I believe in edutainment, especially for the adult learner who is juggling competing time demands and would opt for a Cold Play song rather than a Chinese lesson on their iPhone. To some extent, teaching is attracting. The best teachers are those who thrive under the spotlight, who own the lecture hall, who inspire students to give up evenings at the bar for the classroom. And no one does edutainment the way cram schools in Hong Kong do it. If there’s not already an HBR case study on them, there ought to be one.
On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I witnessed the power of edutainment and the cult of celebrity teachers. On street billboards and bus ads, huge posters of celebrity teachers exude the confidence and glamor of A list movie stars. And A list they are in their own right. There are over a dozen superstar teachers in Hong Kong who bank over HK$1500 million a year. They do well when the economy is good and even better during downturn. They pull in tens of thousands of students each month, travel from one school branch to another with their lectures live broadcasted in other locations in Hong Kong.
While the success of celebrity teachers largely depends on what they can help students deliver, the star making efforts behind the scenes are also indispensable. In Hong Kong, the two largest cram schools are two publicly listed companies, Modern Education and Emperor Education, the latter belongs to a huge entertainment conglomerate. They pluck potential candidates and put them through intensive academic training as well as personal rebranding. Each teacher is given a carefully crafted classroom persona and thorough styling guidance. Their photo portfolio is updated every season to ensure their image reflects the latest trend. Why? Hong Kong cram schools figured out that the best way to make a teenager sit in a classroom rather than being at a pop concert is to make the teachers look and act like a pop star. Imagine what would happen to junior high maths competency if Justin Bieber taught teen girls maths?
An average Hong Kong middle class family spends about $300/month on a cram school for their kids. Schools that glam up can charge an even higher premium. But more importantly, the celebrity teachers are not just fluff. Beneath the hair gel and lipstick are Ph.D degrees from top universities and excellent track records in student success rate.
No longer do teachers conjure up dowdy images of unionized workers, Hong Kong shows how education can be sexy, desirable and edutaining. Students want to be in class and learn while the best and brightest aspire a teaching career. Perhaps it takes a little dumbing down to make things smart.