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The Misconception of Teachers Having “Easy Jobs and High Salaries”

Extracurricular classes everywhere because teachers force students, low entrance scores but easy jobs and high pay after graduation... these are all serious misconceptions about teachers like me.

Lately, amid discussions about teacher salaries, the rampant spread of private tutoring, and proposals like waiving tuition fees for teachers' children, I’ve noticed a lot of people are developing a very distorted view of the teaching profession. As a teacher myself, I understand there are sides to this job that most people don’t see—or don’t want to understand.

Why is it that whenever the issue of private tutoring comes up, people immediately blame and criticize teachers? Let me ask: if 100% of parents refused to send their kids to extra classes, how would teachers, schools, or tutoring centers even survive? The truth is, there’s a massive demand from both parents and students for extra lessons. Even if the main classroom teacher doesn’t offer any tutoring sessions, parents will seek out other teachers or centers. At the end of the day, it’s about whether the teacher has enough credibility and trust with parents and students.

Let’s put it simply: parents, with just one or two kids at home, often struggle to teach them properly. Meanwhile, a teacher manages a classroom of 40 to 50 students at once. Of course, some students will excel, and some will struggle—that’s perfectly normal. You can’t just accuse teachers of lacking dedication or intentionally withholding knowledge to force students into extra lessons. Why don’t people take a hard look at the overloaded school curriculum and ask whether it’s really been streamlined or if it’s still cramming too much knowledge into too few hours?

And besides, not every teacher is eager to open extra classes. For subjects like math, physics, chemistry, literature, and English, students compete to enroll in tutoring sessions. But what about technology, civic education, history, or geography? How many students are lining up for extra lessons in those fields? I myself have tutored students in math before—not because I was their official math teacher, but simply because some parents trusted me and asked for help. So, what’s wrong with that?

A lot of people think being a teacher is an easy, low-stress job with a salary based purely on classroom hours, but they have no idea. Teaching hours are just one part of the job. There’s a mountain of other responsibilities that aren’t written into any contract.

And if a teacher truly cares about their profession, they’re constantly searching for new teaching methods, meaning they hardly ever reuse old lesson plans. Every year, they tweak and update their materials to keep up with new content. Preparing a lesson plan isn’t easy—sometimes it takes longer to prepare for a class than to actually teach it. Essentially, for every hour a teacher spends in class, they spend at least another hour prepping at home. So no, teachers' working hours aren’t as light as people imagine.

As for those who argue that today's teachers are unqualified because entrance scores for education majors used to be low, I completely disagree. That might have been somewhat true about five years ago, but in recent years, entrance scores for education have risen sharply—comparable to majors like medicine, pharmacy, or information technology. A lower university entrance score doesn't automatically mean someone is less competent. After all, not everyone who graduates with honors becomes a great teacher.

On top of all that, today’s teachers face enormous pressure from students and parents alike. Any small misstep is magnified and harshly judged by the community. One moment of carelessness can cost a teacher their entire career. That’s why so many of my colleagues have adopted a "play it safe" mentality—teaching just enough to get by rather than throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the work. They do the bare minimum and wait for their paycheck at the end of the month, just trying to survive.

If society doesn’t start looking at teachers more fairly, I’m afraid the ones who will suffer the most will be the students—the future generation of this country.
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