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dirtydog

Stringent checks are now in store for foreigners wishing to teach



The Education Ministry yesterday offered to compile a list of foreigners suspected of committing crimes against children.

Khunying Kasama Varawarn na Ayutthaya, the ministry's permanent secretary, said it was a measure to help schools screen foreign applicants.

She was speaking after a meeting with representatives of relevant authorities, international schools, bilingual schools and English language schools.

The meeting was held in the wake of last week's arrest of John Mark Karr, a suspect in the 1996 murder of an American child beauty queen.

Karr managed to find teaching jobs in Bangkok before he was arrested here last Wednesday.

"We will seek information on suspected child abusers from various authorities overseas," Kasama said yesterday. She added that she had contacted the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) for information.

She said relevant parties would go into more details about a plan to develop a database of foreign teachers in Thailand next month.

Kasama, however, assured parents that her ministry and schools had carefully recruited foreign teachers by conducting checks into their qualifications and any criminal record.

"But if you see any suspicious teacher, please alert us through hotline number 1579," she said.

According to Kasama, her ministry has conducted qualification checks on 7,000 foreign applicants for teaching jobs during the past year. Of them, only 45 have submitted fake certificates and none had any criminal record.

"But from now on, we will tighten the screening even more," Kasama said.

International Schools Association of Thailand's vice president Kumari Shinawatra said her association's members had always made careful background checks before recruiting any teacher.

"We have checked whether their certificates are genuine and checked their history with their former employers and with the police," she said.
However, an informed source said only leading international schools had acceptable standards in recruiting foreign teachers, while smaller institutes or language schools were often so desperate to acquire foreign teachers they didn't bother with any detailed checking.

the nation

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Torbek

Only 45 out of 7,000 qualifications false?

I always been a defender of the TEFL industry (well, of some in the industry, anyway...) but that figure sounds pretty bloody low to me...

NickA

I think it should read "only 45 have been found to have submitted fake certificates and none had been found to have any criminal record.

Marmite the Dog

I still can't work out why it is too difficult to have an international register of sex offenders and countries who don't want them to enter should flag them as they arrive at the border/airport.

With the technology available today, wouldn't this be pretty easy to impliment?

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I will meet the blackness and the blackness will be eternal

Smeg

And people who live on tourist visas year after year.

Wallace

As in so many other occasions we ignore the language and immediately dive down the wrong path.

It has already been mentioned that the words are 'suspected of committing crimes'. What the hell is that supposed to mean? If you have committed a crime then that's a matter of fact. If you haven't then no one has a right anywhere to put your name on any list as a 'suspect'. Most of the people in Guantanamo Bay are 'suspected terrorists' which, of course, means that most of them are actually innocent, denied a lawyer and treated as prisoners of war. The wording is ridiculous and so is the intent behind it.

If I have ever stolen anything, should I be banned from all shops everywhere in case I do it again? If I've ever broken a traffic law, should I be banned from driving? Let's have a reasoned debate with some facts about sex offenders and what this really means and not start some silly crusade against anyone that a student or institution decides shouldn't be teaching.

If the Thai ministry wants to stop crimes against children it should start at home:

1. No corporal punishment.
2. No children under 16 to be allowed to work anywhere in Thailand.
3. No children under 16 to be allowed on a motorbike, as a passenger or driver.
4. Free education for every child to the age of 18.

When they've got their own house in order, then they can start looking at the handful of teachers who give everyone else a bad name.

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The truth is out there, but then I'm stuck in here.

Marmite the Dog

What about Non Imm B visas?

More bollocks from the cocksuckingmotherfucker.

Spin

To submit these children to the uneducated, unshaven, incomphrehensible Tefler's is indeed a serious crime.

Torbek

*Yawn*

kingwilly

should it perhaps worry ppl that they use the phrase 'suspected'

and there is a hotline for 'suspicious' teachers ?

what happens if a disgruntled students rings the hotline, does your name go on this list? how will you clear your name ? (eg 1000 baht to the right official? - never!?)

A good idea - but perhaps it needs to be convicted peados only!

Lily

Except that they often flee before they are convicted.

Smeg

^ But you must admit, there are many many creepy looking farangs with bookbags (yes, I know looks can be deceiving) walking around Bangkok

Wallace

Any more creepy than some of the characters from your own school? I recall quite a few weird characters. Didn't make them child molesters or rapists, though.

Spin

Test them for joined up writing, that should flush out the dead wood.

Do it after the new airport opens though because Don Muang might not have the capacity to handle all those who will be leaving.