The real kind of success teaching in Thailand

I have written before about how I feel like TESL or Teaching English as a Second Language otherwise known as TEFL is not a good idea for anyone in the long term. There are exceptions and people that it has worked out for and that is wonderful and all but most people who end up doing it here in Thailand or anywhere else for that matter end up tucking tail and running back to their own countries, often penniless and requiring their parents' financial help to do so at a later stage in life such as their 40's or 50's.

I am talking about the kind of English education that anyone with a degree in anything can acquire. I'm doing it now and I have a degree in Economics which some would argue is much more difficult than a degree in Education but that isn't the point. The point is that without a degree in Education you do NOT qualify for the truly good teaching jobs that could be considered a career. Most of the time people like me that have a degree in whatever and a TEFL certificate will get jobs that pay around $1000 to $1500 a month and that is basically the highest rung on the ladder that we will ever be able to reach. The amount of experience we get is nearly irrelevant, you will not be able to work at the international schools unless you have very specific educational backgrounds.

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I got the impression from some comments in the past that people think I was bashing teachers, Thailand, or even teaching as a profession in general. That is not the case at all. I was only saying that teaching ESL as an "unqualified" teacher for years on end for very little money and no pension is a stupid idea. I would say the same about any other profession with the same outcome where almost everyone who does it ends up failing in the end. Why would you be any different?

There are exceptions though and there ARE good, if not fantastic jobs that can be had in Thailand and other places around the world for the correct person with the right qualifications. These people tend to be very well qualified educationally speaking though, so go ahead and write yourself off this list if you are like me and only have the minimum level of educational background.

The above image is of CMIS or Chiang Mai International School and it is where a friend of mine, who also owns a pretty decent Italian restaurant is a teacher of Physics. It was quite difficult for him to get this job but schools of this magnitude need the same variety of teachers that your own high school had, and physics is going to be one of them. At these schools you don't have the hallway shenanigans where everyone is speaking Thai and you don't and you also don't have situations where the students don't know what the hell you are saying to them.

In standard Thai schools it appears as though it is simply not possible for a student to fail a grade or even a class. No "F" grade will ever get given to a student so no matter how useless they are at a subject, even if they don't understand what the teacher is saying to them at all, they will still pass the class and move on to the next grade. I have encountered many 5th and 6th graders who after 6 years of English education 2-3 times a week have absolutely no idea what a teacher is saying to them at any time. I don't know how this is even possible, but I would imagine pushing students through a class with a passing grade when they don't deserve to is a big part of the problem.

At international schools such as CMIS their curriculum is based either on a U.K. or USA system and failing IS an option. The students are held to the same standards as private schools abroad and therefore, the students end up being the best of the best in the Thailand for the most part. This isn't to say that there aren't any good Thai schools but I think even most Thai people realize that the government system of passing everyone regardless of merit isn't a great system at all.

Back to my friend. He had an undergraduate degree in Physics, then got a degree in whatever it is that you have to have in order to be an Engineer, and he simply fell in love with Thailand when he was working here on a building project of some sort. He realized that finding a full-time engineering job in Thailand was very unlikely since foreign engineers are normally only hired on a part-time basis for temporary, high-profile projects. The reason this is the case is because you can hire 10 Thai engineers for the same salary as a foreign engineer requires. This system isn't fair but that is just the way that it is. I'll get into that at a later time.

My friend later returned to the U.K. to get something called a PGDE which stands for Post Graduate Degree in Education. This is a one-year program and with it, you now have the qualifications necessary to be a teacher at an international school and this is where the really good jobs are. With this you can even teach at some universities in countries like Thailand although in those environments that really good jobs are reserved for people with PhD's, as one would expect.

My friend, upon getting this certification - which he said was actually kind of delightful and also not anywhere near as difficult as his prior degrees - found getting a job at a good school in Thailand and anywhere else really, to be extremely easy. Not only was he able to get a job teaching in English, he got a job teaching a subject matter that he is rather passionate about and was able to teach it to groups of students that actually understand every single word that he is saying. The students are also able to fail the class, although he told me none of them do because their parents are very involved in their education and these students are truly the crème de la crème.

His salary is very good due to the fact that attending one of these schools is very expensive for the students. He also has an option for a retirement fund that you can pay into, medical benefits, and other such things that those of us in the west consider to be quite standard for a career.

This isn't to say that his job is all sunshine and rainbows though because with great power comes great responsibility. This is a REAL job and there is much more expected of you in this position than your average run of the mill TESL teacher like me. There are office politics, tons of bureaucracy, parent-teacher conferences, and activities outside of school that teachers are expected to attend. These are things that as a standard teacher like me would not have to deal with.

I think it is a pretty great tradeoff though to have more responsibility when you are getting a much higher salary and you are also treated as though you are actually a long-term member of the team.

In order to get these jobs you must have a degree in Education or a PGDE. There is no other way around it because the certification that the schools have require that their employees have these things.

I have contemplated taking a year off to go get one of these certifications so that I could return to Thailand and get one of these jobs myself because I have thus far met just a handful of people that have these jobs and all of them seem to have a much greater sense of doing something for a living that actually matters and not just some playtime job that is frustrating and is also a maze that doesn't really have an ending.

So if you are eyeing up teaching abroad I advise that you do it. However, almost all of these jobs should be viewed as something that you do for a couple of years and then go back home to your own country. I've seen far too many people get rescued by mommy and daddy in their 40's to feel any other way.