A Bilateral Agreement! Really??? (Labor laws concerning Filipino teachers)

I came across a blog written by Mr. Abel Cadias at the ajarn.com website. It talks about the salary of Filipino teachers here in the "Land of Smiles". I just want to share this to all of you guys. I am sure it's worth the read. 

http://www.philstar.com/community/Article201005.aspx?articleId=600302&publicationSubCategoryId=503

A Bilateral Agreement! Really??? (Labor laws concerning Filipino teachers)

Here's something that the Filipino teaching community should hope for: a bilateral agreement with Thailand in upholding "better" salary scale and fringe benefits. But of course it's not as easy as we think. A dialogue on August 4 was hosted by the Philippine embassy for the Filipino community to discuss these work-related issues. The Philippine embassy under the leadership of our new ambassador HE Lacanlale, will be joining the crusade of regulating the Filipino teachers' qualifications and skills to monitor the thousands of Filipino teachers who are working and still looking for jobs in Thailand which I believe is in exchange for a nationwide implementation of a standard salary scale. I hope, still hope and will continue hoping! In any case, I wish the ambassador and her staff the best of luck!

If I'm not mistaken, there exists a "standard salary scale" directive drafted by the MoE seven or eight years ago. It states how much one gets depending on nationality. Unfortunately, it was never implemented and I think it won't be implemented anytime in the future. Many school employers cling to odd reasons like "no budget," "parents can not afford to pay," "not many students," and "you're not farang" etc. High supply and low demand leads to a cheaper product cost it seems.

But it appears that the situation here is different. There is an increasing demand and an increasing supply and the costs are getting cheaper. In other words, there are many foreign teachers, especially Filipinos, who accept below average salaries for obvious reasons. And the employers are taking advantage (in fact, abusing the system) of this without any thought of quality instruction. Rarely can you find highly qualified, well-trained and English fluent Filipino teachers who accept lower than 30,000.00 Baht a month. Either they are desperate or waiting for better opportunities.

Sadly, there is a considerable number of "unwanted" Filipino teachers who need to be regulated but it appears they are still given contracts by a considerable number of schools. And I don't blame them. I blame those who give them work in exchange for quality instruction. I think the rule is simple: you want the best then offer the best. Generally, English language teaching in Thailand has obviously become a business opportunity.

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Cadias. Education here is becoming more of a business. Quantity and not quality!

 "SOURCE"