Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

56 3 Nine Year Compulsory Education in a Poor District ...

and Yanhewan both reduced the numbers of minban from over 60 % in the early
2000s to below 10 %. All the teachers in junior secondary schools are government
teachers.
In comparison with early 1990s when the qualified teacher rate was 81 % at
primary and 50 % at secondary the situation has improved greatly. Now over 95 %
of all teachers at both levels are qualified. Of 1650 teaching staff in 2008/09, 10
had postgraduate certificates, and 660 undergraduate degrees. In 1990/91, the
qualification rate of the teaching staff in primary school in Huaziping was 74 %
and it increased to 94 % by 2005/06. About a third have three year College cer-
tificates and about a third of secondary teachers now have bachelor degrees and
all are qualified. In Yanhewan teachers are better qualified and all have three year
College level at primary, and 40 % of secondary teachers have a bachelor degree.
Teachers are predominantly young. This can be seen in Huaziping where most
are under 30 years old (Fig. 3.6). There is also an older group who are 45–55 years
old and close to retirement. In the central primary school 60 % of the teachers are
under 30 years old. These patterns are similar in Yanhewan reflect past recruitment
and, to some degree, teachers being transferred out of rural schools after their
first appointment. At secondary level it appears that there is a similar polarization
towards young teachers with 70 % being below the age of 40 years.
Teachers are predominantly male at primary level though in central primary
schools the ratio tends to be closer to 50 % of teachers below 40 years old. There
is a lot of variation between schools with a minority of small schools having a pre-
ponderance of female teachers. In the 2000s it appears that the numbers of female
teachers were increasing. The numbers of non-teaching staff in Ansai appear much
lower than in Tongzhou. Over 95 % of all faculty are teaching staff. The match of
subject specialization was also high with the great majority of teachers teaching
subjects that they were trained to teach.

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Under 25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 Above 56Above 61

Enrolmen

t

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

2005/06

Fig. 3.6 Age structure of primary teachers in Huaziping