Schola Review Summary

Schola is a Southeast Asian ESL company hiring Native English Speakers to teach children 1v1 online. You must have a degree, teaching certificate and year of experience, with pay between $9-$11 an hour though unsuccessful trials pay half. Teacher experiences are mixed and bookings can be inconsistent.

Schola Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Timely payments
• Good teaching materials are provided
• Nice students

Cons:

• Lowish pay for the qualifications required
• No pay rises or bonuses
• Unsuccessful trial lessons result in half-pay
• Bookings can be inconsistent

Is Schola Legit?

Schola is a relatively-unknown but legitimate online school delivering ESL classes to students between the ages of 4-14 years. Founded in 2017 by Aditya Gupta and Tran Le Thanh Nhu, this education start-up is based in Singapore and Vietnam but draws students from across the region wanting to learn English to meet international school standards. To date, they have conducted over 100,000 classes and were recognized as one of the top 5 education companies in the Asia Pacific by the 2020 APAC EdTech Competition.

About Schola Online Teaching

Schola online teaching is conducted via Zoom.

Schola English classes last 30 minutes and are usually conducted one-on-one with children between the ages of 4-14 years, though some are delivered to small groups.

Teaching materials are provided by the company, as are student reports which are sent 48 hours before a new class to aid a teacher’s preparation.

While not strictly a marketplace, Schola tutorials are not automatically assigned by the company. Students are offered a selection of teachers based upon matching calendars and requirements; they then choose the teacher they want based upon their profile.

Schola Salary / Pay

The Schola pay rate is between US$9-11 per hour, depending on your experience and interview performance. However, when teaching trial lessons you will only receive half-pay if you are unsuccessful in converting the student.

Schola teachers are paid between the 2nd-4th of each month via wire transfer.

Schola Hours

Schola peak hours are 6-8pm (Indochina Time) during weekdays and all day on weekends. Beyond this, teachers are flexible in choosing their schedule.

Schola classes last 30 minutes.

Schola Requirements

The Schola requirements for its teachers are that they:

• Are a Native English Speaker*
• Possess a teaching certificate such as a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA, etc.*
• Bachelor’s degree or higher
• Have at least one year of online teaching experience
• Love to teach and inspire kids and teenagers in class, with high energy
• Have access to a backup UPS or mobile phone data

*The ‘Become a teacher’ page of Schola’s website mentions that they consider ‘highly proficient English speakers’ and the teaching certificate is ‘Optional’. However, this contradicts the main page which states that students are taught only by ‘Native Teachers… Certified with TEFL, TESOL and CELTA teaching certificates’. Schola recruiters on Facebook have confirmed that the company is only seeking Native Speakers at this time and that to be competitive an applicant must have a teaching certificate.

Schola Application Process

Teachers can apply by completing and submitting a short Schola application form with the following information:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Nationality
• Teaching certificate
• Can you teach during Schola’s peak hours (6-8pm weekdays and whole day weekends)?
• Upload your resume/CV
• Link to your introduction video
• What is your expected salary per hour?

Alternatively, there is also an email address where teachers can send their CV and introduction video.

Unfortunately, Schola only responds to candidates they wish to interview. The onboarding process is relatively quick should you be selected.

Schola Reviews

The Schola Glassdoor page currently gives the company an average rating of 4 out of 5, with 79% willing to recommend them, though this comes from just 14 reviews at present. Here is a summary of comments left by tutors over the last year, with there being praise of the students, timely payments, and quality of the lesson plans that are provided, but criticism over their lack of pay rises, and conflicting views regarding bookings and company support:

• Advantages:
  • “Payments are always on time.
  • Students and parents are great to work with.
  • Lesson plans are provided.
  • Staff are very understanding and helpful when you have to rearrange your schedule.
  • Payment is reliable.
  • Lovely students with great lesson plans provided.
  • Easy bookings.
  • Easy to contact the team.
  • Staff were very friendly at the beginning.
  • Excellent work culture.
  • The staff is friendly and willing to be team players.
  • Professional – understanding – flexible – open to suggestions and input.
• Disadvantages:
  • There is not a fair distribution of classes between teachers, some teachers have full schedules where other teachers need to beg for students.
  • Teachers are expected to say yes to no penalty for student no show.
  • Policies change constantly without notice and creates extreme fear of losing your job, getting aggressively fined or not being able to take off or vacation time.
  • CEO is an ex Facebook IT worker who has 0-3% knowledge of what it takes to run an online school. CEO has 0 interpersonal skills in working with people and creates quite a negative work environment as well as enforcing that only his opinion and observations of teacher count.
  • No incentives or raise pay at all even though it’s quite and expensive school to join as a student.
  • No positive feedback or appreciation is ever shown, only negative feedback.
  • Not all teachers get the same pay, some get a lot more than others.
  • Support team is not very professional in dealing with teachers.
  • Company culture is not as positive as it states that it is.
  • Never been given a raise, with the base pay being relatively low as it is.
  • Classes are back to back and there is not even two minutes allowed for a teacher to get from one class to the other.
  • You are supposedly in control of your schedule but sometimes they book classes without telling you first.
  • I’m expected to teach other subjects excluded from the lesson plans for certain students, but it is far above my pay grade and no compensation is offered nor provided.
  • Low booking rate. Pay is capped. Limited opportunities presented.
  • Some biases towards teachers at times.
  • Pay raises must be negotiated and aren’t offered yearly”.

I was contacted directly by a Schola teacher wishing to share their personal experience of working for the company, and they also warn about the inconsistency of bookings and fines for not following new policies:

Conclusion – Is Schola Worth It for Online Teachers?

The pay that Schola offers is not fantastic considering they want highly-qualified and experienced Native English Speakers. While payments are reliable and materials are provided, bookings can be inconsistent, and recent reports seem to indicate a downward trajectory in both company culture and teacher satisfaction.

You can apply to Schola or explore our full list of other online teaching companies.