Thread: John Wrenshall & background checks

Originally Posted by Umbuku

And this policy is not AUAs alone. Many schools and language centres practice the same blinkered policy of hiring those who will work cheap even if they are sex addicted or an alcoholic or a potential kiddie fiddler.

I doubt the management at AUA will change over this. They will be too busy burying their heads in the sand and charming the right people to care for the bigger picture beyond the bottom line. Just like many other institutions of learning in the land of smiles.

That's right, but keep in mind that AUA prides itself in being one of the oldest, largest and most prestigous ESL schools in Thailand. Thus, shouldn't we reasonably expect AUA to be at the cutting edge of maintaining a clean, transparent operation? In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, and the coincidence of Wrenshall getting caught simply points up what many of us saw when we worked there. AUA simply doesn't care about your past if you're willing to sign their standard form contract.

Just asking applicants to sign a privacy waiver so that background checks could be more easily done might deter dodgy applicants from applying. But again, I remind you that AUA management is not receptive to suggestions or petitions from the ESL teachers.

I hope this changes; time will tell, I guess.

"...surely it would be easier to refer to an international fiddler's register"

The US has registered sex offender sites that can be accessed online.
A google will get you to a site. They are easy to use.
It won't tell you why someone is registered, but it's a starting place. If someones name is there, you can look deeper into their background.

What is the financial incentive, if any, for doing background checks?

A school's enrollment is likely to suffer when students learn that they are being taught by criminals, alcoholics, sex tourists, character disordered individuals, and worse. And I find it hard to believe that high quality teachers with clean resumes will stay at (or be attracted by) schools whose reputation has been sullied by dodgy characters.

The ESL market in Bangkok has become increasingly competitive. AUA is likely to suffer considerable enrollment fallout from its policy of not vetting incoming (or existing) staff and managers. Other schools should take note and clean house before they suffer the same embarrassing fate!

Originally Posted by mustafarodupthere

Give it to them. They will smile at you and when you turn around throw it in the trash. The appropriate authorities don't want to hear a farang telling them what to do.

As far as the reputation TEFL farangs have, its deserved. Most of them are unqualified sex tourists who decided to stay, took a 120 hr. TEFL course and are now being called "teachers" What a joke!. Too easy to get a job here.

I've found what you say is true about a lot of the TEFL farangs I have met in the past year and a half. The thing is a lot of these farangs never took the TEFL course and still got a job. I've seen "teachers" of English from Ethiopia, the Phillipines, France, Camerron, Nigeria, Ghana, Italy, and other countries where English is not their first language. Most schools are only looking for someone who appears to be able to speak English. The administrators of the schools could hardly care whether the teacher's accented English can be understood by the students.

You can't trust the Thai officials not to fuck this up. Just look at Korea as an example. Last year I had to make a special trip to Canada just to get a piece of paper (which I already had from 2004 - and I've been out of the country since then) so that I could keep doing the same job I had been for the previous three years. And this year I'll get to make a special trip again to get the same piece of paper for 2009.

Whatever you do make sure to request that Thai authorities keep a registry so that teachers don't need to submit the same paperwork every year or every time they change jobs.

Originally Posted by Eric C

But, I wish someone would tell me how it's possible to take more than 1 or 2 trips a month down to Nana or Soi Cowboy on a 30k - 40k teacher's wage? Have I missed the ex-pat teachers discount section at these places?

Drink less. Go late in the month when rents are due.

Originally Posted by LDMA

The problem with this international register thing is that the Uk would not be able to be party to it under the Data Protection Act which forbids the transfer of most personal data outside of Europe without that person's permission.

As I mentioned earlier, schools can ask applicants to sign a waiver of their Data Protection Act privacy rights. Just asking might deter some dodgy applicants from pursuing a teaching career here.