More and Better Rural Teachers

China has made significant progress in building up its ranks of teachers in rural areas, according to a report by the research institute on rural education at the Northeast Normal University. Its study was based on statistics from 19 provinces and national data.

The report showed that 95.26 percent of primary school teachers had junior college degrees or above nationwide in 2017, while that for rural areas stood at 93.8 percent; 84.63 percent of junior high school teachers nationwide had a bachelor’s degree or above in 2017, while that for rural areas was 81.1 percent. The figures showed a narrowing gap between urban and rural areas.

Subsidies specifically for rural teachers covered all of China’s poverty-stricken areas for the first time ever in 2017, according to the report.

The report showed that in 2017, a total of 77,000 teachers were recruited from among graduates under a national program which was designed to recruit teachers for rural schools in the country’s impoverished areas. The report also featured a survey which showed that 83.46 percent of rural teachers were willing to continue teaching at rural schools.