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While society gives its attention on how to reduce burdens for primary and middle school students, Wuhan City in central China's Hubei Province recently issued policies to aid teachers of primary and middle schools in the city, including long-term training on psychological health and encouraging the setting up of psychological consultation rooms for teachers, according to a report by People's Daily on November 14.

 

A letter sparked these new policies. In May this year, one of Hubei's senior leaders received a letter from Zhang Dan, a teacher for 34 years. In the letter, Zhang said: "The general income of primary and middle school teachers is comparatively low but coupled with great work pressure. Their physical and psychological health is worrying. During the physical check of the school last year, 80 percent of its female teachers suffered from various illnesses including headache, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Many younger teachers also suffer from insomnia and depression…"

 

In April, two middle-aged teachers in Zhang Dan's primary school died from illness, which intrigued Zhang Dan to write this letter which listed four big pressures facing primary and middle school teachers.

 

The first is heavy teaching tasks and great work pressure. In Zhang's school, there are 16 classes with 707 students. Every teacher on average needs to attend 18 classes each week. In addition, they are required to carry out a lot of teaching researches and attend teaching reform training.

 

The second is worrying health conditions. Great work pressure has negatively influenced the physical and psychological health of teachers.

 

The third is poor medical treatment and low income. "I am 52 this year, a senior teacher, but my monthly salary is only 1,544 yuan (US$196), which is already the highest in our district. Due to the comparatively low income and poor medical guarantee, most teachers are reluctant to see doctors when they are ill," said Zhang in the letter.

 

The fourth is social and parental censure. The phenomenon of blindly pursuing proportions of students entering schools of a higher grade is still rampant. Parents have great expectations on their children, which result in more censure on education system and teachers.

 

In September, Wuhan's educational departments visited Zhang's primary school and started an investigation on current conditions of teachers in primary and middle school of the city to find out countermeasures.

 

Actually, Wuhan had conducted an investigation among 1,300 primary and middle school teachers in its seven urban districts on their psychological health and work conditions last year. The result showed 40 percent of teachers suffered psychological problems, a figure obviously higher than other social groups. About 51 percent of teachers suffer from headaches. The investigation also showed that degrees of anxiety and sensitivity in inter-personal relations and paranoia are higher among teachers than other people. Most teachers feel emotional imbalance attached to a heavy teaching burden.

 

According to Huazhong Normal University's Education Science Institute, currently most parents expect their children to enter into a good school. Some educational departments also take the students' scores as a hard index when performing evaluations. On the other side, the public is appealing for overall quality education instead of examination-oriented education, leaving teachers in a pressured position.

 

Such problems are not typical only in Wuhan. According to an investigation conducted by Zhengzhou Education Bureau in Henan Province on 426 teachers, 54 percent of them had psychological problems. Nearly 70 percent felt exhausted psychologically and physically. 48 percent of teachers suffered from anxiety and insomnia; and 36 percent of teachers feel hard to control their emotions sometimes.

 

Compared with "problem students", the phenomenon of "problem teachers" is even more worrying. Facing the crippling "one examination decides the future life" trend, many teachers are reduced to "teaching machines". The examination-oriented education actually harm students and teachers alike.

 

According to a professor from Wuhan University's Social Science Department, the psychological health of teachers will eventually affect the psychological health of students. Therefore, the government and society need to "reduce burden" for teachers and teachers also need to enhance their physical exercise as well as making psychological, work and lifestyle adjustments.

 

(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, November 19, 2006)