Thread: Exploiting the system, in the guise of 'ajarn' - Bangkok Post article

Rather an interesting read:

FOCUS / EXPATRIATE TEACHERS IN THAILAND

Exploiting the system, in the guise of 'ajarn'

The recent arrest of John Karr has raised questions about the types of expatriates working in Thailand's education system. Teacher Harry Nicolaides reveals he sometimes felt he was sharing an office with Hannibal Lector

What do a disgraced former US state senator, an octogenarian Nazi sympathiser and an Arizona highway patrol officer have in common? They are all teaching English in Thailand, of course. The profession of teaching English in Asia attracts the strangest people. The flotsam and jetsam of the West, many of these ne'er-do-wells wash up on the shoreline of the Third World looking to reinvent themselves like the Count of Monte Cristo, or to champion a cause celebre like Lawrence of Arabia.

Some are undischarged bankrupts fleeing creditors, fugitives from justice, disgraced or convicted malcontents, religious missionaries, errant husbands, asylum-seekers (and those recently discharged from asylums), crusaders and, occasionally, teachers _ with fake university degrees, of course.

This is the state of the industry throughout Thailand. And sometimes, you can find yourself sharing an office with Hannibal Lector.

The process of screening applicants for teaching appointments in Thailand has always been open to abuse, exploitation and identity fraud.

While most educational institutions employ foreign nationals from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States without checking the bona fides of academic credentials, going overseas to work has also been a convenient way to escape the indiscretions and convictions of a former life in the West.

As English is the new lingua franca of a global world, there is a burgeoning demand for native English speakers to teach English in educational institutions at all levels across Thailand.

The interview and selection process is perfunctory and typically is the responsibility of non-native speakers, and so anyone who looks like a teacher in what is largely a presentation culture, is assured of employment.

While it is well-known that thousands of reproduction artworks of European masters are created annually in Thailand, fake university and college degrees may also be bought on Khao Sarn road in Bangkok.

In the past century when Christendom was carried like a torch to enlighten the dark continents, missionaries and teachers were discovered looting national treasures, excavating and smuggling archaeological artifacts, exploiting the indigenous population or establishing private kingdoms with themselves as the self-appointed monarchs.

During times of military conflict some teachers were even commissioned as intelligence operatives or became correspondents from besieged cities or nations erupting in civil unrest. Today, with an absence of such interesting opportunities, English-language teachers abroad have turned to waging their own war against professional colleagues, exerting their own petty tyrannies on students, exploring a malignant neuroses, indulging a private obsession or simply experiencing the full dress rehearsal of a sordid sexual fetish.

Just like the former US state senator who was repeatedly caught and convicted for drunk driving and beating his girlfriend. When he carried a loaded revolver into the state legislature he was finally expelled from office. At the height of his power, white racist supremacist and militia members rallied at his demagogic speeches against minorities and welfare recipients, but most recently he has found himself teaching English at a university in Thailand.

He was also responsible for pushing through a US state senate a highly controversial bill to introduce and maintain a public database of previously convicted sex offenders.

I met him in a go-go bar in Phuket. It was the quip about the human race being a plague on the earth and that only through a systematic programme of racial purification would we survive as a species, that made me realise he was not on a mercy mission in the Third World.

He was last seen teaching a transsexual prostitute to sing the Star Spangled Banner in an area notorious for homosexual encounters with young men who had had a sex change operation in Bangkok.

Then there was the teacher at a prominent language school in Phuket, who was recently exposed as a confidante of Adolf Hitler's personal radiologist. At 85, he was old enough to have been around during the Third Reich and his imperious gait was chillingly resonant of high rank. He spoke German, Greek, Italian, Thai, French and English fluently, but his speciality was to craft letters for bar girls consisting of lies and half-truths to beguile mostly male Caucasian tourists out of their money.

I was once privy to a meeting he thought was private and observed him perform the customary Nazi military salute when he greeted a German friend. At first, I thought it was moment of historical parody, but then observed both men deliver the same Nazi salute to each other with triumphant, choreographed precision at their farewell.

He still teaches English today, helping young bar girls conjugate irregular verbs and writes letters while receiving an old age pension from the Italian government.

There was another teacher _ an American, former Arizona patrol officer who, while working in Thailand, started to exhibit repressed aggression towards his students.

His violent outbursts and confrontations involved minor infractions of university regulations. He became obsessed with thwarting students from gaining unfair advantage by cheating, and spent hundreds of hours devising examinations that would challenge the ingenuity of students to anticipate the content of examination papers.

When a small cluster of student papers were found to have similar results, he launched a major investigation into the unlikely correlation.

He conducted a statistical analysis of the results involving averages, probability and distribution graphs. Re-marking all 250 exam papers, he concluded that a group of students must have stolen an exam paper prior to the exam day.

He insisted, against the judgment of other teachers, on holding the exam again. The results in the second examination were the same. The students cheated again.

As a final indictment of the susceptibility of the Thai education system to fraud, consider the following experience. A friend from Australia was visiting Thailand as a tourist. I managed to convince him to assume my identity for the first lecture I was to deliver to 120 students in a course of social psychology at the university where I was working.

The exercise was designed to show students how vulnerable people are to appearance and presentation, especially so-called experts with impressive credentials. We had my friend's imposing 6'4'' physique clothed in a fine suit and tie beautifully fashioned in the finest bespoke tradition of Bangkok's 24-hour tailors.

We gave him an impressive resume _ PhD Cambridge University, chairman of research committee at Oxford University, author of two definitive textbooks in the field _ all of which loomed large behind him on a massive cinema-sized screen in a PowerPoint format, while Garry spoke authoritatively about nothing for some time.

The students paid meticulous attention and wrote copious lecture notes on the rambling dissertation. After an hour, when I arrived dressed casually in shorts and t-shirt and introduced myself as the real course lecturer, the students dismissed me as a loony intruder.

After all, I did not look like a teacher. That is what matters in Thailand _ the appearance of truth, created by a tailor's scissors, an artist's brushstroke or a surgeon's knife.
Harry Nicolaides is a Melbourne-born teacher who has taught English in Thailand for the last three years.
source: Bangkok Post : General news

superb 20/20 hindsight of a squeeky clean (yea, sure) 'ajarn' in the LoS

What is he doing here? And better yet, what is hidden in his closet?

did he come here for the culture, the fresh air ..the money or...

sanctimonious preaching pricks are pricks none the less and often of the greatest magnitude

Question? where have most all these foreign hannibal lector hitler kiddy fiddler whatnots types originated from anyway?
Answer: The West? yep!

and what where they doing out there prior coming here? samo samo

Question: How many more are out there in the West doing kids in on a daily basis?

Answer: open any online fucking newspaper of any country and start adding!

It is going to be interesting to see Thai families getting stiffed by ever increasing educational costs, paying more for the same amount of misfits that will just be more difficult to unmask.

Build a better mouse trap and the mouse will just evolve into a better mouse

William, I did reply to this thread but one of the meddling mods split it to make it look like no-one replied.

^
Don't worry.
William is used to getting single figure scores.

"Ouch"

Actually, I agree with a lot of what IN4ZIP said. However, when you also read the following article in the same newspaper on the same day you are left wondering whether or not Thai parents give a fuck about their kid's education:

Two-thirds of Thailand's schools 'in a coma'

SIRIKUL BUNNAG
Two-thirds of primary and secondary schools nationwide have failed the educational standards assessment, the Education Ministry said. Somwang Pithiyanuwat, director of the ministry's Office of Academic Accreditation and Educational Evaluation, said his agency has assessed 30,010 schools, both state-run and private. Only 100 schools have not yet been evaluated.

The results show that two-thirds of the schools, or about 20,000, have fallen below the educational standards set by the office.

The assessment has been carried out on a regular basis since 2001.

''Two-thirds of the schools which failed the assessment are categorised as being in the 'ICU' [intensive care unit]. Their education quality is tantamount to being in a coma. They need urgent improvements,'' Mr Somwang said.

The figures show the country's education quality was in a shambles, he said.

Most schools in the ICU category are small primary schools in rural areas with about 300 students each.

''Results of the curriculum evaluation at those schools found the students lacked creative thinking and displayed no thirst for knowledge,'' Mr Somwang said.

Most of the schools also lacked quality teachers. Although 91% of the teachers hold at least a bachelor's degree, their teaching skills are poor, he said. Many school executives are also poor managers.Of all Thai schools nationwide, only 8,000 are able to maintain a high educational standard, Mr Somwang said.

The survey found that Mahidol Witthayanusorn school in Nakhon Pathom was the only school given a free hand to manage its education, he said.

He urged the Education Ministry to urgently make those schools which surpassed educational standards juristic entities so they could manage their own education and budgets.

An ad hoc independent agency is needed to shape up the ICU schools, he said. The agency should be given four years to achieve its goal before it is dissolved.

He said the proposed agency should be addressed by politicians seeking office. He has already given the proposal to Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.

A quality fund of at least 15 billion baht should also be set up to develop the education of the under-performing schools, said Mr Somwang.
The next government should increase the number of educational zones from 175 to 295 to more efficiently supervise schools under their jurisdiction, he said.

wtf another prime example of easy finger pointing.
Does anybody here know, have a clue who are/were the Bunnags?

...one of the richest local families, that have made an untold fortune off their lowerdowns and are still milking the dumb buffaloes!

Are they ...and others.. still conveniently perpetuating the status quo, while in a pc way screaming ...wolf! wolf!

fuckoff to all ye corrupted to the core c.unts with banckrupted credibility,
I despise thee!

^ *checks around to see if he is still on TD*

IMO, that's an excellent post Wallace

Originally Posted by William

^ *checks around to see if he is still on TD*

R U saying we is thick?

Originally Posted by William

^ *checks around to see if he is still on TD*

IMO, that's an excellent post Wallace

Now you've gone and done it. I'll never hear then end of it now.

Originally Posted by in4zip

wtf another prime example of easy finger pointing.
Does anybody here know, have a clue who are/were the Bunnags?

...one of the richest local families, that have made an untold fortune off their lowerdowns and are still milking the dumb buffaloes!

Are they ...and others.. still conveniently perpetuating the status quo, while in a pc way screaming ...wolf! wolf!

fuckoff to all ye corrupted to the core c.unts with banckrupted credibility,
I despise thee!

Bunnag family is huge. Not all parts of it are filthy rich.

Bye bye LDMA (Mr no-degree teacher).

I do actually hope that the Thais finally get off their lazy arses and sort out the mess that allows so many unqualified and scumbag foreigners to live off Thai (and Korean) children.

People who were too stupid or lazy to educate themselves to degree level should never be allowed to earn money as a professional educator, anywhere.

At a minimum, stop dishing out countless tourist visas to obvious wankers, and demand verifyable criminal record certification (I had enhanced CRB checks in 2001 and 2003 for teacher training, its painless and should be the norm for everyone going abroad to do anything in my opinion)