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In addition, I read a news report saying that the country's Compulsory Education Law stipulates that teachers' salaries should not be lower than those of local government officials. On top of this, Premier Wen Jiabao said sincerely, "Education is the noblest cause of mankind, and being a teacher is the most glorious profession under the sun."
All of this made me feel warm and appreciated. However, there is another side of the story.
Dating back to 1989, the principal of a well-known school decided to award 1,000 yuan (US$133) to all its teaching, administrative and support staff on every Teacher's Day. Apart from that, to express additional "respect, thankfulness and love" to teachers, the school gave an extra 10 yuan (US$1.30) especially to the teachers.
Surprisingly, the practice of giving that extra 10 yuan has continued for 18 years since then. Although that school has changed principals three times, that practice remains unchanged. People say it's because it's a political taboo for a successor to deny his predecessor.
Actually, considering today's prices, giving an extra 10 yuan to teachers is an expression of contempt. It is not an honor, but an insult. What can you buy with 10 yuan today? Not even half a kilo of pork. Maybe you can get a cheap cabbage dish at a restaurant.
That school's practice may be an exceptional case, but the phenomenon of paying lip service to teachers while treating them with contempt is quite common now in China. In an online discussion, a journalist described his visit to a western province shortly before Teacher's Day this year. He found that over 600 part-time teachers in villages there were receiving monthly pay of just 40-80 yuan (US$5-10), with 70 percent receiving the lower figure. Many of them had not had a raise for more than 20 years.
The government decided to raise the salaries of employees in its administrative departments from this year. In many places salaries have been raised already. But people working in non-administrative jobs, including teachers, have heard nothing about salary raises, and have no clue when that will come.
If we compare the front page of the official "People's Daily" on Army Day with that on Teacher's Day, the huge difference in social status between military personnel and teachers becomes apparent. This year, the only report about Teacher's Day in Beijing's major newspapers was a discussion between Premier Wen Jiabao and students of Beijing Normal University who had been exempted from paying tuition. This story was squeezed into the page's lower left-hand corner. This illustrates the unimportant and marginalized social status of teachers today.
Each year on Teacher's Day, party and government leaders make beautiful remarks about respecting teachers and emphasizing education, and naïve students will express gratitude to their teachers in various forms. But actually, in today's China the real value and social status of teachers is comparable to that 10-yuan dish of cabbage.
There are a number of reasons why the teaching profession is glorified publicly, but does not get the respect it deserves in reality. First, after the People's Republic of China was founded, the government strongly criticized and denied traditional culture, which undermined traditional respect for teachers. Second, China has a long history of "official orientation." The highly concentrated political system is the root cause of the problem. It makes officials at all levels very arrogant, so they look down on teachers and other intellectuals. Third, the unhealthy development of the market economy in recent years has caused a drive for material possessions and distorted the moral standards of society.
As a result the value of teachers, whose responsibility is to pass on knowledge and truth, is depreciated and marginalized.
For many years the authorities have tended to highlight the themes of the times and turned a blind eye to the problems. In reality the political system undermines the authority of the state Constitution and the Communist Party Constitution. These two factors cause a split personality among many Party and government officials, who say one thing but do another. This hidden rule has gradually become the mainstream culture of society. Under these circumstances, officials pay high respect to education with their mouths, but never actually feel it in heart.
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(Wu Min is a professor and researcher in the field of contemporary Chinese government and politics, based in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Wu Min.)
