The school year has just begun but one in three teachers is thinking of quitting, a survey released ahead of today's Teacher Respect Day reveals.
The study by the Hong Kong Women Teachers' Organisation found that 30 per cent of the 563 teachers interviewed would quit if another job with similar pay became available.
Both male and female teachers felt that a lack of respect, coupled with high expectations, had made the profession less appealing, especially to young people.
'Those who teach English, accounting, computers and geography find it easy to leave because they can easily find jobs out there,' chairwoman Pauline Chow Lo-sai said.
'This is especially true for young people who tend to have lower pay. They don't think of it as a career. This is a very bad sign.'
Last year an Education Employees' General Union survey found that 72 per cent of 1,600 primary and secondary teachers considered quitting because of stress and that 95 per cent worked more than nine hours a day.
Ms Chow explained that most teachers were finding it hard to reconcile the high expectations they had to live up to with the lack of respect they were shown.
