Primary and junior high school teachers in Beijing will be paid more starting this year, no less than employees working for the municipal government departments, who are commonly called "civil servants."

Liu Limin, Director of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, released the news Thursday at a work conference, the Beijing News reports.

The pay rise will focus on teachers with relatively low-income, including those working in disreputable schools and those teach in the suburban mountainous areas.

According to the plan, teachers will receive as much payments as civil servants working in the same district or county. And those who teach in the mountainous areas will get a monthly government subsidy of 600 yuan, or about 83 US dollars.

However, payment gaps between different districts will still exist, Liu said, due to different standards of living.

Currently a teacher is paid by the government as well as the school. It's often the case that the school charges the students to improve salary levels and teaching facilities.

With the pay rise, which indicates the increasing attention the government is attaching to education, such burdens on students and their families will be lightened.

Six years of schooling in primary school and three years in junior high school are compulsory for every Chinese.

(CRIENGLISH.com January 12, 2008)