Hi!

How are you?

Source
C stands for... certificate (aka cert)!!

I'm working as an English teacher at a religious primary school (under a non-government organization) next to my area. It's a 20 minutes ride. I've been thinking of having a teacher certificate as I have been working 'illegally' for nearly 10 years. The school has been around for like 15 years. It's compulsory to have a teacher's cert to be working in a government school but we're more like working as a volunteer so thankfully, the govt didn't close our school yet. lol.

The cert cost like MYR10K (around US$2400) and that's my yearly salary! So, I think you get the idea why we had to work 'illegally' and why I didn't get my cert earlier. I had to save my money for 10 years. Some of my friends are thinking of having a teacher cert too. Finally, after 10 years we can spend our savings!! The teachers working at govt schools earn at least 5x of what we earn. At least my mum earn 10x my salary right before she retired. She was working as a teacher at a govt school. As I said, it's volunteer work. More than half of our budget (staff salaries include) comes from charity.

The school started with 2 classes and 4 staff. Now we have 32 classes from standard 1 to 6 (6 years old till 12 years old) with nearly 100 staff - the teachers, clerks, cleaners, kitchen staff, guards, van drivers and nursery assistants. We had 34 classes before but the pandemic cut our budgets and some parents couldn't afford the school tuition.

We do attend some classes as a teacher. We have more opportunities to attend online classes during the pandemic, we feel more confident with ourselves but a certified teacher (a teacher with a teacher cert) and a volunteer teacher (a teacher without a teacher cert) have a very different life. Working as a volunteer teacher, I earned half of my earnings right now when I first started. A teen part-time wages. lol

Some of my coworkers left for a better life. They had their cert already. I think a volunteer job is for rich people cause they don't have to worry much about money. Some of my coworkers are that type. They didn't care about how much they earned else, they would be working somewhere else.

And there are some who just want to work for their community so they had a double or even triple job!! And there's me. I like this job. I like doing the work for the community. I love teaching!! But I also like money. Working somewhere else would be better for me but I don't have enough money for the required cert.

For now, we only have 5 English teachers. We had 7 last year and it wasn't enough. This year, we're understaffed.

I just couldn't do it. I also am not healthy enough to find another job actually. lol.

I never really intend to move to another job. I like to retire from this school. I planned to retire in 8 years. So, I was hoping to get a cert 5 years before I retired and open my own tuition. Then maybe work independently for another 5-10 years before passing my business.

I'm not sure I can live that long. I already started making some preparations, making some connections etc. If I don't live that long, I'll just pass my past work for someone else if they're interested and asked them to prepare a fund for my child.

A certificate isn't necessary but a certificate might make your life easier. But for those who couldn't afford it like us.. I'm not sure. For me, it might give me a business opportunity later on. I could use it for a passive income, so, I want to pursue it. lol

What is your thought on the certificate?

Thanks for stopping by. I'm doing CONTEST: C stands for - 4.45 cause it's fun. 🤩

Come and join me! ❤️❤️