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ShareSeoul: For a teacher who never sees his students and instructs only online, South Korean Woo Hyeong-cheol makes a lot of money, $4 million a year to be exact.
Woo is not affiliated with any institution that is part of the official school system, but the 46-year-old math instructor is considered one of the best cram school tutors in education-obsessed South Korea, with his web-based classes as well-known among test-taking teens as top-rated TV dramas. "School teachers are concerned about creating moral people. We focus more on getting the students better grades in a short amount of time. That's why we are popular," Woo said.
In her miniskirt, boots and fashionable tops, Rose Lee looks more like a student, but she's actually one of the country's highest paid English teachers. She make more than $7 million a year mostly through online classes. She also works offline, which in the cram school trade means teaching students in a classroom.
South Korean teens are often in the classroom for at least 10 to 12 hours a day, preparing for entrance exams that determine whether they will enter a top university, which in turn can lead to an elite career path. The money spent on cram schools and tutors hit $16.33 billion, according to the National Statistical Office.
Woo, dubbed 'the shovel' for his threats to whack unruly teens, posts tutorials on the Internet, where they are accessed by about 50,000 paying subscribers. Online classes, far cheaper than cram schools, have become a standard part of education expenses for parents, who also usually hire private tutors and enroll their children in cram school.
Critics say the system is geared toward passing the entrance exams, which means students have few analytical skills.
