I am a relatively satisfied teacher now in a neighborhood secondary school, so maybe my views can add some balance.
I sense a lot of disgruntlement from some of my peers in the school and also some who post online are mainly as a result of mismatch of expectations and not really that the job of a teacher is really that bad compare to other junior level non-manager jobs out there.
I feel the mismatch in expectations usually come from 2 areas – 1) the actual day to day routine being different from what was envisioned when they first join teaching 2) career and salary expectations over the longer term. I will try to address both areas base on my experience, no right or wrong here so those not happy as a teacher now please don’t take offence.
On the issue of job scope the most common problem is most people including me join teaching with a fuzzy concept that our main job which takes up the bulk of our time is to teach the students and impart our knowledge. Of course once you are in you will realize actual teaching is just 1 part of the job (~40% of time for me).
In the day to day work you get embroiled over many other matters that include administration, customer service to the parents, play a bit of office politics, CCA, sort out relationship with other teachers and/or your boss, play nanny to your students (I was once instructed by VP to come to school really early to escort a student to school from his house every morning as he was playing truant and parents demand the school make sure he really turn up). What all this means is a significant minority of teachers become very disillusioned and lost their passion feeling they were defrauded to joining
MOE.
For me and the so call “silent majority” we take it in stride. I mean everyone like to work in a job they like and have passion without needing to waste time on unproductive side shows, but how many can actually do that in both public and private sector? From what I hear of my uni friends who are in the private sector, the complains are also about the same – arrowed to do menial stuff, embroiled in office politics, file endless reports, attend pointless meetings etc. Are we passionate about being a
MOE teacher? Probably most are not. Are we bitter and drag ourselves to work everyday? Not really, it is a normal job that pays decently.
Then come the next major point of unhappiness – pay and career progression. To be honest I think we are aware when we join that being a teacher is not the way if you want to be rich, get promoted every 2 years, live the metropolitan lifestyle etc. But I notice what happen to some mid-career teachers is that when they first join, they thought they are alright with losing out the career and pay, but after some years as they hear more and more of their peers get promoted to Directors, Vice Presidents etc. getting huge bonuses and hitting 5 figure salaries some start to become envious and backside itchy.
Once you start comparing, it is natural to think they are being short change. To be fair to
MOE, they try their best to keep teachers motivated by rotation, development program, creating fake levels so that at least on paper you can get promoted a few times in your life, but then we also have to be realistic – in a school there is only room for a few HODs, 2 VP and 1 principal out of so many teachers. Most will never promote into managerial position and will most likely retire as a senior teacher at best, this is a fact of life.
The money is decent, most mid-career teachers in my school are paid 5-6k while the oldies can reach 7-8k+. It’s not fantastic money and benefits compared to sexy industries like banking, O&G, FMCG etc., but the stability is there and realistically speaking I don't think many people in private sector or other civil service ministries actually can hit 5-figure superscale salaries in their lifetime as well.
In summary, my take is if you want to be a teacher, go in and treat it just like any other job and don't fantasize about being noble, moulding the future or some such nonsense. Keep your head low and stay out of trouble, don't be envious of others outside who have outperformed you, but be thankful that you are much better than some others who are overworked underpaid or worse still retrenched and unemployed.
My 2C.