Substitute teachers refer to temporary teachers who have no career establishment in schools, before the end of 1984 they were called private teachers, and the temporary teachers who had previously been taught were basically regularized or dismissed, and in 1985, private teachers were not allowed to appear in the country. In 2006, the Ministry of Education proposed to remove all the remaining 448,000 substitute teachers in the country in a relatively short period of time, and then substitute teachers gradually faded from view in some developed provinces and cities, while some provinces still exist. Around the end of 2009, in order to optimize the teaching force, the vast majority of China's areas with substitute teachers will undergo a final retirement.
Although the Ministry of Education has continuously proposed the removal of substitute teachers, in fact, there are still many areas where substitute teachers still exist, and the number is not small. Why there are still a certain number of substitute teachers under the repeated retirement of the Ministry of Education and other relevant departments, I think there are the following reasons:
First, the number of staffing places is limited, and the teaching staff is insufficient
After the teacher establishment is approved, the staffing in various localities is full or even overstaffed. Every year, a group of teachers retire or are not suitable for teaching in the front line due to their age, aging knowledge and other reasons, resulting in a shortage of teachers, so they have to hire substitute teachers.
For example, in a certain place in the west, if all teachers eat financial meals, they will account for more than 80% of the financial revenue, becoming an unbearable burden for local finances. Considering that the treatment of a teacher on staff can support seven or eight substitute teachers, substitute teachers have become a realistic choice.
Today's public schools have quotas, and the quota in a region is limited, not that schools can recruit independently. The allocation of quotas can not be perfect, there are always schools will be because of the number of quota indicators are not enough, or the expansion of school enrollment, as well as teachers sick leave, maternity leave and other leave personnel, resulting in insufficient number of teachers, have to use substitute teachers as a supplement.
Second, remote mountainous areas cannot recruit people and cannot retain people
Some remote mountainous areas, poor economic development, inconvenient transportation, monotonous life, can only rely on the establishment to attract teachers. But most of the time, a staffing does not leave undergraduate graduates. There are still some teachers recruited in the mountainous areas of the central and western regions every year, and the posts are cancelled due to insufficient number of applicants. There are even free teacher training students who would rather pay liquidated damages than leave after the targeted distribution. It is impossible to recruit people and retain people, which is the current situation in some poor areas. In these areas, substitute teachers have to be recruited to teach.
In these areas, substitute teachers do play a big role. They have paid silently in their posts and made great contributions to the development of education in poor areas. Some of them may have had better places to go, but they still chose to stick to it. For example, Zhang Ronghu, a private teacher at the Mawa Teaching Center in Peigang Village, Yuanpo Town, Huaichuan County, was called back to the school after he was dismissed in 1994 because the teachers sent were unwilling to stay. Later, because she did not have money to build a school and no teachers, her daughter dropped out of school without graduating from primary school. Zhang Ronghu was very distressed, and later used the money he and his daughter earned from part-time work, plus personal loans and loans, to build a six-classroom school for the village. Without a teacher, he assumed the responsibilities of a teacher. Another example is Feng Minsheng, principal of Yangjiahe Primary School in Zhuyang Town, Lingbao City, who has academic qualifications, ability, and teacher qualification certificates, and the principal of the first middle school in the town also issued an invitation to him, but because of the lack of teachers in Yangjiahe Primary School, he resolutely refused. Under the condition of low salary and difficult conditions, he silently dedicated his youth and talents to the cause of education, but until the end he was not able to turn into a teacher.
We cannot deny that some substitute teachers have a lower level of education and a lower average quality. But there are many substitute teachers, who have academic qualifications, teacher qualification certificates, or choose substitute teachers for various reasons, and have always chosen to stay because of their insistence on education or intolerance in their hearts.
Now, what is the way out for substitute teachers other than to retire? Some substitute teachers who have been quietly holding out in remote areas for 20 or 30 years are facing retirement, and may still be old and unsupported. For these substitute teachers, in addition to the one-size-fits-all dismissal, should there be a more humane and rational way to deal with it?
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