More than 35 Filipino teachers with 100 other foreign nationalities working in the northern region attended the 20-Hour Training on Thai Culture, Language and Professional Standards on August 1-3, 2008. The Association of Filipinos in Thailand – Northern Region Chapter (AFT-NRC) headed by its newly elected officers Mr. Art Elbinias and Ms. Gigi Narrido helped in disseminating the information on this important teacher licensing requirements in the northern area. After the training, the Filipino participants expressed their appreciation to the speakers especially to the speaker on Thai culture and language, Ms. Puthachad Sucharitakul. Her impressive presentation skills changed the negative perception the training is getting from the foreign teaching industry…at least to the Filipino teachers’ community. Miss Gigi Narrido shared her honest views on the said training at www. aftnrc.wordpress.com.
It is estimated that Filipino teachers comprise almost 50 percent of the foreign teachers working in Thailand. Almost 40-50% of the number of participants in all trainings conducted by the PSTAT in all parts of the country consists of Filipinos alone. It is safe to assume that the Filipino teachers are indeed one of the strong backbones of basic education in Thailand.
Worth mentioning was the training held on July 24-26, 2008 at Assumption College – Primary Bangkok where a small group of united Filipino teachers has a special bonding of helping each other. Mr. Pompeyo Samaniego, one of the pioneer teachers at Assumption Commercial College, explained that it is important that all Filipino teachers need to help each other especially in the workplace in maintaining a certain high level of professional standards that will continue to ensure high confidence of the Thai community to the Filipinos’ teaching capabilities. Truly, this is something that all Filipino teachers need to emulate.
Abel Morales Cadias
