A survey released by a local job bank shows that the local tutoring market is booming due to high parental expectations and a declinging birth rate.
The most popular course for tutoring is English, followed by math, personal tutoring, and Chinese composition. It costs about NT$472 (US$17) per hour and tutors make an average of NT$15,000 (US$ 500) per month.
One student who teaches math charges twice as much per hour and he even has students coming from Shanghai and Hong Kong.
He is a graduate student at National Taiwan University’s mechanical engineering department. The student, surnamed Lai, teaches math to middle school and high school students. He charges NT$1,000 (about US$30) per hour and is making NT$120,000 (US$4,000) per month.
"From Monday to Friday, I go to grad school during the day. At night, I tutor one student a day. On the weekend, I teach six students every day who get tutored for two hours each. That’s 12 hours of teaching," said Lai.
A job bank spokesperson said those who teach Chinese composition and extracurricular classes charge more than before, making up to NT$1,000 (or about US$30) per hour.