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JILIN, China: One of the difficulties in improving the quality of rural education is in finding and retaining qualified teachers.
A 29-year-old rural school teacher, Lin Lin, has been teaching in Chongming elementary school in Shuangliao county in Jilin province for over six years.
The Language and Mathematics teacher comes from a family of rural teachers, and is most happy when her students do well.
"My difficulty as a teacher is to try and broaden the knowledge base and horizon of my students, who have very little exposure to the world outside of the village," said Lin Lin.
Even though education is supposed to be free in rural schools, some parents are still deterred by the high incidental expenses of sending their children to school.
Some of the expenses include the cost of transportation, the cost of textbooks, and even the cost of heating the classrooms in the cold winter months.
The central government pays the bulk of teachers’ salaries, but the comparatively low salaries have been a deterrent for many.
A rural school teacher, Hou Yinghua, said: "Most of us earn about 1000 RMB. This is hardly attractive, so many choose to work in the cities."
The government has put in place a scheme to encourage young volunteers, especially new college graduates, to teach in rural schools. It has also implemented a rotating system for city teachers to train their rural counterparts.
But many teachers still prefer life in the big city. Those who are left in the countryside are fast reaching retirement.
"In my school, there are only two to three teachers in their 30s. The rest are all in their 50s, like me. This makes it hard for us to impart new scientific knowledge. We can't even teach our students how to use the computer," said a rural school principal, Song Wenfang.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said that teaching is the most splendid profession under the sun. But to attract more people to this splendid profession, higher pay and more professional support is urgently needed.
- CNA/yt
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