People often use the expression of "engineer for building up the spirit of mankind" to describe the sacredness of a teacher's job. As China's strategy of developing education to rejuvenate the country is being carried out, and priority is given to the development of education with related laws being made, teacher's status in China has been greatly raised. The career is getting more and more blue eyes from among the people.
Life becomes much better. In 1978, the average salary for a primary or middle school teacher was 559 yuan annually, while in the 2001, the figure increased to 10,194 yuan, a rise of 17 folds.
Welfare in higher education institutes also witnessed a big increase, according to a survey conducted in more than 10 universities, from 1998 to 2001, university teacher's annual salary jumped from 12,000 to 24,000 yuan, rising by one fold in three years.
Housing for teachers becomes more and more spacious and cozy. From 1994 to 2000, the total fund for teacher's housing reached 114.4 billion yuan. Some 150 million square meters have been put up for teacher's housing.
Medical treatment was ever a big problem for teachers. As most cities now have carried out the policy of medical treatment with public fund, the problem has been gradually resolved.
Life of retired teachers is also guaranteed. As teacher law is being implemented, majority of provinces, cities and municipalities raised the pension standard.
In addition, the state also has it regulated that for those old and sick teachers in rural areas, a system of "staying at home, but keeping the post" has been carried out.
The central government and governments at all levels increased investment in education year by year. The central government also allocated special fund to solve the problem of teacher's salary in arrears.
Currently, compulsory education in rural areas is being reformed and upgraded with teacher's salary to be provided directly by counties and so there's no need for teachers to worry about their wages.
(People?s Daily September 10, 2002)
