Nearly 20,000 applicants offered themselves to local downtown schools in Shanghai at a joint teacher recruitment fair yesterday.

But suburban schools and those from neighboring provinces were disappointed.

About 90 percent of applicants at the fair were fresh university graduates who were unwilling to work outside the city but unqualified for local schools requiring those with masters degrees, organizers said.

"Unmatched supply and demand is the biggest problem we faced this time," said Shen Huijun, vice director at Shanghai Exchange Service Center for Educational Professionals, the fair organizer.

Co-sponsored by the service center and its counterparts in neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, the 2004 teacher recruitment fair for Yangtze River Delta region offered more than 3,500 job positions from 410 schools.

It is the first time Jiangsu and Zhejiang schools have held large-scale teacher recruitment activities in the city, organizers said.

But Jiangsu and Zhejiang employers received only 20 resumes on average during the one-day fair, which are far fewer than the 100 expected.

"Actually, our schools, especially universities, are in bad need of teachers. We are very eager to recruit some experienced professors from Shanghai," said Wang Lei, vice marketing manager at Jiangsu Recruitment and Career Center.

In recent years, many education professionals in Jiangsu have moved to southern cities -- such as Shanghai and those in Guangdong Province -- for higher pay and a better working environment.

That leaves Jiangsu with 3,000 to 4,000 teaching vacancies every year, officials said.

Though most Jiangsu universities have offered preferential welfare policies -- such as a 150,000-yuan to 200,000-yuan bonus and spacious apartments -- to lure high-level scholars since last year, the supply market is still sluggish, Wang said.

Xu Zhiqin, a fresh university graduate from Shanghai Teachers University, said: "Positions in Zhejiang and Jiangsu are good, but I still favor positions here."

Xu said she had not sent out any resumes yesterday, because the requirements of most local schools are too high.

Schools in the city's suburban districts also face teacher shortages.

(Shanghai Daily March 29, 2004)