Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

79

In 1990 most teachers who were not minban and substitute teachers were quali-
fied. Now minban and substitute teachers have been reduced and most teachers are
government paid. Primary school teachers have to hold a high school diploma or
above, and junior secondary teachers a college diploma or above. In 2010, 96 %
of teachers at primary level and 99 % junior secondary teachers were qualified by
these standards. There are still quite a number of incomplete schools and teach-
ing points. Most of the substitute teachers are working in incomplete schools
and teaching points. Unlike in Ansai where substitute teachers have no chance to
become official teachers, in Zhaojue substitute teachers have the chance to take
part in assessments and become official teachers once every two years.
Pupil teacher ratios have increased. Across Zhaojue these averaged 13:1 in
1990 with nearly 2 teachers per class at primary level. At junior secondary, the
ratios were about 7:1 and over 4:1 teachers per class. These were very generous
levels of staffing. In 2010 the average pupil teacher ratio had increased to 24:1
at primary and there were 1.4 teachers per class. At junior secondary the pupil
teacher ratio reached 20:1 and the number of teachers per class had fallen to less
than 3 per class.
Overall these current ratios may be appropriate and are comparable with
national standards. However, they do vary considerably from the average in dif-
ferent schools. Village primary schools tend to have higher ratios—an average of
26:1 compared to 20:1 in towns, because of shortage of teachers willing to work
in their remoter conditions. Rural junior secondary schools have lower ratios (18:1
compared to 24:1 in towns) because of their more specialised teachers and small
enrolments. In the mid 2000s when many secondary age students went in search of

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Less than

25

26-30 31-3536-40 41-45 46-50 51-55

Grade

Enrolmen

t

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

2009/10

Fig. 4.6 Age of junior secondary teachers in Zhaojue

4.4 Teachers and Teacher Deployment