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Principled teaching

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-28 08:04

Should a teacher on government payroll tutor students after school for extra pay?

It is right for the Ministry of Education to answer in the negative as there is a danger that teachers may not do a good job in teaching those they are supposed to teach and then organize after-school classes for extra pay once it gives the green light.

The local legislation on the issue in Zhejiang province last week has caused controversy. Its regulations on compulsory education stipulate that teachers cannot tutor students for extra pay during working days and neither should they organize students to receive paid lectures. This stipulation is interpreted as allowing teachers to tutor students for extra pay in their spare time.

At the same time, the rules in Shandong province strictly stipulate that teachers on government payroll are forbidden to tutor students for extra pay even in their spare time. The rules in the city of Hefei, East China's Anhui province, even specify penalties for teachers who defy the order.

However necessary the rules may be, it will be extremely hard in reality to prohibit some teachers from making extra money by doing this business. Since it is a business, it will not perish as long as there is a market.

The market has been there for years. It is not a secret that some very well-known teachers from well-known high schools have been making big bucks by giving lectures in after-school classes. And they do have their own ways to help some students raise their scores in college entrance examinations.

But, very few excellent students attend such after-school classes. Regular classes in school are enough for them. Another interesting phenomenon is that very few extremely poor students can improve their study from such extra classes.

So the question at issue is whether a teacher can teach whole-heartedly in school. It is definitely unforgivable for a teacher to teach in a perfunctory manner in order to save energy for after-school classes, which brings more money.

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Frankly speaking, lack of professional commitment for some teachers is where the real problem lies. A teacher who is really committed to the profession and to students will never make fools of his students even though he or she may not be lofty enough to resist the temptation of making extra money at after-school classes.

It is unrealistic to only expect teachers to whole-heartedly devote themselves to work without making extra money by doing extra work when money worship prevails in almost all walks of life.

It takes time to keep all teachers committed to their work. More than a ban, what is badly needed is a mechanism to encourage good teachers and punish poor ones. Only when those who have committed themselves to work and students have incentives to do even better can we expect professional commitment to prevail.