Sun Jingxia is among those few teachers in China who had not even completed high school but had been teaching math and Chinese for more than thirty years.
She was also not financially sound yet equipped herself with a middle school education and a correspondence course from a vocational teaching school. She started her teaching career with $1.60 a month in 1974 and collected a stack of awards and honors over the years.
Although the government had announced to develop the standards of rural education but very less was done to improve it. This clearly shows what the modernization of China’s socialist system is made up off.
Sun’s idea of embracing poverty and making do with the best available resources have been substituted by a focus on higher incomes and on finding jobs for young college graduates.
The circumstances of these kinds of teachers depict that it could be a tough job for the authorities to improve their situations. And moreover the mounting group of teachers is not a welcoming sign in Beijing.
Officials in the province said teachers like Sun could be promoted to professional status, which would pay three to six times more than what they had been earning. Provided they pass through certain criterion like the clearing of a certain test.
Thus, in order to take a chance to raise her income, Shun went ahead with the test though she was very nervous but attempted to give in her best shot. At first, the principal was quite reluctant to tell her score but when she met him in a village market, he explained that despite considering her experience, she was left behind because of a mark.
More than 2000 ‘barefoot’ teachers were promoted to professional status after the test and about 800 were dismissed from their jobs.
Thus, it has been assumed by the ‘barefoot’ teachers that the system is being undermined by corruption. Also, certain people were promoted to the professional status despite not having graduated from middle school and had bought their positions by paying local officials up to $6,400.
Although government officials consider the issue of barefoot teachers resolved however many, rural schools still have a shortage of instructors.
