Posts from — April 2006

So, Monday and time for another poll. What is the biggest headache you have with your school, the thing that irritates you the most. Is it that you are not paid on time. Is it that your contract isn’t honored? Is it the damn red tape needed to make photocopies for your students? Is it the lackey in the office who is the director’s bootlicker? No problems? Your school is great. I want to know.

Well, I finally concluded the poll on “Will you get your due.” I was not surprised by the findings. This was hardly a scientific poll, but it still gave insight into what teachers think. Of 53 votes, 32% felt that they would get their due if they gave proper notice. 26% said “no” while 23% said “don’t take chances.” 19% said they thought “maybe” they would get their due if they gave proper notice. These results were hardly surprising.
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This is kept here for archive sake, Bangkok Christian College has entered The TEFLWatch Caution Zone. You can read the article, BCC enters the Caution Zone.

For this week’s Hall of Shame entry, we go back to Thailand. Some schools have a very notorious reputation and this week’s entry is no exception. The last three entries were unopposed in their forum posts, but this week’s entry, Bangkok Christian College has both its supporters and detractors. Unfortunately, its supporters could not muster enough positive experiences to overcome the negative experiences of their fellow teachers. BCC, or Bangkok Christian College, is the 4th entry into the TeflWatch Hall of Shame.

“Notoriety is not as good as fame but it’s heaps better than obscurity” might not be an appropriate maxim for Bangkok Christian College. There have been a lot of things posted and some defense of the institution; the main contention seems to be the way they treat staff and the way they don’t honor contracts. Even though the working conditions (roughly 50K beginning wages) look good at first glance. I’ve known multiple people in various subjects who had problems with dishonest management, and the uptight, snobbish, parents of the spoilt students there.

They seem to have a tendency of getting rid of teachers just before they pass probation and right before paid vacations and teacher turnover is “incredibly high” and staff still there state that At this point in time, only a few of the foreign teachers there have stayed/survived over a year.

It was also reported on the forum, and not disputed, that teachers lose 4000 baht per month for 5 months in order to ensure they do not run away without giving 90 days notice. It was also reported that contracts have actually been whited out and changed after they have been signed and staff do not get to see those contracts for 2 - 3 months and are not given their part of their teaching license as the school keeps it. As well, pay rises have not been honored and even things that were guaranteed at the start were not kept without a battle, it took one teacher “an entire year to get the board to admit they owe him extra money and to give it to him”. New information tells us that they announced at the end of term that they will deduct money from the April paycheck for the late clock-ins and absences for the entire year.

Bangkok Christian College is famous for lost paperwork, lost degree certificates, cancelled visas, even lost passports! and “BCC only has to conform to Min of Ed laws and regulations. We are not bound by Labor Dept. law.

MrTam-di-dai-di justified some of Bangkok Christian College’s behavior with, ” we all signed the contract right??” and “Teachers at BCC come to work drunk, smelly, unprepared, etc.” and finally that the “Charges against BCC are the same as against other schools in Bangkok.” Another poster gave some defense to BCC, Teachers absent through hangover - A LOT! Teachers that issue a worksheet and call it a lesson plan! Teachers NOT meeting deadlines for reports / exams / lesson plans / photocopying etc. There have been some attempts the shift the blame for all the problems onto the teachers themselves who have worked there over the last few years. This not unusual for schools in Thailand to do this. Just my idle curiosity but, if these instances were correct, then why did the school not fire these teachers? Maybe its not true?

It is interesting to note that even some of the Bangkok Christian College apologists disagree with some of their underhand methods, Mr Tam di dai di stated on the issue of the illegal security deposit, “we’ve argued against it, that they could be throwing out the baby with the bath water, but I doubt we’ll see progress on this one. Of course, if you go before Xmas, or completing the contract, you won’t see those bonuses either, but there have to be some consequences for breach of contract.”

There have been many charges leveled against Bangkok Christian College and there has been no satisfactory explanation as to how they treat their employees so badly and why they don’t honor their contracts, the last word can go to Durian who after just completing a year observed that “The school management (a.k.a. “the board”) is a complete and unmitigated disaster. They have neither skills nor interest in making the school a productive and rewarding workplace.”

BCC has such a bad reputation among people who have been in Bangkok for a while that they are going to either make some serious changes to try and turn things around or they will be reduced to recruiting newly arrived teachers. It could be a good school, it should be a good school, it’s a shame that it is a notorious one.

***Situations, people, and management changes so all readers are encouraged to use their own best judgement when making decisions based on any information found on the internet. The TEFLWatch.Org blog is a news publication and Hall of Shame reports are based on interactions on the discussion forum and information provided by the institute in question. As in all things, personal opinions are based on one’s own perception of the truth.***

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