Rural areas 'lack qualified' teachers

There should be more incentives to attract talented young people to become teachers in rural areas as many current educators fail to meet the standards, experts said Thursday.

Schools in rural areas failed to attract young teachers in 2012, according to a report on rural education development released by the Research Institute of Rural Education at Northeast Normal University recently.

The report found that about one-third of the 5,285 surveyed teachers in rural areas are younger than 30 and teachers in their 50s make up over 20 percent, while most teachers in urban areas are aged between 30 and 50 years old.

Of rural teachers under 25 years old, over 80 percent are female, but of those in their 40s and 50s, 80 percent are male.

Wu Zhihui, the report's lead researcher, told the Global Times that many older teachers had no teaching qualifications. Up to one-third of the surveyed teachers in villages failed to meet minimum teaching requirements.

"One older teacher taught the class that one-third was greater than a half. Some teachers only have a high school diploma, which can't guarantee they have a sound knowledge base," Wu said, adding that gender proportion should also be changed, as male teachers tend to show less care to students.

Zhu Danna, a chief program officer of BEAM Alliance, an NGO working to support teachers in schools in rural areas, told the Global Times that young teachers stay away from those schools not only because of hard living conditions, but also due to fewer development opportunities in their career.

The report supported the observation. About 17 percent of high school teachers in cities hold senior professional titles, while the number drops to 10 percent in townships and villages. As for primary school teachers, the difference stands at 56 percent and 42 percent.

Teachers are evaluated in different aspects, including attendance at training courses and pedagogic research achievement, Wu explained, however these teachers in remote villages have less access to such resources or even basic infrastructure.

"The evaluation criteria are based on the urban education system and village schools are allocated with fewer quotas for promotions," Wu said. "Rural educators should be encouraged to develop different teaching methods. For example, they could make use of natural resources and develop students' creativity with field trips."

Zhu noted that some teachers in villages are dealing with students and parents who are indifferent to schooling, which sometimes thwarted young teachers.

"This is why the job is tough, because they should also teach parents to support education. Authorities must shoulder their responsibilities in offering fine education to all children and focus more on rural educators. More subsidies are needed for their salary and housing condition improvement," Wu said.

According to the research, nearly 90 percent of the surveyed college graduates are willing to teach in rural schools if the monthly salary could reach 4,000 ($661) to 5,000 yuan.