Criteria for issuing permits to foreign teachers to be standardised, made stricter, Education Minist

The move aims to rein in schools that recruit unqualified foreigners as teachers.
A committee meeting yesterday approved a proposal to amend |the Teachers’ Council of Thailand |regulation from 2004 on issuing permits to foreign teachers, she said. The |amended regulation would be submitted for approval by the council’s board |before it is implemented.
The amended regulation would require the applicants as follows:
l to be over 20 years old;
l to have obtained a certificate of educational achievement or other equivalent that the Teachers’ Council of Thailand approves;
l to have obtained a teaching permit from abroad or obtained an education certificate that required at least one year of study or a degree in another field with at least 24 units in teaching courses from an institute certified by the Teachers’ Council of Thailand or that country’s public sector, or authorised teaching profession agency while also obtaining at least one year of teaching in a school;
l The applicants must also pass training set by the Teachers’ Council of Thailand including Thai language and culture, related laws to teaching, and Thai education philosophy, in order to understand the foundation of Thai society, she said.
The meeting also agreed to cut the previous requirement for the applicant to have English and Thai language proficiency to arrange classes. This was because they saw that many foreigners who teach foreign languages here including Chinese, Koreans and Japanese don’t need to use only English and Thai, she said.
The meeting also asked the council to formulate the criteria to assess foreigners who already have teaching permits, she said.