Low Salary For Teachers And Staffs, Here Is Ruangguru Co-Founder's Clarification

Screenshot of the Ruangguru website

JAKARTA - A technology company that focuses on education, Ruangguru is included in the list of the most innovative companies in the world. Even side by side with the world's top companies such as SpaceX, Microsoft, and Nike.

Despite being the world's top company because of its various initiatives in assisting learning activities. Unfortunately, this online learning platform had to run into problems because it was suspected of paying salary too low for apprentices and teachers.

teachers room or internal room 🥲 pic.twitter.com/xzu5bNPQpu

— Nathanael Pribady (@NathPribady) March 13, 2021

Responding to the viral problem in the mass line, Ruangguru's Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO), Iman Usman, explained about the apprenticeship system and teacher staffing in Ruangguru. He said all interns (interns) at Ruangguru get a competitive salary.

"The internal contract in Ruangguru is a 3-month internship contract, some are full-time, some are freelance according to their fields and needs. The compensation packages are different, but all are paid. There are no unpaid interns in our company, even though there are many out there who are unpaid," Iman wrote via his personal Twitter account @imanusman, Monday, March 15.

He explained that all apprentices get a competitive salary, depending on the field and the freelance type of work. Even Iman claims that the number given is higher than other startups.

According to him, all internal employees have gone through a rigorous selection process that is tailored to real work projects in Ruangguru. That's why said Iman, not a few apprentices who later succeeded in becoming permanent employees.

In the last 2 quarters, the number of interns was less than 10% of the total full-time employees, and around 10-15% succeeded in becoming full-time employees (many of whom could not become full-time as well because they were still studying and had to complete their studies).

- Iman Usman (@imanusman) March 14, 2021

Iman also responded to the issue of the amount of salary for apprentices which are linked to teacher salaries. According to him, the teaching staff in Ruangguru have received a fairly high salary with a very low number of resigned teachers, if there are those who want to continue their education to the S2 or S3 level.

Even so, Ruangguru also recruits freelance tutors who are paid according to teaching time and classes provided by their own teaching staff. The amount of salary and payment is adjusted according to their respective abilities, even teachers who have master/doctoral degrees can set higher pay.

"For tutors, there are cases of customers who like to bargain. Previously there were 100 thousand lessons per hour, 75 thousand per hour for Mr. A, for example. Then what? Of course, we will continue to ask. Mr. A is free to take it or not. If you don't take it, you feel too low. it's also okay," he explained.

"There is no sanction having to take all orders such as online motorcycle taxis or whatever. It's a marketplace and there are also variations between regions. People are free to choose what rates, which lessons they want to take," he added.