only a few more months and I didn't have much intention of sticking around anyway.
The really aggravating this about this is the reason they want me to do the extra hours isn't just because my class performed very well in the exams, it is because one of the other teachers (foreign) came back in after the New Year break, collected her salary and then just took off - in the same day. So their idea to keep the "good" teachers around is to treat them like crap... nice strategy!
I looked up the work-permit and 24 hour thing and it isn't even true, it is 7 days unless you have done something illegal. I am sure it is an idle threat but I don't need the negative attention. It just adds more credibility to what I have said in the past though and that is that for the most part, the TEFL jobs in Thailand are pretty crap. The pay is nothing to get excited about and now I am being threatened for not wanting to do more work for free.
Anyone who is thinking of teaching over here should really think twice about it because after nearly a year of it, it isn't the worst job I have had in my life.... but it is close.
I think i made this rant too long and no one will read it but i needed to vent. If you stuck around and read it.... thanks :)
Congratulations @jack.russelle!
You raised your level and are now a Minnow!
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
I wanted to reply to you yesterday but was feeling unwell, so I'm late one day.
Sorry to hear about how you and maybe others are treated at your workplace. It is sad to see they are doing that but I can see why is that happening. They think they can blackmail you to accept the extra hours without being paid for it as they think you're desperate. That shows how they have no appreciation to your work, they only care about the money.
It's sad really and I hope you can find a way to stat.
Oh, my way out will be leaving at the end of my contract. I am not worried about what would happen if I left before my contract.... it's not like I would get in trouble or get sued or anything. I am leaving at the end of this school year and only because of the kids in my class - If i were to leave early they would miss out on education because it would take some time to find a new teacher.
They are NOT a bunch of angels, they are actually quite naughty as you would expect from 6th graders, but I guess I have a bunch of empathy.
If it weren't for the kids, I would have already left.
The problem is these people will never learn. They can only see the opportunity to save some money by forcing others to work for free.
I see a somehow similar situation here on steem from people coming from certain countries. Instead of working on building something long term, they take everything they can no matter the rules.
These people will never learn. Greedy people.
I taught as an ESL teacher many years ago. After leaving that job to do something else I vowed I would do literally anything else for a job before I would ever return to doing that.
While I didn't face the problems with my employer on the level that you are, the job itself was simply too difficult for the amount of money that we were being paid.
Towards the end of my time there, we were no longer allowed to discipline the kids in really any meaningful capacity. This included giving busy-work for any members of the class to do such as writing a sentence 20 times (surely, this is a common tactic worldwide?)
My tactic in the classroom was to make EVERYONE in the class write lines for the action of the few, even the good kids. While the bad kids were not afraid of having to write lines on their own, the really didn't like letting the rest of the class down - this was quickly outlawed by the administration.
It got to the point where the kids had no reason at all to feel as though we had any real authority and therefore classroom control was nearly impossible. I'm not saying I was an innocent kid in elementary school, I certainly wasn't, but there were certain repercussions for my actions that I was definitely afraid of receiving and this kept me in check.
While I think it is great that you got to experience a year of living in the country that I have called home for many years, I think you are accidentally choosing a fantastic time to get out.
this seems to be the story from most of the people that I talk to. There are exceptions of course but it kind of sucks that this seems to be the norm as far as ESL is concerned.
I know a few peeps who teach at proper international schools and have pretty great jobs but of course they are extremely well-qualified so I suppose that since my degree isn't actually in education or for the most part related to teaching English at all, I can't really expect to be a part of that.
I feel like you do though. Some of my friends are talking about moving to other Asian countries to try their hand and teaching there because they have heard there are better conditions but i really don't think this profession is for me. At least I learned it while i was relatively young.