◄ Back

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
22/M/Japan >> TOEFL CBT 267/5.0
     Interesting question, I think. I can not even think upon such an interestion question. In my country, most teachers belong to some public institutes, so they earn their money according to mainly how long they have worked for the institute. So for me, and probably for many Japanese, such a statement as "Teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn." seems to be strange. I agree that one of the most important duties of teachers is to make their students study. So teachers who can make their students study may be competent, and they might be deserve to high salaries. But I don't think so.
     I think the most important quality of a teacher is to be good friends with their students. I think it is impossible for anyone to make dull students study. I mean however teachers try to make inferior students study, if the students don't want to study, they can't. And I think it is not necessary to make every students study. In a school, there are many students, and each one has their own life and condition, so it is impossible to make every student to study.
     Some teachers might work hard than other teachers, and they might think that they are deserved to high salaries than them. And I think it is natural. But how? I mean how officers of public institutions know who works hard and who works less, or who does good jobs and who does bad jobs. If students of one teacher enter a famous university, should the teacher get some extra money? Or some student in his class gets some award in sports activity, should the teacher get higher salary? That could be one option, but I think it is very difficult.
     If you want to differentiate teachers' salaries according to their activity, governments should make all the schools to private schools. But if all the schools might be private schools, I think it is still difficult to differentiate the salaies of teachers. I know "teacher" is a job, not a volunteer or a church person, or even a God, but I still hope that teachers to be saint and justice. So I think it is important for teachers not to pursuit only efficiency or results.