With a monthly salary of more than 10,000, the public examination teacher "eats up the dividends of the times"? Some people say that they earn more and take "lives" in exchange
February 25, 2023, Tai'an, Shandong. At the examination center of Taishan Yubei Building Middle School, candidates lined up to enter the examination room. (Photo/IC)
For most of the year, most public examination teachers find it difficult to go outside to bask in the sun, and most of them travel between hotel conference rooms and training bases in different cities, and it often happens that they do not leave a building for a week.
On days when not traveling, the pace of life of public examination teachers is still star-worn, and the teaching time is from 9 am to 9 pm, and if you answer questions to students, it will basically be more than 10 o'clock when you get home.
You Mo gave a very specific example - during the peak period of the annual public examination, he did not dare to buy anything online, "there is really no time to go to the post station to get the express".
Busy, monotonous, repetitive, make up their entire work and life.
In 2022, the number of applicants for the national examination reached more than 2.2 million, and various examination institutions have also sprung up. As an important part of it, public examination teachers began to frequently become social topics, and their former busy but peaceful lives were completely broken. The tuition fee of tens of thousands of yuan has made public examination teachers a "high-paying profession" in the mouths of the public. Questions such as "Why don't these teachers take the exam themselves" and "A group of people who can't pass the civil service exam become teachers here?" began to pour in.
In the midst of the uproar, the public examination teacher began to be labeled as "a group of people who ate the dividends of the times".
Earn more, take "life" in exchange
The salary of the public examination teacher is indeed very tempting. In large-scale public examination institutions, even young teachers who have just graduated from non-first-tier cities, as long as they are willing to work hard, can basically achieve a monthly salary of more than 10,000.
Huanhuan worked as a Shen Yan teacher in the chalk public examination for 3 years, this is her first job after graduation, when she first joined, her monthly basic salary was 8,000 yuan. According to her understanding, her entry rating at that time was the lowest level, but "plus the lesson fee, there is basically no problem with more than 10,000." As the number of years of work increases, the basic salary and lesson fees will continue to rise, and Lydia, a public examination teacher working in a well-known institution, once learned that some senior teachers in the institution cost 3 times her per class, "the comprehensive salary is even more unthinkable."
However, this high salary is a sacrifice of time and body. In the world of public examination teachers, the "day of the week" is not a unit of time, and many times, they have to attend classes on weekends without discrimination, and statutory holidays are also far away from them. Their world is only divided into peak and low peaks, and during the peak period of the public examination, teachers need to be prepared for two months of classes, and then take breaks and receive training during the low peak period.
The novice period is often the most difficult, and there was once a new colleague who was slow to prepare for class, "often preparing for class until two or three o'clock in the middle of the night, and then sleeping for 5 hours and getting up to go to class". It is not an easy task to stick to this industry for a long time.
Youmo entered the public examination industry in 2013 and worked in a well-known institution for 7 years, and has achieved the position of training instructor, but he chose to resign in 2020. "The reason is very simple, at that time I felt that I was going to die if I continued to work, my body could not hold it, and I felt tired after walking two more steps." Colleagues who have worked with Youmo for a long time have more or less physical problems, and some female colleagues have difficulty conceiving, and can only stop and recuperate. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult for people to see old teachers in the examination institution.
The "paper" of the official examination is not only reflected among the candidates, but also among the teachers.
In recent years, the number of public examination personnel has increased explosively, but it has not been translated into an increase in the salary level of the entire public examination industry. In 2021, affected by the "double reduction" policy, the salaries of many public examination teachers have shrunk. "Like chalk, it's a company under ape tutoring, probably influenced by ape tutoring. At that time, everyone's salary was reduced twice, and all the teachers of the written test were required to cross the interview, that is, the written test and the interview must be taught. At that time, various agencies were laying off employees, but chalk was still very good, and would ask us if we should go, and if we did, we would take up the dismissal quota and give compensation. Circle said.
The teachers who teach again and again in the examination institution are like screws, and they have to continue to operate to maintain the normal operation of the institution. Together, it is not a concern for them to generate economic benefits – it does not affect their wages.
July 9, 2022, Anyang, Henan. In front of the gate of the 10th Middle School Examination Center for the Written Examination for Civil Servants in the 2022 Unified Examination in Henan Province, the publicity staff of the civil service training institution held a pile of advertising materials of "holding Buddha's feet before the exam". (Photo/Visual China)
Why don't public examination teachers go to the civil service exam?
There are two types of public examination teachers, one is a person who has a passion for the education industry. Compared with other education industries, the entrance examination institution is more inclusive, it does not have strict professional background restrictions, even non-prestigious schools, non-teacher training graduates, can play a role in it.
The other is people who have had experience in the public examination or escaped from the system. Lydia was admitted to the system after graduating from college, and at that time she did not have much planning for the future, so she listened to her parents' wishes. But after joining the company, Lydia found that her colleagues in the unit had a huge age difference with her, and they talked about children and family every day. "Although everyone would take me with them at dinner, they all treated me like a child, and I was about the same age as their children. I felt very depressed and resigned after two years. ”
For the first six months of her resignation, Lydia spent some happy days, traveling to various places. But when she wanted to look for a job half a year later, she found herself in a very passive situation, she studied safety in college, and the corresponding job often went to the construction site, many companies were reluctant to recruit female employees, and her status as a fresh graduate was gone. After thinking about it, Lydia decided to follow her parents' advice and continue to take the civil service exam.
But when applying for the exam, Lydia found that she could only apply for "three unlimited" majors, and the competition was very fierce. However, Lydia's test results have always been very good, and she scored 80 points in the national examination that year, so she was pushed into the institution by the test teacher at the time, and after a series of written tests, interviews and training, Lydia eventually became a test teacher.
Recalling the formal pre-employment training, Lydia and Huanhuan felt that it was a nightmare day, "I didn't work so hard during the college entrance examination." The training time of different institutions varies from 1-2 months, but they all adopt the last-place elimination system, and everyone not only has to attend classes and do homework every day, but also accept round after round of exams. "Every time the person at the bottom of the grade had to leave, everyone worked very hard, and then we simply went to sleep without taking off our clothes. Only two-thirds of the people remained after the training, but some people gave up because they were too stressed. Lydia recalled.
It is true that teachers in the public examination cannot pass the civil service examination. Huanhuan participated in this year's national examination, but due to serious bias, he could not enter the interview. She scored 80.5 points on the test, but only 55 points on the test. "In fact, this truth is very simple, just like when you are in high school, you take the college entrance examination with the math teacher, and he will definitely not be able to pass you. The public examination teacher is also divided into subjects, I am very good in the subjects I teach myself, why do we have to be all-round? Lydia said.
Having said that, the probability of a public examination teacher "going ashore" is still much greater than that of ordinary candidates. They can collect complete review materials and are familiar with the interview process... When I was young, I worked hard to make money, and there were many people who "went ashore" before the age of 35.
However, most of the teachers who make some achievements will not choose this path, and the huge salary gap cannot be made up by "stability" alone. Although it is difficult to become a lifelong career as a teacher in an examination institution, everyone is actively going out, but "going ashore" is not the only choice, doing freelancing, part-time work at peak times, self-reliance, moving to other fields of education, etc., often make more people's hearts.
Beyond "going ashore", everyone can have a richer and more colorful life.
March 11, 2023, Huai'an, Jiangsu. Civil service examination candidates enter the test center for an interview. (Photo/Visual China)
A torture of conscience
The craze for public examinations has always been strongly cyclical.
China's first round of "public examination fever" was around 2004, when SARS had just ended, and the earliest batch of public examination institutions began to germinate at this time. The second round of "public examination fever" was after the economic crisis in 2008, and in 2009, the number of applicants for the national examination exceeded 1 million for the first time, which made the public examination institution completely a hot business. And the third wave of craze is now.
It is not difficult to find that in the past 20 years, "public fever" is only a kind of reincarnation, not a sustainable choice to maximize benefits, but some people are paranoid and persistent.
There was a 34-year-old student in the class who had been preparing full-time for the exam for nearly 10 years. He has not been interviewed, but it may be because his personal image is a little sloppy and his ability to express himself has some problems, so he has not been able to get his wish.
There are also full-time students in Lydia's class who are struggling to insist, "When the students are particularly determined to do this, we, as teachers, can't persuade them to stop and try other paths, and he never thought of other options." And the examination is an indispensable thing of luck and hard work, "some people may not 'make up' in their lives, and they look very sad."
After resigning, Yumo chose to form a team with 6 other experienced teachers, one of the reasons was that he saw that many students could not find good teachers and wasted their time. "The level of teachers in many institutions is uneven, and in recent years, most of the new teachers in some institutions have only taught for one or two years, because their cost is very low, but they can only teach some basic knowledge, how can students be promoted?" More than half of the students in the ink class are not new candidates, "they already understand the entire knowledge system, and you can directly hear whether the teacher teaches well or not, this industry is very complicated."
Being a public examination teacher and being an ordinary teacher will be very different in feelings. Relatively speaking, public examination teachers will worry less, they will not be troubled by students' early love, fights, truancy and other problems, everyone is an adult, with stronger self-restraint and clearer goals. But they inevitably have to watch the helplessness, suffering and compromise of the trainees as adults.
"Everyone loves money, but they can't forget their conscience, for teachers it may just be a cycle course, but for many students, their lives are likely to be different because of this, and no one is qualified to gamble with other people's lives."
The wheels of the times roll forward, and you and I are sweaty chasers.
(Circle, Lydia, and Youmo are pseudonyms in the text)