“Those teachers have made great contributions,” said Wang Gang, deputy director ofthe Training School for Teachers in Zhabei district, Shanghai. “Some of them have becomevery experienced after years of teaching. It’s unfair for them to be deprived of their jobs justbecause they do not hold the proper certificates.”
All 80 substitute teachers contacted by China Daily were in their 40s or 50s and had atleast 10 years’ experience.
Wang said the government should provide a level platform for competition by offeringtraining and qualification tests to those teachers.
Before he was sacked in 2001, Yu Dingguo was a substitute in Qijiang county,Chongqing, for 19 years. He used to have to walk 10 km to start work at 7 am everymorning, and said he taught all subjects to classes of between 13 to 38 students.
“Chinese, math, physical education and science - I had to prepare all the courses,except music. I’m good at math but I can’t sing,” he said, laughing. “We don’t have the rightcertificates but we can teach and we are the only ones willing to teach in these places. Mostregular teachers used to be reluctant to work in remote schools because the local governmentdidn’t have the money to pay them. So substitute teachers became a backup.”
Yu and his colleagues across China have helped thousands of young people in thecountryside to realize their dreams of going to university, say analysts.
However, the 51-year-old, whose father was also a teacher, has warned his own sonagainst following in his footsteps. “It brought me nothing but poverty,” he said.
Yu attempted to become a full-time teacher in 2007 - when the county held onlyits second teaching certificate test in 27 years. He failed. “They tested me on science andpsychology, other than the knowledge I had been teaching,” he said. “The test was for youngpeople. I have more teaching experience but I’m too old to learn. Now the government hasmore educational resources and more talented teachers, they don’t need me.”
The county authorities paid Yu just 450 yuan in compensation when they called time onhis 19-year teaching career in 2001. He now works as a construction laborer in Chongqingand earns 700 yuan a month, three times the salary he received as a substitute. “My oldstudents can’t believe I am a laborer now. I can see pity for me in their eyes,” he said.
Zhang Zongmin, 49, one of Yu’s roommates in a makeshift dwelling at the top of a 10-story apartment block, is also a former substitute teacher who was sacked after almost twodecades of service. He said his 19-year-old daughter has since had to quit school and findwork in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to help the family.
When Xiang Zhixiang was a pupil in junior school, he was ranked third in his class.
Despite his intelligence, however, colleges refused to accept him when he applied in 1984because of his disability, according to his former teacher, Du Zhengming.
With few options open to him, Xiang leapt at the chance to work as a substitute teacherin 1985. According to his students and their families, it is a job he has thrived in ever since.
When villagers in Zhongxin learned he was to be transferred away from their primaryschool in 1988, they petitioned the township government in a bid to keep him. He wasalso popular when he taught in Xiaoshui, a village in the mountains 45 km from his home,between 2001 and 2006.
“I’m just glad I took the chance to teach children and help them to fulfill their dreamsin the future,” said Xiang, who also helps to care for his 78-year-old father. “I’m very gratefulfor the care people have shown me during my career. Villagers have often brought me gifts ofvegetables and meat.”
Wang Qianjin, village head of Huanglong, where Xiang currently teaches primaryschool, said substitute teachers contribute much to their communities and deserve bettertreatment from the authorities.
Temporary teachers who are still employed will be included in the urban socialinsurance system and rural cooperative medical care system, according to Lu Yugang, deputydirector of the personnel department at the Ministry of Education. The move means they willreceive pensions when they retire or are sacked, guaranteeing them an income in later years.
However, Lu did not specify when this will happen.
“The government has a responsibility to compensate substitute teachers and ensure theyare able to live decent lives,” said Qiao Xinsheng, director of the social development researchcenter at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
He urged the government to not only bridge the huge gap between salaries for qualifiedteachers and temporary ones, but also give substitutes special awards to thank them for theircontributions to education.
Zhu Wenjing, 48, a former substitute teacher in Gansu province who now runs a pigfarm, was promised 800 yuan in compensation - her monthly salary of 40 yuan multipliedby 20 years of experience - by the Weiyuan county education bureau when they sacked herin 2003. She has yet to receive a penny despite several attempts to petition the authority. Thebureau did not respond to calls by China Daily.
The ex-teacher, whose first husband divorced her in the 1990s because of her low salary,said she understands that local governments do not have unlimited funds “but that does notmean they can default on paying people wages for such a long time”.
Weiyuan county once had more than 600 substitute teachers on its books. Today, thereare only 80.
Bringing Hope to Teachers, a charity campaign launched in 2005 by Southern Weekly, aleading Chinese newspaper, is aimed at helping struggling teachers to find alternative careers,such as farming.
“I was moved to help by their persistence in cultivating students and also theiroptimism,” said volunteer organizer Zhang Liwu. “They need respect.”