Teacher who hates paperwork says 'no thanks' to $10,000 a month

Some experienced secondary school teachers have declined promotion offers in order to concentrate on teaching and avoid tedious administration work.

A Chinese teacher in CCC Chuen Yuen College requested demotion to the General Master (GM) grade after serving as a Senior General Master (SGM) teacher for four years. 'Since taking over the SGM post, I spent lots of time dealing with administrative duties in various subject panels. The work diverted my energy from teaching and made it difficult for me to further my studies in Chinese language,' said the teacher, who did not wish to be named. The demotion meant that her salary would be cut by $10,000 a month.

Ruth Lee Shek Yuk-yu, principal of CCC Chuen Yuen College, said that another of her staff had recently declined a promotion offer in order to focus on teaching. Similar cases are also found in St Mark's School and CCC Kei San Secondary School, according to their principals.

Ms Lee said that the establishment of parent-teacher associations and the Quality Education Fund, and the implementation of school-based management, have made it inevitable for teachers' administrative workload to increase. 'These are undoubtedly positive developments that can ensure school accountability to the public. However, the Education Department should increase manpower support to teachers now that they want them to do more,' she said.

It was mainly veteran teachers who were refusing promotion. Their salary increment upon promotion from GM to SGM was not as large as that of teachers who have only a few years' teaching experience.

According to Wong Kwan-yu, vice-president of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, a GM teacher who has taught for 12 years will have a salary increase from $38,000 to $46,000 after promotion. But a GM who has only taught for five years will have his salary nearly doubled from $24,000 to $46,000. 'Few educators enjoy doing administrative work. Since there is not a big rise in salary for veteran teachers, it is not strange that some prefer staying in their present positions. I also know that some SGMs refused to be promoted to vice-principal for the same reason,' he said.