Teaching English online has always been something an English teacher is heard and seen doing as the first step to use the skills learnt from the TEFL certification whether online or in-class. Since last year online TEFL course providers have been minting money as now the accessibility is limitless. By around this time, both the students and teachers are comfortable with the change and the scopes have been bankable.
However, off late, digital consumption and screen time have skyrocketed and it has adversely affected the consumers, especially the young learners.
China has been a very welcoming nation when it comes to hiring English teachers and tutors from around the globe. Over the years, Chinese regions and major cities have always been on the wish list of traveling teachers. As for the tutors, it is even major because now majorly all the tutors are working through online platforms. The reasons are many to bring this ban into operation very soon. As of now, a curfew for online classes has already been implemented every day from 9 pm. Also, online teaching for preschoolers has been banned.
China is known to have followed a lot of traditional approaches in education. The crammed syllabus with a lot of homework has always been the rule to keep the learner’s head in academics. Over the years, the cut-throat job market and the competition to be the best have made the parents invest a lot in their children’s education. A market survey of the major cities in China has revealed that the parents spend almost around $45,000- $60,000 for their children’s school education. That is between 5-18 years of these kids.
A ban on private tutoring helps to alleviate the financial burden to a higher extent. Now the school authorities are made to rework on the school curriculum to keep the curriculum more hands-on and practical for more retention of the things taught in school. This would, in return, make more time for the children to engage in extracurricular activities and build hobbies. Such a thought has made more sense than keeping the learners engaged in school works and tuition classes post that. This is a major ethical reason which seems reasonable and justified by a lot of parents and school districts. A lot of positive and negative effects!
The ethical reasons are many that start with the aforementioned reason. Well, of course, this means less screen time for children. This somewhere also helps in saving up money from not paying the fees for online English classes. The screen time is limited so in that way indirectly it lets the parents feel free from the burden of constantly monitoring and supervising the internet content that is being watched by these kids. However, this has also served a big blow to the online tutors and of late, the ESL tutor agencies have lost a lot of potential revenue.
Looking on the brighter side, a teacher must not be disheartened. In fact, it lets you explore other options and avenues.
A freelancer ESL tutor- build your own website and become a pro at marketing for yourself over your socials. A more professional approach when it comes to a freelancer teacher, helps you to also go through a self-discovery process where you learn about your USP and create unique content and study materials for your target learning group or learners.
Explore a different region- This change brings an excellent opportunity for you to look at other options and broaden your travel and teach checklist. Various TEFL scholarship programs and ESL teaching opportunities hire you on short-term contracts. This provides you a brighter outlook as now you can hop from one culture to another in exchange for teaching the global language.
Teach a different age group- With young learners becoming a bit tricky to teach in China, as an online tutor, you can now explore a different age group. Young adults, professionals, etc. need equal or at times more guidance. If you have discovered your mentoring qualities explore the other faces of ESL teaching- English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or Business English (BE).
With this it brings us to the end of our blog; it is never the end of the world! Since not all the things are in your control, it would be futile to crib about it. Embrace the change and do not shy away to wander and learn through your way to teaching and traveling.
