Is There a Teachers Blacklist?

[Savittre]

A friend said he'd been blacklisted in Thailand because he'd broken his contract with his school.

He wasn't clear if this had to do with the Government, getting work documents, etc., or if it had to do with all schools in Bangkok (I would doubt that) or if it had only to do with the school (or chain of schools) that he worked for.

For all I know it was an idle threat, made by someone at the school who was (justifiably) pissed off with him.

Anybody got the scoop? Thanks

[Flashermac]

Sounds like this would have to be some networking amongst the private language schools. Can't see it happening at the government schools, at least at the university level. Closest thing to it was when a fellow applied to my faculty after he'd been teaching in another faculty of the same university. Allegedly, somebody discovered his degrees were more of the Khao San Road variety. No one actually said that, but they did suggest to my faculty that they "check his credentials carefully". When he heard that, the guy withdrew his application. He may well have been able to get hired somewhere else though.

[Flashermac]

Sounds like this would have to be some networking amongst the private language schools. Can't see it happening at the government schools, at least at the university level. Closest thing to it was when a fellow applied to my faculty after he'd been teaching in another faculty of the same university. Allegedly, somebody discovered his degrees were more of the Khao San Road variety. No one actually said that, but they did suggest to my faculty that they "check his credentials carefully". When he heard that, the guy withdrew his application. He may well have been able to get hired somewhere else though.

[Stickman]

Yes, there is a blacklist going around that is put together in a less than exemplary manner...it is maintained by several of the private language schools as Flashermac pointed out.

Most schools are NOT privy to the list, nor even interested in it.

Stick

[Guest]

Stick, Flashermac -- Would you care to name the schools who make use of such a list? Could be useful.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by Stickman:

Yes, there is a blacklist going around that is put together in a less than exemplary manner...it is maintained by several of the private language schools as Flashermac pointed out.

Most schools are NOT privy to the list, nor even interested in it.

Stick

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[blackpuddin]

Well! well! well!

How about commenting on this one Mr. Bangkok Mouse?

If any one knows about teacher blacklists I am sure I know who is first on my list :-)

[Stickman]

From what I can gather, the list is more put together by a bunch of people that know each other than by language schools in collusion with each other... I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

Stick

[Guest]

Blacklist. Sounds like absolute hogwash to me.

[Guest]

OK then Mr Blackpuddin' you've asked me to comment on the teacher's blacklist and I will.

First of all the term blacklist is rather a misnomer because it contains a list of teacher's names who are allegedly serious of gross misconduct, and I mean gross misconduct.

Sure there are teachers who have broken contracts and walked out on jobs but there are two sides to every story and any employer has to hear the teacher's side of things. A good interviewer always does that.

The list is some five years old now and hopelessly out of date but it was started by four academic directors (of which I was one)

The other three directors were people I trust implicitly and continue to do well in their academic careers to this day. It should have stayed as a list shared by just four people. Incidentally, the four directors were heads of schools that recruited many teachers over a period of time.

As time wore on I was contacted by other academic directors who wanted to add teacher's names to the list out of what I thought was sheer bloody-mindedness and I knew that the list was no longer reliable.

All the directors who had this list were contacted by me and told that the list had many inaccuracies and they should not use it as a list of teachers who are unemployable.

When I was in charge of teacher recruitment, so much of my time was wasted by first employing teachers and then having to find a replacement because that teacher did a runner with his first pay packet, etc.

I don't care if I get flamed to hell, but there are many teachers out there who drift from one language school to another and create problems at every single school and lack professionalism in every way. It's because there is no network or communication between the schools that teachers can get away with this.

This topic was discussed to death on the ajarn.com board and I have no intention in getting involved in it again. I am no longer in charge of farang teacher recruitment (thank goodness) and long may it stay that way. Let someone else have the headache.

And finally, I'm not sure if you are a teacher recruiter blackpuddin' but I'm sure you agree that there are good and bad teachers. And the bad teachers go from school to school don't they? It's a well-known fact.

And next time you want me to make a comment, don't resort to under-the-belt snidey digs, but just ask me in a normal manner. I know it's beyond you but you can at least try.

[Guest]

One thing I should add is that the schools that are doing a far amount of recruiting at the moment, who are worth working for, who are offering attractive packages, and who are forging ahead in the Bangkok EFL profession, would have no idea that the list ever existed.

In the last 2 years, a lot of new private language schools have burst on to the scene and things have changed a great deal.