Teachers seduced by lucrative private work
Print Edition
MATH teacher Zhang Huai quit his job at a primary school in Minhang District last year, but his career as an educator is still going strong.
He decided to give up his stable job to become a full-time remedial tutor after educational authorities imposed a ban on primary and middle school teachers moonlighting as private tutors. Violators can face dismissal.
Zhang is not alone. It is estimated that up to 10,000 Shanghai teachers offer private tutoring, many of them having left jobs at schools or commercial educational organizations, according to Changing Edu, a company that provides an application that allows parents to evaluate and “buy” the personalized services of 2,500 teachers registered with it. They call themselves “free teachers” or “independent teachers.”
The nation’s education authorities have been trying for 10 years to crack down on extracurricular teaching, which is blamed for placing too much pressure on tender young minds. They are up against determined parents obsessed with the need to prepare their children for the tough exams preceding enrollment in the best schools.
In 2014, the Ministry of Education adopted a new rule that explicitly banned teachers employed by schools from giving after-class lessons, either for commercial companies or privately. It came amid allegations that some teachers were focusing more on after-hours work than on regular classes. Some teachers were even accused of intentionally omitting some content required by the syllabus from classroom work so that it could be taught only to students who paid after hours, thus lifting their test scores.
One mother, surnamed Feng, told Shanghai Daily that her senior high school son took after-hours classes in Chinese, English, math, chemistry and physics. The courses were organized by teachers when he was in middle school.
“He shuttled between classes every weekend,” she said. “It was a heavy burden for our family.”
The new ban hasn’t made any difference, she said. Her son now attends tutoring courses held by former teachers.
“We don’t dare stop cramming as long as other students are still doing it,” she said.
For teachers, extracurricular tutoring is a way of padding modest salaries.
“It's a realistic choice,” said Zhang, who had been a classroom teacher for nine years. “I have to pay the loan on my house and support my family.”
Zhang declined to reveal his former school salary, but Sun Naxin, principal of a local primary school, said that it would have certainly been less than what an independent teacher can earn.
“A new teacher is usually paid about 4,000 yuan (US$613) a month,” she said. “That increases to 6,000-7,000 yuan after 10 years.”
Several teachers said their extracurricular earnings before the ban were much higher than their school salaries.
“With that part of their income gone, it’s not surprising that some teachers quit to go private,” Sun said.
Instead of handling several classes with dozens of students, Zhang now tutors primary students on a one-to-one basis and charges 200-300 yuan an hour.
His courses run eight to 10 hours a day on weekends and during school holidays, and several hours after school on weekdays. That suggests he can easily earn more than 20,000 yuan a month.
Zhang said he doesn’t lack for students because he had a good reputation as a classroom teacher and word-of-mouth among parents is positive. He also gets some clients from the Changing Edu app.
“I am so fully booked now that my next available slots aren’t until the summer,” he said.
Good teachers are in very high demand.
Du Dianqing was poached from a middle school in central China’s Hubei Province to teach physics at a prestigious private school in the Pudong New Area in 2007. He was known for the high scores his students achieved on university entrance exams.
In 2011, he decided to go private.
“Not all students are satisfied with being taught under the standard syllabus,” he said. “Some students need advanced lessons. But teachers cannot do that well at schools because they suffer from all kinds of constraints.”
Du rented a room and began to teach students on weekends. He declined to reveal his earnings but said it is no myth that good independent teachers can earn more than 1 million yuan a year.
Not all classroom teachers admire those who go independent.
“Being a teacher does not mean merely teaching courses,” said Feng Yicheng, a math teacher at the Shanghai Experimental School. “A teacher also has the responsibility to help students build good personalities to promote their all-round growth.”
There are also concerns about the lack of regulation over private teachers.
“They don’t register with any governmental agencies and no one checks their qualifications,” said Zhu Naimei, principal of the Xunyang Road Primary School. “People with no teaching credentials can advertise online as tutors. Parents run the risk of wasting their money.”
Sun, the other local school principal, said raising teachers’ salaries would be one way to counter the exodus of talented staff.
“The number of teachers leaving is only a small portion now,” she said. “But as more independent teachers succeed, the attraction will also increase.”
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