Here's a young student blogging about their 'Worst Teacher'*
Why do the students hate him?
The problem with him is that he always takes the student’s money. He always took 3,000 riel a month... and for the month’s test he took 500 riel more. When we had an examination he took 1,000 riel for one paper.
2 students can’t afford the bribe, the writer continued. And although the teacher allows them to remain in class ‘he is always angry at them.’
So some of the classmates chip in to help their poor friends: “When they gave the money he looks so happy and took it very fast,’ the blogger wrote.
The students asked him "Why you still take money from them?" They are the people who don't have someone to take care of because they didn't have parents and no house to live. They just live in a pagoda with the monks and help the monks to do anything in the pagoda or go out to take the food from the citizens from one house to another house.
An imaginative story by a young Cambodian? Could be. Much more likely though, is that the story is true.
Happens all the time, in the cities, towns and villages of Cambodia and it's an ugly, early introduction to the cesspit that is Cambodian corruption.
*I've cleaned up some of the grammar for the sake of clarity.
Philip that's just aweful. Would it be stupid of me to ask if the teacher was Cambodian or foreign?
ReplyDeleteCambodian. I can guarantee it happens all day and every day, here. My students talk about it often. I joke about it all the time with them- they look sick until they understand it's only the weird foreigner's sense of humour. :-) I'm sure it happens, in Thailand, too. Possibly not to the same extent.
ReplyDeleteThe girls we sponsor, used to suffer. When they couldn't pay money to attend the teachers 'special' classes he marked them down in their exams.
Philip, I've never heard of that in Thailand, quite the opposite. I've read that when some teachers have failed a student, their marks/scores are 'adjusted' to a pass. Failing is not an option here, nor is repeating a grade, and hence, the proper education is not always received. Just what I've read and heard. Perhaps they see it as losing face, or a reflection on the teacher's skills or the school's reputation?
ReplyDeleteBy the way http://strayandsnap.blogspot.com/2011/07/tag-youre-it-for-my-7-links-when.html
;)
'adjusted to a pass' Yes, that is true. I was always asked to give my failing Thai students an easier test so that they could 'pass.' And many Thai teachers simply allow them to cheat, or give them the answers in the exam. Seen it, hated it!
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of talk too, that some of the parents of the weakest students at my school (those that had been through this charade and still didn't pass) paid cash to ensure their kids could move up a grade.
Such was the prestige of the school, parents were said to pay 20,000 baht and more to keep them there. Rings true but can't confirm.
Oh, and thanks. :-)