TEFLWatch Pulls the Plug on ESL Forums
TEFL Watch, a website dedicated to aiding ESL teachers make informed decisions about employment, has shut down its forum. After weeks of intense pressure and backhanded tactics from Thailand private language school owners to remove their names from the site's forum blacklist, Rico, the site administrator, had this to say on the site as a farewell message:
"TEFL Watch Forum has decided to close after more than 2 years in operation. It hardly comes as a surprise, but it's a little disheartening to see a forum that has helped so many teachers get out of trouble is having trouble of it's own. In fact, this is probably the end of the site and the end of the help it is giving teachers."
One of the features of TEFL Watch was a forum where teachers could rate schools on a scale of 1 to 5 and leave feedback, essentially a blacklist. This forum was called the 'Hall of Shame'. Up until now, this has been a great resource for teachers wanting to find information, and possible risks, about employment opportunities. Some schools owners in Thailand took offence to this list and retaliated by creating a blacklist for teachers, which they circulated via fax to other private institutions in Thailand. This blacklist, however, censured teachers for their participation on the TEFL Watch forums, not necessarily for poor teaching. When teachers became aware they were on a blacklist they criticized the school owners and demanded they be removed from such a list. The school owners countered by threatening to further mar the reputations of other teachers if the forum on TEFL Watch was not removed. The teachers who had participated on the forum appealed for help from other related forums and website owners, but these parties were unable to do much to the school owners or repeal the teacher blacklist. In the end, TEFL Watch closed its forum to prevent any further damages to the teachers who participated in it.
Rico, the alias of the site administrator, has given an interview with Phil Bangkok of www.ajarn.com. You can view the entire interview here: http://www.ajarn.com/Hot%20seat/hotseatgreg.htm
For further info, check out TEFL Watch at:
http://www.teflwatch.com/
For Rico's farewell message, refer to:
http://www.teflnews.net/teflwatch-forum-2008164.html
For further statements made by Rico and other teachers, refer to the www.ajarn.com forums at:
http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/staffroom/29708-teflwatch-forums-closed-permanently.html
The posting on the forum that you refer to concerning a blacklist is actually written by a school lackey troll and was an attack upon teachers. No such blacklist exists, at least one of forum members. That was another attempt of the school to scare teachers.
TW Forum closed because I got tired of the trolls. One school was hiring trolls to attack schools. I asked other teachers to take up the case if they cared, they didn't care so I closed it up, plain and simple.
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Thanks for the info. I knew the forums that you put up were very useful for teachers, too bad things did not go as you wished. It’s sad when something closes, when its true intent was to help out rather than cause division.
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I said goodbye to Thailand two years ago, and I'm glad I did.
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Most of the old posts both from the main site and the forum have been kept on TEFL School Reviews.
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