Government and Policy
Ministry halts substitute teacher recruitment
By Xie Jingwei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-22 17:00
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China's Ministry of Education has halted recruitment of new substitute teachers and told local governments to compensate laid-off substitute teachers, said a ministry official Thursday.
The ministry announced in March 2006 that steps would be taken to screen and discharge the country's 448,000 substitute teachers - teachers not on its regular payroll. However, by the end of 2008 there were still 311,000 substitute teachers working in public primary and secondary schools, said Lv Yugang of the ministry's personnel department.
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 Substitute teacher Su Hanwei weeps with his students in Weiyuan country in Gansu province, Dec 22, 2009. The northwestern province is discharging substitute teachers. [The Beijing News] |
Some schools which cannot afford regular teachers employed long-term substitute teachers, most of whom are not qualified, said Lv. This damages students' rights and degrades the country's education quality, he said.
"But we appreciate their contribution to China's education development, especially in rural areas," he said. He urged local governments to discharge unqualified substitute teachers and hire the capable substitute teachers as regular teachers with favorable policies.
Local government will compensate discharged substitute teachers and enroll them into the social security system, said Lv.
There is no deadline yet for phasing out the substitute teachers from schools, according to Xu Mei, spokeswoman for the ministry.
