Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits -- NETs in Thailand

Ever since the Vietnam War, when Thailand was the preferred R&R destination for American soldiers on furlough, tourists have been flocking to this country in ever increasing numbers. Of the 26 million1 or so visitors who came to Thailand last year, a small minority has chosen for a variety of reasons to extend their sojourn and plant roots in the kingdom. It is easy to understand why. In addition to the appealing tropical climate, a unique combination of geographical and cultural attractions and the inviting hospitality of the Thai people, the country is still an affordable place to take up residence, commanding an enviable -33 on the Forbes' purchasing power parity (PPP) index2.

But of all the reasons that draw would-be residents to these shores, the foremost reason could very well be romantic interests. Few countries in the world today are as open towards and liberal about cross-cultural common law relationships and marriages as Thailand's predominantly Buddhist population is. And of these, relations between foreign born Western males and Thai women account for the overwhelming majority of such relationships. Whethersuch males come to Thailand with the intention of finding a mate or circumstances just present themselves remains open to conjecture but regardless of the motivation driving expat males, a rather unique interplay of factors involving personal circumstances, cultural acceptance and a lack of economic opportunities for many Thai women, especially single mothers, all coalesce together to witness a significant number of Western men seeking to remain in-country on a long-term basis.

While Thai society remains open and accepting towards mixed marriages, the same cannot be said of Thailand's immigration policies, particularly as they relate to foreign ownership and foreign employment within the kingdom. Of the few occupations open to western educated foreigners, English teaching must certainly account for the lion's share, as the demand for native English teachers (NETs) continues to experience burdgeoning growth within both the public and private sectors. While the proliferation of evening and weekend private schools and the expansion of English programs within the K-12 public systems has grown steadily over the last 25 years, the rate has become increasingly frenetic in recent times as the spectre of ASEAN's Free Trade Area (AFTA) accord looms over parents, fearful that their childrens' futures are less than assured without English.

The growing demand for NETs within Thailand unfortunately smacks up against the country's developmental status vis a vis its more prosperous neighbours, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Unable to match the salary packages offered by the more prosperous nations within the ASEAN community, Thailand has had to lower its standards in terms of who it hires. The only mandatory qualification required by the Ministry of Education is that western educated applicants have a bachelor degree in any field. Different schools and universities within Thailand's rigid hierarchical and elitist system may supplement this with additional requirements such as teaching experience and a TEFL diploma, which coincidentally may account for the disproportionately large number of private institutes and organizations offering CELTA training in-country. Unfortunately, as most schools and universities run their recruitment drives between March and May3 each year, the ones who start late or are in less favourable rural locations often experience a paucity of eligible candidates and may be forced at the last minute to hire underqualified NETs, who have degrees in subject majors that have nothing to do with language teaching and little or no teaching experience.

The less than enviable situation many schools find themselves in at the beginning of each academic year can be further exasberated by the fact that without any central authority within the Ministry of Education being in charge of recruitment, hiring and the evaluation of NETs within the country as a whole, it is quite possible for NETs who keep losing their jobs to simplypack up and move to another school in another province. Although immigration has improvedits apprehension record in recent years, some NETs, who continually manage to reinvent themselves, hold counterfeit degrees to begin with, euphemistically referred to as Khao San Road degrees, so-named after the street in Bangkok where so many of the arriving backpackers congregate. Even those holding bonafide degrees sometimes, on the advice of unscrupulous language school operators, opt to forgo the hassles of work permits and taxes by taking short-term teaching jobs under the table.

Complaints about Thailand's NETs have become endemic enough that after years of inaction, the Ministry of Education began in 2011 to introduce more stringent hiring requirements for all applicants in K-12 public and private school system and for those wishing to work for private companies. For those holding a bachelor degree but no teaching certificate NETs should complete and pass a one-year teacher training certification program in addition to a 20-hour Thai culture and ethics course. As in-country teacher certification is both expensive, equivalent to about three months salary, and not recognized anywhere other than Thailand, few foreigners appear interested in obtaining the certificate but choose instead to select schools that have turned a blind eye to the requirements. Again market forces, demand exceeding supply, fuelled by the paranoia that the AFTA accord may reek on Thailand's unprepared youth, trump efforts to rationalize and standardize a system that is sorely in need of professionalization.

Complaints about NETs by host national teachers and senior management run the gamut from issues related to punctuality, absenteeism and appearance to unprofessional conduct within and outside the classroom. Berating students, feuding with staff and refusing to acceptduties that fall outside the scope of teaching are some of the most frequently cited complaints mentioned. At the risk of stereotyping what is definitely a hetereogenous group of people, which does, of course, include many commendably devoted and proficient teachers, NETs by and large tend to view their jobs solely in terms of the classes they have been assigned. Although paid two to three times what their Thai colleagues earn, NETs within the public school sector often chaffe at the requirement of remaining on site for the full duration of each school day, feeling that as long as they come to their assigned classes, they should be free toleave whenever they want. Understandably, few lead teachers and program heads would agree with this sentiment, feeling that contract teachers, like everyone else on staff, should remain on site for the duration of each work day in order to field student questions, provide remedial assistance when needed, and assist their Thai colleagues with matters related to language and language learning.

It is worth noting that the situation Thailand finds itself with its growing complement of NETs was not always the way it is today. From the 1980s through to the early 1990s schools and universities were not permitted to hire salaried contract teachers directly but instead had to rely on ahsahsamahk or volunteers provided by international development assistance organizations like the US Peace Corp, the British VSO and Canada's CUSO, all of which weremanaged in-country and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affair's Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation unit (DTEC, now TICA). Donor nations bore the cost of

recruitment and screening, airfares and health insurance and provided in-country cultural and language training while Thailand, for its part, provided government housing and a basic salary, commensurate with what a Thai teacher would earn. Although extremely successful, the last of the volunteer programs ended in 1995 when donor countries decided that Thailand was economically developed enough to bear the total cost of training, recruiting and hiring language specialists on its own.

While it is difficult to compare the two eras, volunteer vs post-volunteer, as the English teaching industry has changed so much over the last twenty years, morphing into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today, suffice it to say that there are some striking differences between the teachers who came as volunteers and those who come today as contract teachers. First, when western donor nations were entrusted with recruitment and hiring, they had a far larger support system from which to vet applicants than any school or institution hasin Thailand. The application process within Canada's CUSO, for example, could run well over a year with numerous interviews, orientation sessions, and a thorough background check being conducted well before a prospective candidate left the country. Once arriving in-country, new arrivals would spend another six weeks in language training and cultural sensitivity classes before they would begin their two year posting. Periodic follow-up visits by field staff officers would help to insure that each NET was adapting to the challenges of a particular community and contributing to a particular school or university's developmental goals. In stark contrast to this, most Thai schools today have neither the resources nor the trained personnel to do more than a single on-site interview and a cursory background check.

The training that earlier volunteers received provided them with a developmental perspective that is all too often lacking among today's contract teachers. Volunteers tended to be assigned to teacher colleges or educational centres, where in addition to teaching regular classes of high school and post-secondary level students, they could also provide professional development to Thai teachers in the community. As most postings were for two years, volunteers tended to aim their sights towards the creation of sustainable structures such as teacher training programs, the establishment of resource and self-access centres and curriculum development as a way to insure an enduring legacy that reflected well on boththemselves and the countries they represented. In other words, most viewed English teacher,whether rightly or wrongly, as a noble pursuit, as a way to empower others.

Also, because the numbers of volunteers in-country were far fewer than the number of legal and illegal contract teachers working in-country today, volunteers were usually placed selectively to work with only those members of Thai society that needed English for their professional careers: tourism majors, English teachers and overseas bound scholarship students. Today, with the increased importance assigned to English across all walks of life in Thailand, stemming from its lingua franca status within the ASEAN community, contract teachers are found practically anywhere English is being taught from nursery school level right up through doctoral programs. While many, especially the foreign contract teachers whohave a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, would argue that such change represents the democratization of English instruction in Thailand: rather than a select few having the opportunity to better themselves through the acquisition of a second language the opportunity is now open to everyone. But as many Thai are coming to realize, this opportunity comes at a stiff price.

Of course, there is no turning back the clock to bygone days but there is much that can and

should be done. First and foremost, Thais need to re-evaluate the ascendancy of English in the ASEAN community, critically reflecting upon the issues raised in this volume. Yes, the language does have a place. Thailand's reliance on tourism alone assures its value and continuation but do all students in the country need to achieve proficiency in English in order to lead productive, meaningful lives in their own country? The answer is a resounding 'no', especially in light of the fact that with four countries sharing borders with Thailand, the kingdom would be better advised to focus on the languages of its neighbours. With the larger ASEAN community and its regional trading partners accounting for 40% of the world population with a combined GDP of $17 trillion4, Thailand's sustainable future certainly lies increasingly closer to home, and by extension with the languages in the region. As there are clear advantages, both personally and professionally, in mastering a second language, the question is not whether languages should be taught in the kingdom's schools and universities but rather why English should cast a shadow over everything else.

NOTES

1 http://www.tatnews.org/thailand-welcomed-26-7-million-visitor-arrivals-in-2013-exceeding- target/

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

3 This may now change due to the fact that Thailand's school year is being realigned to coincide with other ASEAN member countries.

4 https://csis.org/publication/asean-and-partners-launch-regional-comprehensive-economic- partnership