Musings of a 'brand new' retired teacher

I am officially retired on September 1, 2021. That is to say: I no longer work for the university in Bangkok where I started in 2008.

And to be even more precise: I am now 68 and I have been retired for Dutch standards since the day I turned 65 (only for my private pension) and since 66 years and 8 months for the State of the Netherlands because from then on I (with a 2% discount for every year I worked in Thailand) from them. In the last years of working in Thailand, I actually had two salaries: my pension benefits and my teacher's salary.

Some readers will think that going to work in Thailand is not that smart because you only lose money: a clearly lower (gross and net) salary than in the Netherlands and then also handing in old age pension. You can choose to supplement that AOW yourself in order to qualify for 100% AOW, but that is not possible with every Thai income. I also have to pay the rent and I also have to eat. In addition, I paid my share in the university studies of my two daughters in the Netherlands.

However, working in Thailand also has an advantage: you are insured for health insurance through your employer through Social Security (and never pay bills for doctors, medicines and hospital). For this, approximately 750 Baht is deducted from your salary every month. Yesterday I went to the Social Security office. Reason: I had to hand over a paper from my head of human resources that I no longer work. I now receive all those monthly amounts that I have paid back to my account within 14 days, more than 100.000 Baht. And in addition, and that is not unimportant, I have extended my health insurance through the SSO until my death for an amount of approximately 800 Baht (€ 25 at the current exchange rate) per month. That is something completely different from private health insurance that many expats living in Thailand have to take out, not counting the possible exclusions (with the exception of a repaired Achilles tendon, I have nothing), the age restriction and Covid coverage. Speaking of money, I save an estimated 300 to 400 Euros per month as long as I live. For example, when I turn 90, about 22 (years) * 12 (months) * € 350 = € 90.000, or about 3 million Baht, in addition to all the (perhaps annual) headaches about renewal of insurance and exclusions and a possible future linking health insurance and a visa.

Comparison Thailand-Netherlands in terms of work

I have worked in university education in the Netherlands for about 10 years and now in Thailand for 15 years. I do have an impression about the differences in working as a teacher. Let me lift a few corners of the veil so that you know a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes of all those beautiful buildings.

1. In Thailand there is mainly paper bureaucracy with minor consequences for the workplace. In the Netherlands there is much more of an institutionalized bureaucracy. The individual freedom of the teacher to organize his lessons as he sees fit is much greater in Thailand than in the Netherlands. Let me clarify that with an example. In the Netherlands, the BBA programs are described down to lesson plan level. If you have to take over a lesson from a colleague, it is already 95% detailed on paper what you have to say and how. Simple, efficient but also not very stimulating. In Thailand, there is only a brief description of the courses. How you organize the lessons, which subjects, which exam strategy can be determined by the teacher. Of the 6 courses I gave in the past year, I have spoken to 1 teacher in the past few weeks about what I have been doing in the past year and I have sent him all my materials. The other 5 teachers most likely make their own course and don't care what I did last year in the course under the same name. Quality reports are made of all courses at the end of the semester. In the Netherlands they are spelled because every external audit wants to see some of them, wants to know what has been done with them, see the management decisions, the follow-up etc etc. In Thailand it is checked whether the report is there and put in a large binder. Read? I do not think so. Really what to do with it? No. It is sufficient that the form is completed and signed.
2. A few years ago, the Thai Ministry of Education decided that for the sake of quality, every teacher must have an academic qualification that is 1 level higher than the students in his classes. Specifically, you must have an MBA to teach BBA students and a PhD to teach the MBAs. I have an MBA and 25 years of experience in professional research, but I was no longer allowed to teach research to the MBA students. That was taken over by my colleague who has a PhD in Chinese language and literature three years ago. This decision also had other consequences: Thais with only a BBA were no longer offered teaching jobs and the PhDs of any faculty were overvalued. The management of Thai universities seems to accept these decisions without a fight (rules are rules and there are no exceptions) and there are no unions that can stand up for teachers in consultation with the government, as in the Netherlands. The result, in my opinion, is not an increase but a reduction in quality. My university colleague in the Netherlands, who had not even finished high school but had worked his way up to a 1-star Michelin chef, would never get an employment contract in Thailand.

Have I noticed any corruption in all these years? No, not directly, but that can also be difficult if you have nothing to do with the money flows in the faculty where you work. What I did notice:

1. There's a safe in the dean's room and it contains quite a bit of cash. Currently, suppliers in Thailand prefer to be paid in cash, but it also offers the opportunity to 'play' with money transactions;
2. Colleagues were promoted in their work for no apparent reason, but also punished. Personal reasons were usually the basis for this;
3. Efficiency is not a real management principle. Things are done, decisions are made that can really be achieved with less cost and energy, but that is not the issue;
4. Teachers have little or no say in policy. If there are teachers' meetings at all, it is mainly one-way traffic: the dean talks and everyone listens. Of course he asks for comment but he doesn't want to hear it, so everyone is silent. About 12 years ago I introduced monthly teacher meetings with permission from the dean of course. In the beginning I was chairman and secretary of the meeting. As a reminder of the past, I have kept the records of those meetings. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. There were only 4 because then the dean informed me that a Thai college would take over the chairmanship (I'm happy) after which an internal teachers' meeting was never held again.