I've just been looking through the 'teacher nightmares' section on ajarn.com. Let's put things into perspective here. Thailand remains one of the few countries where foreigners with very few qualifications, and in quite a few cases no qualifications at all, are able to land full-time teaching positions within the mainstream system. I mean, what do people expect? With such low requirements the country is hardly likely to be a world leader in the field of education,is it? If it was, then things would be rather different and 95% of the farangs currently working here wouldn't be able to do so. We shouldn't forget how lucky we are. A 4-week intensive course and hey presto - you are now a qualified English teacher. Many Thai teachers are committed professionals with qualifications coming out their ears and yet they still have to accept the fact that they are going to earn a fraction of what the the TEFL course qualified farang is getting.

Having said this, The stories like the ones on here and others that you hear on the grapevine still never cease to amaze me. It also continues to shock me at just how short sighted, unrealistic and naive some schools can be. I recently saw an advertisement for a position in an 'International school'. They needed somebody who was fully qualified to teach GCSEs, in other words, someone with QTS. They were offering the princely sum of 33K per month. I mean, who are they trying to kid?! Dream on! I have no doubt that they will end up employing someone with a BA (if they are very lucky) and a 4-week TEFL course certificate that was obtained from a language school on a beach somewhere down in the Islands.

There is no doubt that Thailand is behind, way behind. But the fault lies with the system and the people who run the schools. I'm sorry, but you try putting 55 kids of ANY nationality in a small room all day long - you are going to have problems. Many of the kids that you meet here are wonderful, bright, highly respectful and intelligent young people who are simply being stifled in their current environment. It is a great shame. For me the worst part is just the general acceptance of the situation -the 'that's just the way it is" attitude. Of course, the general population don't know any better, and having 55 mixed ability teens in the classroom of a 'top, private school' is perfectly normal.