South Korean Teachers Make A Lot Of Money

According to an article from the Wall Street Journal a teacher by the name of Kim Ki-hoon makes a reported $4 million dollars annually as a teacher in South Korea. He isn’t a traditional teacher in the sense of the word, but he uses his skills in other facets to make a lot of money with a lot of hard work. Kim has been working for over 20 years in the private schools tutoring programs. Unlike most teachers, “he is paid according to the demand for his skills—and he is in high demand.” A way in which he creates alternate methods of income is the recording of his videos, and the distribution of them to the world wide web. These videos are available for a going rate of $4 dollars an hour.  He also has released hundreds of textbooks and workbooks and runs his own publishing company.

South Korea’s education system is considered superior in comparison to the United States. One reason for this is the amount of time and money South Korea puts into tutoring their kids and the way in which they are raised. The rate at which South Korean kids graduate is 93% compared to 77% in the United States. Although after school tutoring is becoming more common in other parts of the world, none have come close to the success of South Korea’s. Currently the countries private tutors outnumber school teachers.

It seems that the country of South Korea and the private education sector have instilled a new sense of the word education. The amount of school a kid receives with regular day school and then tutoring on top of that is quite a grind for a young child. Looking at the graduation rate in South Korea, it is highly apparent their efforts are working and will only continue to improve moving forward, while creating more opportunities for teachers like Kim Ki-hoon.