China has pledged to keep up heavy spending on education reform in order to close its urban-rural education gap. Among the priorities are hiring and retaining teachers in the nation's poorer parts, and improving the quality of instruction, said Education Minister Chen Baosheng.
Student achievement in China's rural areas has traditionally lagged behind that of their urban counterparts, in part because low salaries and barebones schools have made it difficult to attract teachers. Over half of rural students drop out of school after they finish nine years of compulsory education, either because they fail the test to enter senior middle school or to get a job to support their families.
To solve the teacher supply problem, China will expand a village teacher support programme, Mr Chen told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual legislative session yesterday.
Under the programme launched in 2015, provincial governments provide additional funding to boost rural teachers' wages by between 300 yuan (S$61.53) and 1,500 yuan per month. It has also been used to build some 400,000 dorms to give rural teachers better living conditions and to fund workplace training, Mr Chen added, noting that the government has spent 5.3 billion yuan to date.
No comments:
Post a Comment