Rural education suffering as teachers find life too tough

When Shen Dezhi started work as a physical education teacher at a middle school in central China's Henan Province in 2008, he didn't expect to be teaching Chinese, math, music and art.

Shen transferred to a village primary school in mountainous Checun County in 2011 and became school principal, not because he had outstanding teaching skills, but because he was the only teacher willing to move there. A year later, English teacher Li Juanjuan, Shen's former colleague and now his wife, arrived to join him at the chalkface.

The 25 students had never had English lessons before, simply because there was no English teacher, and the village children found it hard to catch up with their peers when they went to middle school.

The couple now take care of all subjects and extra-curricular activities, an extraordinary workload. They barely have time left for themselves and their young family.

Ma Dexiu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former Party secretary at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said teachers in remote and poor rural areas did not get the credit they deserved and the education gap between the cities and the countryside was widening.

Zhao Lei used to work in a kindergarten in a remote village in central China's Hunan Province but left due to the low salary. He was the only one among 40 classmates in teacher training school who chose to work in a village school after graduation. He is now a migrant worker in Changsha, the provincial capital.

He was paid a little more than 1,000 yuan (US$162) a month, making it hard for him to make ends meet.

Zhao and other four teachers, had to take care of 132 children, most of whom are "left-behind children," whose parents are migrant workers in bigger cities.

It is increasingly difficult to attract, retain and deploy teachers, especially in rural areas, said the former principal of a middle school in Hunan. He said one of his students was determined to be a rural teacher, but to support his family he had to work carrying bricks in the evening after school.

According to UNESCO, more than 60 percent of China's schools and more than half of its teachers are in the countryside. Working and living conditions are particularly challenging in rural areas.

A statement issued after a recent meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms said that education in remote and poor areas in central and western regions is the weakest link in the modernization of education.

It is crucial that every child receives an equal education to stop poverty spreading to the next generation, the statement said.