My colleagues are up in arms about what seems to be a two years and out rule. We have degreed teachers in various fields of expertise. History majors, Math majors, business majors, and Science majors some with doctorates. Now it seems that the Teachers Council of Thailand (TCT) wants all teachers to have EDU degrees. Throw out the experience factors of 2 to 4 years teaching, if you don't have an EDU, you're gone after 2 years. Well, I guess that is not exactly it either. The TCT will accept you if you take their 4-part series of testing and the Thai culture course. They offer it 2 times per year, but is it really worth it?

Most salaries are low, under 1000 USD a month. I guess they, the TCT, want you to spend considerable time and money to obtain what they call a license to teach. Everyone in Thailand knows; including Thai citizens, that the teaching profession in Thailand does not pay well. Ask a Thai teacher, they make about 1/2 of the money that I mentioned above. I truly believe that the TCT is going the wrong way. If they are under the assumption that many individuals who are currently teaching are willing to jump through all these hoops in order to keep their low salary positions. They may be in for a huge surprise.

Hopefully they will wake up. Thailand is already ranked one of the lowest level of English speaking countries in South East Asia. It is one thing to believe in "Thai rak Thai" but this economy is strongly based globally, and the international language is very important to Thailand's growth and future.

TRRicher