93Unplanned Public Teachers. This pointed out that after unqualified public and
unplanned teachers had been made to resign their positions could not be filled by
official teachers because of shortages on the supply side of those qualified and
willing to teach in rural areas. The policy was relaxed so that county level educa-
tional administration could employ those with a senior secondary school diploma
or higher diploma as substitute teachers. The requirement was that they first
needed to participate in formal and official examination organized by local county
governments. In August 1998, The Notice of Improving Management of Teaching
Force from Ministry of Education in China pointed out that all teachers in pri-
mary and secondary school including substitute teachers had to be managed by
the department of educational administration above county level according to the
new law. To employ, appoint or resign teachers, confirmation and approval had to
be obtained from the department of educational administration above county level
(Lei and Chen 2008 ). These policies created some ambiguities and gave space
for the employment of a new generation of substitute teachers with characteris-
tics similar to public school teachers. The basic problem of an adequate supply of
qualified and officially appointed rural teachers remained intractable.
5.3.1 Significant Decrease in Proportion of Substitute
Teachers
The number of substitute teachers peaked in the late 1990s since when there has
been a rapid decline. This has been more marked at primary level than at junior
secondary where there were fewer substitute teachers in the first place (Table 5.2).
The research findings from the case study districts show that compared with
two decades ago, the number of substitute teachers has decreased significantly.
However, in some of the remote rural areas, a small number of substitute teachers
still remains. There are no substitute teachers in central primary and junior sec-
ondary schools. They tend to be concentrated in incomplete and village primary
schools. Some substitute teachers have no teacher qualification but an increasing
number have acquired specialized higher education diplomas and teacher’s certifi-
cate. Their salaries and benefits are still much lower than government-paid official
teachers. Their prospect of becoming an official teacher is small.
The changes can be illustrated with reference to the three case study areas. In
Tongzhou District in Beijing out of a total number of 3677 primary school teach-
ers in Tongzhou county (Tongzhou District since 2005) in 1990, 3559 were official
teachers, and 671 were public paid (minban) teachers, representing 20 % of the
total. This percentage was as high as 29 % in Xiji township and reached 43 % in
Dadushe township. The majority of minban teachers were senior secondary school
graduates without any normal school initial teacher training. Since 2005, all the
primary school teachers have been official teachers. Some of the minban teach-
ers acquired official status after becoming qualified, while others gradually retired
or were dismissed. In 1990, there were a large proportion of minban teachers in
5.3 Public and Substitute Teachers in Rural Schools