Is teaching really such a glamorous and easy profession?

Families raising just one or two children often complain about how "difficult" and "stressful" it is to teach them! Imagine a teacher standing in front of a classroom with 40-50 children, each with their own unique personality. How many times more difficult and stressful would that be?

Ninth-grade students at Trung Ly Ethnic Boarding Junior High School, Muong Lat district ( Thanh Hoa province), prepare for the entrance exam to 10th grade high school - Photo: Ha Dong

The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BGDĐT regulating the working regime for general education and pre-university teachers.

Accordingly, the working time during the school year for principals, vice-principals, and teachers in general education schools is 42 weeks (37 weeks teaching the content of the general education curriculum; 3 weeks of study, training, and professional development; and 2 weeks preparing for the new school year and summarizing the school year).

There are many differing opinions regarding teachers' working hours. Reader Thanh Nguyen, currently teaching at a junior high school, sent Tuoi Tre Online an article sharing her further views on this issue.

Compared to other professions, is it too rushed and too demanding?

According to the latest regulations, the number of working weeks for general education teachers has increased.

This is somewhat understandable given that the basic salary has increased and the living standards of teachers are gradually improving.

In the near future, teachers will be paid according to their job position, and increased income will mean that the demands on their work will also change, placing higher requirements on the quality of education and work efficiency.

In the context of the volatile labor market, remaining dedicated to teaching is indeed a simple joy.

The stability of the teaching profession compels each teacher to continue self-learning and self-improvement, constantly enhancing their professional competence and enthusiastically guiding generations of students.

However, there are many opinions comparing teachers' working hours with those of other professions, including hasty and harsh assessments.

Every profession has its own pressures, but it's no exaggeration to say that the teaching profession faces countless pressures that outsiders can hardly comprehend.

When you work for a salary in any position, even if you're busy with a hundred tasks during your eight hours at the office, you can still let go of work and break free from work-related worries to focus on your personal life.

Furthermore, the workload of teachers cannot be quantified based on the number of teaching hours and additional responsibilities.

Some argue that: "Nowadays, computers are cheap, recording equipment is available, lesson plans are prepared using teacher's books, lesson plans are created once and used for the whole year, and multiple-choice test papers are distributed to students, so grading takes less than 15 minutes."

Why does the teaching profession seem so glamorous and easy?

Teachers are overwhelmed with competitions.

A lesson taught under the new general education curriculum requires in-depth study of the material, from preparing lesson plans to meticulously designing slides using educational software to make the lesson more engaging.

Each class designs different activities to suit the students' cognitive abilities. Assignments must be given in advance for students to prepare, and students should be guided and directed in carrying out their projects…

Requirements for lesson plan templates, activity design, and content integration into lessons are constantly changing, and teachers must update their knowledge regularly.

Even the way test matrices are constructed changes constantly, forcing teachers to continuously adapt to the evolving landscape of the field.

The teaching profession is not just about preparing lessons, teaching classes, creating tests, and grading papers!

School activities are spread throughout the school year, with countless movements linked to the guiding and organizing role of teachers.

Especially during themed seasons, the schedule becomes truly overwhelming due to the packed timetable: arts and culture competitions to celebrate major holidays, scout ceremony competitions, schoolyard dance and singing competitions, storytelling competitions under the flag, food display competitions, wall newspaper decoration competitions, and more…

Then there are countless types of related records and documents that teachers are required to update regularly. Digital transformation applications are shifting teachers' work environments to the online space; one might ask whether the time spent on updating those records counts towards the allocated teaching hours?

It also includes the responsibility of engaging in academic discussions, identifying and resolving conflicts among students, monitoring and preventing students from dropping out, ensuring timely collection of fees, and contacting parents to alert them to declining academic performance or nascent negative behaviors in students…

In particular, since the subject of education is human beings, there is no rigid model that can be applied to the task of teaching and educating students.

Teaching literacy and character development has always been a journey requiring effort, dedication, perseverance, and a love for the profession and children from the teaching staff who tirelessly cultivate knowledge, hone abilities, and nurture the beauty of the soul in generations of young people.

Families raising only one or two children often complain about how difficult and stressful it is to raise them! But teachers have to stand in front of a classroom, molding 40-50 children with diverse personalities into a disciplined group. Just imagine how much more difficult and burdensome that is!

As educators, we are still striving for great goals and aspirations within the school environment.

I just hope everyone understands the hardships and difficulties behind the rigid time constraints imposed on teachers' teaching hours.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nghe-giao-that-lung-linh-va-de-dang-20250310120222728.htm