This blog is to let everybody know about Chatrwittaya School in Bangkok Thailand and its owner Mrs. Wanwipa Rosjan. Any foreign teacher planning on teaching in Thailand should know about this school and STAY AWAY from it. This blog is also for Thai parents. I will share with you my experiences with this school and its owner, Mrs. Wanwipa Rosjan, so that you may decide for yourself whether this is a school you want to work at or send your children to.
Let's start from the beginning...
I knew Mrs. Rosjan through the Dhammakaya temple. I did an internship at this temple during college and saw her many times on her frequent visits to the temple. As a supporter of the temple, she greatly appreciated my service to the temple as an intern. She even helped me get a non-immigrant B visa under her school so that I could come back and work for the temple again. Although I had good times volunteering at this temple, I couldn’t work for free forever. Eventually I returned to America.
Back in America, I was looking for work as an English teacher. I remember Mrs. Rosjan mentioned that I could teach at her school. I emailed her to ask if she had any positions open. She offered me a position immediately as long as I would agree to commit to the job for 10-11 months. In this email she describes the kind of work I will be doing:
Dear *****,
We wish to have you help in the our secondary level to uplift English and Mathematics. Our class is small which we combined 9-10 or 11-12 in some subjects. Thai children are weak in critical thinking and need the teacher's attention more than you've experienced. Your strong writing skills will help them in bringing up their proficiency but you have to be patience and act like their brother or father according to the circumstance. If you could explore some good programs to prepare them for TOEFL or SAT,that will be wonderful. If you did not fill yourreentry visa before you left Thailand you've lost your Non immigrant B visa. Would you rather have it grant in USA by one of our consulate or you like to go to Laos after your tourist visa expire. I will you by May, in case you like to arrive earlier to join Earth Day Celebrations, please let me know. We have a room for you to stay in the school premise at no cost but you need to clean it by yourself. It is not allow to smoke or drink alcoholic drink in the school. I can pay about 1200$ per month for the start. The school offers free lunch on the weak day. Hope to hear your opinion.
Best,
P' Nok
Let me point out that I do not have a degree in education. I have a Bachelor of Science in Radio/TV/Film with a minor in Asian studies. I was confident that I could teach English because I've done it before. I told Mrs. Rosjan that I was pretty good at math and maybe I could tutor for the lower levels.
At the time I did not have the money for a plane ticket to Thailand. She offered to pay for the ticket. She told me to find a ticket online and forward it to her. I found a one way ticket for about $800. She said she could not afford that and then bought a two way ticket through Korean Airlines. I know her daughter is a co-pilot so I figured she probably used her connections with her daughter to find something really cheap for me.
So I was off to Thailand on April 29. The first day of school was on May 19. The weeks before school were spent with some staff meetings, cleaning the classrooms and lots of lesson planning. There were 3 other new foreign teachers. For sake of privacy I'm going to give them some false names: Greg, Ben, and Katie.
The coordinating teacher's name was Jojo (yes, that's his real name). He was the teacher that had been working there the longest and was in charge of almost everything. Although Mrs. Rosjan actually lives at the school, she doesn't do much to manage the school. Jojo is responsible for most day to day school management.
I thought I was going to be teaching English and maybe tutoring in math. When I got to the school I was being asked to teach math, global studies, science, economics, and drama! After much negotiation I got Jojo to reduce my subjects to English, global studies and film (I offered film instead of drama, since that was part of my college education). But even after that was negotiated I was still pressured to teach other subjects. After I refused to teach science I was still asked later if I would do it anyway because the parents really wanted an American to teach science.
In addition to our lesson planning we were responsible for cleaning the classrooms also. The classrooms were absolutely filthy. My classroom was just abandoned. The teacher who use to use the classroom didn’t really remove any of her stuff. There were years of old papers, assignments, and books cluttered all over the classroom. The floors and desks were disgustingly dirty. While I should have been focusing all my time on lesson planning, I was spending a large part of my day cleaning the classroom. After it was clean I was then asked to decorate it! I had 12 subject to prepare for! Decorating the classroom was one of my last priorities.
Jojo gave me the books that the students would be using. I was supposed to design my lesson plans around those books. Altogether I had 12 subjects to teach. I was expected to write a complete semester plan and the first two weeks' of lesson plans for all these subjects. For SOME of the classes I was given the previous year's curriculum. I had to ask for these several times before I got them. Jojo was unable to find them at first. Even when I got them it was rather worthless because the school didn't have the same books. I worked tirelessly for two weeks to get my semester plans ready before the first day of school. Needless to say, it was impossible. The other foreign teachers were on edge. They were unable to create brand new curricula for their classes either. They couldn't believe the lack of organization of the school (lost curricula, lack of teaching material, very few teacher guidelines, etc.)
The day before school started Jojo had not finished the class schedules. He got a verbal beating from Mrs. Rosjan and then we were asked to all work together with Jojo to finish the scheduling. It was a disaster. Jojo was trying to piece together a schedule by copying the schedule from the previous year. We tried to help Jojo but it was a pretty hopeless situation. The schedule was partially finished by the first day of school. There were tons of schedule problems in the first week. Some of my classes changed because of schedule conflicts. This complicated my lesson planning further. Some grades were combined into one class to compensate for a schedule conflict. For example, at first I was to teach Reading to grades 7 and 8 separately, but Jojo combined the two grades into one reading class to make the schedules fit. I had already made separate lesson plans for grades 7 and 8. Overall, the school's poor administration wasted a tremendous amount of my time. Jojo and Mrs. Rosjan were not interested in all the complications their poor administration was causing me. In fact, I was blamed for not finishing my lesson plans quickly enough.
On the first day of school we went to the storage room to retrieve the students’ textbooks. This is when Jojo realized that there were not enough books for the students. He had to change the textbook for several of my classes so that there were enough books for the students. I had been designing my entire curricula on the first set of books he gave me two weeks before school started! I had to start all over on the semester plans and lesson plans for several of my classes. Once again, Jojo did not recognize or care about my frustration. He continued to expect me to finish my lesson plans on time.
During this book dilemma, Jojo actually asked me to help him decide on the books for the students. It was the first day of school for me. I had never taught these students before so I did not know my students competency level. Jojo had been working at Chatrwittaya for 10 years. He knew the names of all my students. Yet he was unable to gauge their competency levels well enough to select appropriate textbooks for them. Choosing the right textbook is something that should have been done months before school started by someone who has worked with the students and was capable of selecting challenging material. Now the decision was being delegated to me.
By the first week of school, two of the other foreign teachers were considering leaving the school. Our weekly staff meetings grew hostile. Me and the other foreign teachers complained about the unrealistic teaching expectations and the lack of provided teaching material. Jojo didn't have any solutions. He ignored our complaints and then got upset when we failed to meet his expectations.
Within the first few weeks of school, Greg came to speak to me privately. He told me he wouldn't be coming back on Monday because he found another job. He complained about the school for a while and then wished me luck. I knew Ben would be leaving soon too.
On Monday Jojo told me I had to pick up some of Greg's teaching hours. I asked where he was. Jojo hesitated in his answer. He told me that he is sick. I didn't know why Jojo found it necessary to lie to me. This made my job even harder because I had even less time for my lesson planning. I still hadn't finished my semester plans for all my classes. I was already spending most of my time after work making lesson plans. The job was consuming my life. I had to miss school for a couple days because I was so sick and exhausted.
With what little time I had I did some job hunting. It didn't take long before I scheduled an interview. Before I had my interview with a different school, payday finally came. We were paid in cash. I was not given my full salary. Remember the email said $1200 per month? That's 36,000 THB per month. I was given 25,000 THB for the first month. They only paid us for the days school was actually in session. The two weeks before school when I was working on all my lesson plans and cleaning the classroom everyday was not considered part of my salary. I guess I was just doing that for free. I had the interview coming up with the other school so I didn't complain. I took the money and hoped I would find a new job soon.
I'm going to add in a detail here that will seem irrelevant, but it becomes very important later. I had a girlfriend during all this chaos. She was just one year younger than me. She was a 5th year student at her university. During that week I was doing my job hunting she came to visit me. I lived in a guest room on the 3rd floor of the school. She was very sick that day and did not feel well enough to go back home so she stayed overnight. The next morning she left early before anybody arrived at the school. She came to visit me one other time and stayed overnight again, not because she was sick but just because she lived quite far from the school and didn't want to go home. None of the students saw her. The janitor saw us walking to my room, but that's all.
At one point Mrs. Rosjan invited me to her room at the school to have some lunch with one of her American friends. His name was John. I had already had lunch but I stopped by for a little bit. I met John and chatted with him for a bit. Mrs. Rosjan told me he knows a lot about the law in Thailand and if I need any help or information about the law I could ask him. John and I were chatting about the cultural differences between America and Thailand. Mrs. Rosjan interjected by saying "You have to be careful in Thailand, it's illegal to sleep with women under 17." John and I laughed at the awkwardness of the comment. We chatted for a few more minutes and then I left. The idea seemed far-fetched, but I wondered if that comment about underage women was because she knew I had a girlfriend who was a student. Even if she knew that, it was obvious my girlfriend was over 17. I didn't think much of it.
I had my interview for the other school on a Sunday. I was offered a job at that school on the same day. The working conditions, hours, and salary were way better so I accepted. On Monday I called in sick just to give myself some time to figure out what I was going to do. I was looking for new apartments with my girlfriend. We stopped at her University and I checked my email. I got an email from Mrs. Rosjan. Here's what it said:
Dear *****,
I have to be straight with you before you damage your own and the school's reputation further. Kindly aware that the school premise is private own, it is by law that people cannot enter the school without my permission especially at night is considered as invasion. I will have to report to the police about you bringing in women to the school at night and the school will not let you damage the moral of teaching professional further. We had given you the best chance in your live but you do not honour this chance. You are not responsible in your duty and try to blame the school in what you had failed to cope according to the Thai Ministry of Education standard.You still owe me the ticket fare. I will not tolerate your unprofessional behaviour, therefore you have to return the ticket fare to me immediately and I will have to look at legal process according to your action.
Sincerely,
P' Nok
I couldn't believe it. She was accusing me of "bringing in women at night"? And she just decided immediately that she would contact the police? If she didn't want me bringing any visitors to my room she could have just spoken to me privately and said "Please don't bring visitors to your room. If you want to see friends, please do it outside the school premise." That would have been very clear and non-confrontational. Instead she makes an off-hand comment about sleeping with underage women in Thailand, and at the same time tries to intimidate me with her American friend John who "knows a lot about the law in Thailand." That's unprofessional. Actually, I had yet to learn how unprofessional she could be.
As I was working at this school I was posting my experiences on Ajarn.com, which is an online community of teachers in Thailand. I will provide a link for this thread at the end of this blog. When I got this email from Mrs. Rosjan I panicked and put a post up on Ajarn.com to get some advice. I got responses immediately. One guy actually gave me his phone number and came with me to the school.
At this point I knew I didn't want to be working for this woman anymore. Fortunately I already had my new job lined up. I just needed to collect my stuff from my room. So I went to the school with my girlfriend and this guy that I met on Ajarn.com. Jojo was waiting for me at the front of the school. He told me to wait in the office because Mrs. Rosjan wanted to speak to me. I sat and waited in the office for over 30 minutes. I was feeling very uncomfortable. I didn't want to know what Mrs. Rosjan would do when she came. I told Jojo that I came to get my passport so I am going to go to my room to get my passport. He said I have to stay. I insisted that I go get my passport. He REALLY didn't want me going up to my room. He told me to call Mrs. Rosjan first. So I did. Mrs. Rosjan was furious. She told me that I have no right to go into my room. I told her that I need my passport. She said I do not have permission to go into my room. I told her I'm going anyway. She told me I can't, she put a new lock on the door so I can't get it. I told her that she can speak to me tomorrow, I've waited long enough. I said goodbye and left in a taxi. She called me back just a few minutes later and was furious. She threatened me with police and deportation. I just hung up and left.
I returned the next day with a police officer, my girlfriend, her mom and her mom's neighbor. Once again Jojo was waiting for me. He told me to wait again. Mrs. Rosjan eventually showed up. Heated arguments ensued. I will post a video that my girlfriend took with her phone of the arguments that took place. More police came and watched as Mrs. Rosjan tried to intimidate everybody.
Then I just decided to go up to my room and get my passport. Mrs. Rosjan told me I couldn't but I did anyway. I got to the room. Indeed, it did have a new lock on it. Apparently the janitor didn't know the lock was to keep me out. He saw me standing in front of my room and came back with a screw driver. He took the lock off and let me in. I grabbed my binder of important documents (and my passport) from my room and headed back downstairs. Everybody was still arguing, the police doing nothing. As I sat and watched the arguments I looked in my binder and my passport was not in there. I remember I left it on the table in my room.
So I went back up again. The passport was not on the table. I just decided to pack all my things and leave. As I was packing my suitcases, Mrs. Rosjan came up with the police officer I came with. I think she was expecting him to stop me. But he didn't. I cleared out the entire room and I found no passport. I thought maybe, just maybe, it got mixed in with some of my other stuff. No, Mrs. Rosjan took it from my room. She stole my passport. But I didn't have any proof. It just mysteriously disappeared from my room.
Finally I left the school. I stayed with my girlfriend’s family for a week until I started my new job. I did not want to deal with anybody at Chatrwittaya School again so I just went to the American Embassy and applied for a new passport. I explained my situation to the embassy but they did not offer help to get my passport back. They said they would call Mrs. Rosjan and ask for it, that's all. I gave them her number and they called her. At first she said she could not look for my passport at the moment. Then the embassy informed her that my passport is US property. She offered to return the passport as soon as she can. So basically she just admitted to stealing my passport. I already applied for a new passport anyway, which would take two weeks.
My mom was worried about me because I had told her what happened but then she didn't hear from me for a few days so she actually emailed the school to ask what was going on. Mrs. Rosjan emailed her back and said that I owe her 39,600 THB for the plane ticket. Remember before I started this job, Mrs. Rosjan asked me to find a plane ticket? I found one for $800 and she said she couldn't afford that. Now she says I owe her 39,000 THB?! That's more than $1200! I know she spent less than $800 on the plane ticket and she didn't pay me for 3 weeks of work. That's more than $800. My point is that Mrs. Rosjan has been fully compensated for the plane ticket she bought for me. Even if she was not fully compensated, the plane ticket was never mentioned in the contract. I'll be uploading the contract later for you to see. It's ridiculous.
I'm not sure if Mrs. Rosjan is responsible for the next series of events I am about to describe. It could have been my own foolishness. I came to Thailand on a 60 day tourist visa. About 30-40 days after my arrival I got the necessary paperwork from Mrs. Rosjan's school and changed the visa to a Non-immigrant B. When I left the school, which was about 64 days after my arrival in Thailand, Mrs. Rosjan threatened to cancel my visa. Most people on Ajarn.com didn't believe she could actually do that. The people on Ajarn.com advised me to go on a visa run to Laos and just get a new visa. I would have done this if Mrs. hadn't stolen my passport. I had no passport so I was unable to leave the country to get a new visa. I knew that my visa could be cancelled at any time but I couldn't do anything about that.
I got a call from immigration in Chengwattana. It was urgent. They informed me that my visa had been cancelled. I still didn't have my new passport from the embassy. I already informed the people at immigration that I had no passport and I was waiting for a new one. I went into immigration and spoke to 2 officers. We went over my situation once more (employer stole my passport, waiting for the new one, cancelled visa). We all seemed to understand each other. They seemed to sincerely care about my unfortunate situation and wanted to help me. They gave me a document that I reluctantly signed stating that I understood that my visa has been cancelled and I will need to pay the appropriate overstay fees. One of the officers took me to another office where she spoke to some other people about my situation. After about 40 minutes of discussion she told me that I need to go to another location to pay my overstay fee and finish my paperwork. One of the staff was kind enough to drive me there.
So we drive to the other office, which was quite far. It's already evening so everything was closed. I had seen this office before. I actually went there the first time I tried to change my visa to a non-immigrant B visa, but I was told I came to the wrong place. There are some offices in the front and the IDC (Immigration Detainment Center) in the back. The first time I came to this place I didn't know about the IDC in the back. I just spoke to the people in the front at the offices. This time I was taken back to the IDC, which looks a lot like a police station. The driver said goodbye and I was taken to one of the police offices where they took my paperwork and asked me to wait. I waited outside the office for nearly 2 hours. I went into the office and asked if I could have my paperwork because I had to go. They didn't speak English. The officer working at a computer yelled to someone in the back. A young guy came and grabbed some keys from a box and beckoned me to follow him. I followed to see what would happen. He walked me to a prison cell and opened the door. I was shocked. He was trying to lock me up! I said "No, I'm not here to stay in this cell. I am here to pay my overstay fee." He didn't understand English. He just held the door open. I turned around and walked back to the police office. The officers scrambled to find somebody who spoke English. Finally an officer who spoke English came into the office. I explained to him that I'm here to pay my overstay fee. He looked at my paperwork. He said "Your visa has been cancelled. You have to stay here tonight. When is your flight back to America?" He showed me the papers I signed at the immigration office. The papers didn't say anything about being detained and going back to America. I called my friend from work for some advice. She spoke to the officer and then the officer handed the phone back to me. My friend told me that I have to stay there for one night. I couldn't believe it. I argued with the officer for a while until I accepted my fate. They took all my possessions and put me in the cell.
The next day my girlfriend came to visit me. She told me that I'm being detained until I fly back to America. Once again I was shocked. How did things get so twisted? The officers at the first immigration office in Chengwattana told me I was coming here to pay my overstay fee and that I should go to the US Embassy the next day to get my new passport. Instead I got detained and now I was being told that I'm being deported.
I spent three miserable nights in the detainment center while my girlfriend bought a plane ticket, went to my apartment and packed my bags, called my employer, my family and other friends to inform them what happened to me and tied up any other loose ends. Fortunately my girlfriend was able to get a plane ticket that departed just 2 days later.
I was a zombie by the time I left the detainment center, just sitting there for nearly 3 days contemplating everything that happened, bursting with rage but completely unable to do anything about it. I caught a terrible cold from sleeping on the dirty blankets. Finally the day came for me to leave. I was escorted and transported directly my terminal at the airport. I said a short goodbye to my girlfriend just before I passed through the gates at the airport.
I think all that had happened to me was more a result of my own stupidity rather than a result of what Mrs. Rosjan did. She certainly made things difficult for me but I could have made better choices to avoid what happened to me. I should have ignored immigration until I had a new passport and a new visa. Without a passport or visa I was defenseless. However, maybe even with a new passport and visa I would have been detained. I have no idea. There are a lot of things that happened that I never expected.
So, now I'm back home in America. I'm over everything that happened to me now, but I was shocked for a while. My employer (the new employer) was shocked at what happened to me and really felt sorry for me. She said I'm welcome to come back to work for her school anytime. Since everything that happened, I'm in no hurry to get back to Thailand. I don't know if I'll ever go back.
The main purpose of this blog is to inform teachers and Thai parents about Chatrwittaya school. In my experiences with Mrs Rosjan, she lied, threatened, stole, and intimidated to get what she wanted. All because I "destroyed the reputation of her school." Growing up in American culture, I really didn't realize how anal Thai people can be about a man and woman having some private time together. I admit it was foolish for me to bring my girlfriend to my room. This didn't really seem so inappropriate to me from my American perspective. However, Mrs. Rosjan definitely could have handled the situation much differently. Apparently she knew that I had brought a woman to my room and instead of speaking to me directly, she indirectly tried to intimidate me with her friend who "knows a lot about law in Thailand." After it happened again, she told me that I brought an invader to the school premise and she would call the police. If an uninvited guest came to your house and you didn't like it, would you just continue to let it happen and then call the police telling them somebody is invading your property? That's ridiculous.
Mrs. Rosjan will be very friendly and supportive, until you cross her. She always wants to have the upper hand and she will do anything to keep the upper hand. I noticed this during my employment there. Everybody who works at the school has an unyielding loyalty and fear of her. If you do not do exactly as Mrs. Rosjan says, not only do you have a problem with Mrs. Rosjan, you have a problem with all the staff of Chatrwittaya School. The staff will follow all orders from Mrs. Rosjan for fear of what will happen to them if they don't. This is a grossly unbalanced work environment.
I would advise all teachers to just stay away from this school. Anything is better than working for Chatrwittaya School. I don't think I need to elaborate. This should be obvious to anybody who has read my story. All the other Western teachers who worked with me left. That says something doesn't it? Three teachers at Chatrwittaya School bailed within a month of working there.
For parents:
Don't send your children to this school. You may think it's great because it's a "multilingual" school with foreign teachers, but it's not that great. Mrs. Rosjan knows nothing about education. She's not even involved in the school's activity. She just comes around occasionally giving orders to the staff. She's not a teacher, and she has no idea how to educat children. I'm not even a real teacher and I know more about education than she does. The other staff don't know anything about education either. The coordinating teacher, Jojo, has no idea how to run a school. The only reason he has been given the responsibility of school administration is because he follows every order that Mrs. Rosjan gives to him, without question. He is her most loyal slave.
The education is completely unstructured. The administration is a mess. Remember I said Jojo didn't even have the schedule finished before the first day of school? He even added classes that I had not prepared for after the semester started. None of the foreign teachers stick around long enough to give the students an education that is connected and structured. If you went to Chatrwittaya School and asked to see the curriculum for the English program, they wouldn't be able to give it to you. They don't have a curriculum for anything. They expect their foreign teachers to make all the curricula for the school. They hired me, a 23 year old with no teaching experience and no degree in education and expected me to design the children's educational program with no assistance from professional educators. If you're going to pay expensive tuition for a private school, don't you want your children to be taught by professional educators?
There are far better options for your children. Chatrwittaya School is a waste of money. If your children currently attend Chatrwittaya School, I strongly recommend you get them out. The school is falling apart. They lost half of their foreign staff in one month. I doubt the new staff that replaced me and the other teachers will last long. Student enrollment has been quickly declining. Jojo told me that last year they had over 100 students. Now they have just a little over 60 students.
Well, that’s mostly what I wanted to say. I’ll post later with those videos I mentioned and my ridiculous contract. Please comment if you have any questions.
