Economic Observer reporter Li Jing 56-year-old Cheng Long is still waiting, waiting for one day his identity as a teacher to pass the certification.
Cheng Long is a rural substitute teacher at Huangyangchuan Central Primary School in Gulang County, Gansu Province. He has been teaching for 35 years since 1985. In his past resume, he has received more than fifty personal commendations, including honorary principals, advanced workers, and outstanding teachers, but due to his status as a substitute teacher, he faces a huge difference in income from teachers on staff.
This difference is reflected in both the monthly salary and the social security and occupational pension after retirement. Cheng Long said, "Now my monthly salary is 1800 yuan, of which 330 yuan is the living allowance increased by the county government for substitute teachers in January this year, and before that, the monthly salary was 1470 yuan per month." If he is a formal teacher, according to his current working experience, he can reach a monthly income of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan a month."
Gulang County, where Cheng Long is located, is under the jurisdiction of Wuwei City, Gansu Province. Here, there is an income gap of at least 3,000 yuan between a rural substitute teacher and a teacher in the compilation, in addition, whether he can be recognized as a formal teacher is also an affirmation of his standing on the podium day after day for 35 years of teaching.
In 2015, the teacher qualification certificate was officially implemented in China. If you want to become a "teacher on the staff", you need to hold a teacher qualification certificate, in accordance with the principle of "every entry must be taken" in government organs and institutions, and once again participate in the teacher recruitment examination organized by the regional education bureau or the personnel bureau, and after two steps and then pass the interview, you can become a formal teacher.
In the three years from 2018 to 2020, Gulang County has organized three recruitment examinations for teachers to become regular teachers in order to solve the problem of substitute teachers, and more than 100 people have participated in this examination, but in the three examinations, Cheng Longdu has not met the standard due to age, energy and other reasons, and has become one of the remaining nineteen people.
Cheng Long believes that according to relevant regulations, "substitute teachers" who have received rewards at the county level or above can be directly converted into the compilation. With what he knew about Pingliang City, a teacher with such seniority as him had been directly corrected.
To this end, in the past two years, he has found several higher authorities to reflect this problem, and has also written letters and messages to the provincial and municipal authorities.
Cheng Long did not understand, "Decades of teaching career, won a number of county and municipal honors, taught a group of students, some of these people have become a formal people's teacher, and these are not enough to prove that they are a qualified teacher?" On March 8 this year, Cheng Long, who was teaching, was suddenly told to transfer to logistics work and could no longer get on the podium.
Cheng Long is not alone. According to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education at a press conference in 2010, as of that year, there were 310,000 substitutes in China's primary and secondary schools.
In 1997, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Circular on Solving the Problem of Private Teachers", which requires the full implementation of the five-character policy of "closing, transferring, recruiting, resigning, and retiring", and regularizing qualified substitute teachers. Transfer and dismissal of those who do not meet the conditions. Since then, in order to continue to optimize the teaching team, the state has cleared most of the areas where substitute teachers exist around 2009, and as this work continues to be carried out in various places, substitute teachers have gradually withdrawn from the historical stage.
Nineteen people, including Cheng Long, are most likely the last batch of "substitute teachers" in China.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the China Academy of Educational Sciences, believes that the contributions made by substitute teachers in a specific historical period should be fully recognized. At present, the economic level of provinces, cities (regions) has improved, and local finances have been able to solve the problem of the treatment of substitute teachers. In this case, the local government should take responsibility for the "substitute teachers" who meet the regulations and give them the treatment they deserve.
Zhang Guobao's troubles
Zhang Guobao (pseudonym) is also one of the nineteen people.
Zhang Guobao is 59 years old this year and has one year to retire. Unlike Cheng Long, although Zhang Guobao has been teaching in Gulang County for 36 years, he is not eligible to participate in the substitute teacher recruitment examination held by Gulang County for three consecutive times since 2018 because of his teacher qualification certificate and non-compliance with family planning. "I only have a teacher appointment qualification certificate, no teacher qualification certificate, there was originally a regulation, before 2015, I can change the appointment certificate into a teacher qualification certificate, but my local information is not well-informed, and when I know, it is too late to exchange, and now it is even more impossible to change," Zhang Guobao said.
This has also become Zhang Guobao's regret. A teacher's qualification certificate is a license for a teacher practicing in the education industry. In 2015, the reform of the teacher qualification certificate examination was officially implemented, and after the reform, the difference between teacher training students and non-teacher training students will no longer be distinguished, and teachers who want to be teachers must participate in this national unified examination before they can apply for a teacher qualification certificate. At the same time, the reform also broke the teacher's lifelong system to a five-year trial, and the national examination was implemented in the examination, and the content of the examination increased, and the difficulty was also increasing.
This also means that Zhang Guobao, who is close to retirement age, has nothing to do with the recruitment examination of substitute teachers. During his 36 years as a substitute teacher, Zhang Guobao has served as a math teacher and a Chinese teacher at the same time. Rural primary schools in China, because of the small number of students and the lack of teacher resources, also need local teachers to take on multiple subjects.
Zhang Guobao is very proud, "In terms of teaching achievements, I am among the best. But more than a month ago, like Cheng Long, he was told that he could no longer continue the class and became a logistician. At present, in his school, there are 3 substitute teachers who are no longer in class like Zhang Guobao. "We have been teaching for more than 30 years, and the local government has to say that we are not qualified to change jobs, so why not dismiss us earlier?" Zhang Guobao said.
In the 36 years that Zhang Guobao taught, his salary slowly rose from a few tens of yuan to more than 1,000 yuan this year. "Only one-third of the income of the teachers who are officially in charge" is earned." For him, it is even more urgent that he is about to retire in another year, but as a substitute teacher, the local finance department does not need to pay any social security and health insurance for him.
Zhang Guobao now has no idea about turning right.
Cheng Long told the Economic Observer, "Substitute teachers like us, after retirement, only the current salary of more than 1,000 yuan, no medical insurance, are their own rural cooperative medical insurance, the rest is nothing." ”
Several substitute teachers, including Cheng Long, have also found relevant channels or reflected their demands to the higher authorities by writing letters and messages. In response, the competent authorities responded, but did not resolve the issue.
On May 19, the reporter called the Gulang County Education Bureau to verify the relevant substitute teacher problem, and the other party said that the responsible leader would call back when he went out for a meeting, and as of press time, the relevant leaders did not call back.
Legacy issues
Chu Zhaohui told the Economic Observer that substitute teachers are the product of a specific historical period, and after the implementation of public ownership in 1952, the original private schools were converted into public schools, and the financial funds were paid to open the door to workers and peasants, and the supply of degrees was in short supply for a time. At that time, the best way to think of was to solve the problem of some students going to school through cooperative schools. These teachers do not receive salaries, only count their personal points, which also become the private "substitute" teachers at that time.
The largest number of private teachers appeared in 1975. According to Chu Zhaohui's recollection, at that time, the number of private teachers in the country was about 7 million, and after the promulgation of the universal education regulations in 1986, it was found that there was a large gap in income and treatment between teachers and teachers, and there was no pay for equal work.
In the past 10 years, the work of retiring substitute teachers has been carried out in an orderly manner, but in the actual process, due to the long time, it is difficult for some substitute teachers to provide complete certification materials or witnesses, which also makes the identification work often challenging.
According to the public information available for examination, including Henan and Shenzhen, there have been hot incidents in the process of private teachers' retirement. Chu Zhaohui believes that the problem is mainly stuck in the identity of private substitute teachers, which is difficult to identify. After the change, the local leadership team has no motivation and is not willing to claim the identification results left by the previous term.
In 2011, in order to properly solve the problem of substitute teachers, the Ministry of Education and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued a notice requiring all localities to attach importance to the contribution of substitute teachers in history and put forward specific requirements for solving the problem of the treatment of substitute teachers. In 2018, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Adjusting and Optimizing the Structure and Improving the Efficiency of the Use of Education Funds" once again proposed to promote the implementation of the unified urban and rural primary and secondary school staffing standards. All localities should strictly standardize the management of the establishment of teachers, and accelerate the recruitment of non-staff teachers who meet the conditions, and implement equal pay for equal work.
More than a decade has passed, and the problem of substitute teachers in most cities in China has basically been solved, but in some places, this legacy problem still exists.
In addition, there is also rent-seeking space that exists in the transfer process.
Chu Zhaohui gave an example, "For example, in the 1990s, Anyang, Henan Province, proposed to solve the problem of private substitute teachers, and the government also gave a certain establishment, but due to the emergence of some gray space in the middle, the establishment was eventually occupied." After 2000, the private teachers who were occupied at that time went to the local government, and although the local government admitted that there was indeed a phenomenon of misappropriation of quotas before this, it was difficult for teachers who were already on the job to be removed, making this problem difficult to solve. ”
Due treatment
At present, there is no accurate data to show how many substitute teachers there are still in the country, in 2010, the Ministry of Education spokesperson Xu Mei said at the press conference that there were 310,000 substitute teachers in primary and secondary schools across the country at that time, and the number showed a downward trend year by year.
At this press conference, Xu Mei said that due to the complexity of the reasons for the emergence of substitute teachers, the key to properly resolving the problem of substitute teachers lies in adhering to the overall planning of local governments, administering education according to law, and standardizing management, so as to ensure that no new substitute personnel will be produced.
Since then, various localities have also introduced relevant policies to solve this historical problem.
Chu Zhaohui told the Economic Observer that as of now, the possibility of transferring the establishment is basically no. After the implementation of "closing, transferring, recruiting, resigning, retiring, and stopping" in various localities in 1997, the opening of new private substitute teachers has actually been slowly closed. However, due to different local conditions, especially in some remote areas, the lack of financial revenue has also led to the number of substitute teachers in the local area has not been reduced, and there are nearly 400,000 people by 2010.
In his view, "the important role played by substitute teachers in popularizing compulsory education in China should be affirmed, and local governments should also consider the demands and responsibilities of these people." ”
Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that at present, most places in China have basically solved the problem of substitute teachers. However, in a few areas, for various reasons, problems have also occurred. For example, some localities consider financial reasons, regardless of whether there is a staffing, blindly recruiting temporary teachers, or increasing the staffing, but do not solve the problems left over from history. In fact, to solve the above problems, the key is to increase investment and guarantee the rights and treatment of all teachers.
Xiong Bingqi believes that in order to comprehensively solve the problem of substitute teachers, the correct idea is to "regularize" substitute teachers who meet the conditions, and transfer or retire or compensate those who do not meet the conditions. When the existing staffing is insufficient, use a little longer period of time to gradually digest the positive demands of qualified substitute teachers.
With a group of rural substitute teachers such as Cheng Long and Zhang Guobao gradually entering the year of HuaJia, how to enjoy their old age and properly solve their life after retirement has become their most urgent demand.
Chu Zhaohui believes that in fact, we are now talking about solving the problem of private substitute teachers, mainly to solve their old-age security and other issues. Some of the private substitute teachers have reached the critical retirement time, and some have passed away, and the local government has also considered the actual demands and problems of these people. "After decades of development, local finances have been able to solve the problem of their treatment. In this case, the local government should assume the responsibility to give these private teachers the treatment they deserve. Chu Zhaohui said.