Thread: Screening of foreigners for teaching jobsgets overhaul

SIRIKUL BUNNAG and AGENCIES
The Education Ministry plans to issue standard regulations for the screening of foreigners who apply for teaching jobs.

The regulations will be applicable to all international schools and state and private schools offering bilingual education, permanent secretary for education Kasama Varavarn told the International Schools Association following the detention of John Mark Karr, a suspect in a high-profile murder case, who arrived back in the United States yesterday.

The regulations will be developed on the basis of the screening criteria of the association. In the past, each type of school had set its own criteria in selecting foreign teachers, which had made it easy for unqualified applicants to slip through the net, Khunying Kasama said.

The association, which has about 70 schools under its umbrella, has two screening levels. First, it will check the qualifications of the foreign applicants with the universities the applicants graduated from, and also investigate the applicants' history and backgrounds with their former employers and overseas police.

For the second screening, it will refer the matter to the Office of the Private Education Commission to repeat the procedures again to ensure the foreign applicants meet all the qualifications.

The ministry will ask the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) for information on people involved in child sexual abuse cases worldwide and will alert schools in Thailand to them.

Kumaree Chinawat, vice-president of the association, said the members have set up systems to monitor the behaviour of foreign teachers at their schools.

As for safety measures for lower primary students, at least two teachers are assigned to each class with surveillance cameras installed, she added.

Karr, the 41-year-old US teacher arrested in connection with the decade-old killing of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, arrived in Los Angeles on a Thai Airways flight to undergo more questioning about his possible role in the 1996 murder.
Witnesses said the suspect made the trip in style, drinking champagne and enjoying business class service. He was expected to spend the night at a local jail as issues related to his extradition to Colorado are being resolved.