Teachers admitted how much they earn from tutoring

It is no secret that there are teachers who, in addition to their main work, also find time to earn extra money by private tutoring. And they can be understood, because a teacher’s salary is not always enough for a decent life. However, this year, in their professional communities, teachers began to complain that school directors strictly prohibit them from engaging in such part-time work, even to the point of dismissal.

MK found out from experts whether such requirements are legal, and also found out how teachers manage to combine teaching at school and tutoring.

“The director gathered us together and announced: if I find out about the part-time job as a tutor, I will fire us,” complained a teacher from the Russian region. – He said that this was illegal, and that teachers were spending time on tutoring that they could spend on better preparation for their lessons. And I have been teaching students for many years, but not even from my school. So, I think I now need to “encrypt”?

In response to such complaints coming from different regions, the majority of teachers said that such statements by directors are pure tyranny. “You are not in slavery, if anything,” their colleagues from other schools reminded those who complained about the ban.

“And modern directors behave this way precisely because we allow them to,” said a mathematics teacher from the Omsk region. – Such conversations need to be recorded on a tape recorder; the director has no right to threaten with dismissal for this.

Some advised colleagues to “not tell everyone at your school that you are a tutor, and under no circumstances should you tutor students at your school.”

“MK” asked Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, a member of the council of the “Teacher” trade union, a teacher of Russian language and literature, to dot the i’s in this issue. He immediately noted that “there is no such prohibition in any law for a teacher to work with any children.” Another thing is that you need to formalize this lesson in order to pay taxes to the state, “this is the only question for the tutor.”

However, in addition to the law, according to him, there are also ethical standards.

“But things are different in each school with ethical rules,” the expert continued. – According to the majority in the teaching community, teaching your own student for money is unethical. But there is no ban on this. And then everything depends solely on the situation at school, on the relationship between teachers and administration, teachers and parents. Very often, parents insist that their child needs extra work. Some people think that in this case we may be talking about a “hidden bribe,” but I wouldn’t say that. It is difficult to imagine a teacher who, for example, would deliberately give a bad grade to a student in order to force his parents to ask him for additional lessons with the child for money.

On the other hand, in some school the director can indeed introduce such a ban, but for this he needs to issue a local act. And then the teacher decides for himself whether he is ready to submit to such an act.

The expert noted that the issue of combining teaching duties and tutoring should be considered from two points of view. Firstly, why are teachers forced to look for additional income? This, of course, is due to the fact that in some regions teachers’ salaries are so insignificant that they are forced to look for part-time work on the side. And secondly, why do parents look for tutors? Most likely, this is due to the fact that they do not trust the school to prepare their children for entering a university, believing that teachers in the classroom do not provide enough knowledge for this. “This is a reason for education officials to think,” summed up Lukhovitsky.

Foreign language teacher Arthur from Bashkortostan has been combining teaching and tutoring for twenty years.

“If there were any problems during this time, it was not with the school administration, but rather with colleagues, they also want the same demand from students and parents as I have,” he shared with MK. – I work with students not only in my region, but also from other countries, via Skype.

The teacher noted that if at his main job he (and other teachers in the region) receive about 60,000-70,000 rubles, then the “addition” per month for tutoring that he has is about 100,000 rubles.

– How do you manage to find time for tutoring? – I ask Arthur.

– If you want to live, you will find everything! I work every day from 8:00 to 22:00, not everyone can handle this. I rest for half a day on Saturday and Sunday. This is titanic work and practically no free time and life. The children, thank God, have grown up long ago…

Unfortunately, professional publications describe many cases when teachers cannot cope with the workload and completely go into tutoring.

“Right now I’m just doing tutoring,” former English teacher Anastasia from the Republic of Tatarstan told MK. – When I worked at the school, we were not prohibited from tutoring, the administration was aware. The main thing is not with students from their own classes, otherwise there would be a conflict of interest. I worked in different schools for a total of 10 years. I went full-time into tutoring in 2019 because the salary was low and I wasn’t happy with the number of demands on teachers regarding endless events. Since 2021, I have also been teaching at an online language school, which was opened by a friend of mine.

“I worked at a school where the director dreamed of opening paid courses and making money from it,” shared teacher Yulia from Krasnodar, in turn. “None of the teachers wanted to get involved in this, since many were tutoring. I left school for tutoring and am happy! Yes, there are some nuances, sudden cancellations and force majeure happen, but this is 100 times better than being a forced laborer…