94 5 Rural Teacher Issues
junior secondary schools in Tongxian. Out of the total number of 2220 teach-
ers, 341 were minban teachers representing 19 % of the total. Most of them were
unqualified. Since 2005, all the teachers in junior secondary school have been offi-
cial teachers in Tongzhou.
In Ansai County in Shanxi Province the situation in 1990 was much worse than
in Tongzhou. The supply of qualified teachers was a serious problem. There were
595 minban teachers in Ansai primary schools accounting for 66 % of the total
number in 1990. The proportion of minban primary teachers was as high as 75 %
in Huaziping township and all the incomplete primary school teachers were min-
ban teachers. 60 % of primary school teachers in Yanhewan township were minban
teachers. In 1990/1991, there were 23 minban teachers in junior secondary schools
of Ansai, which accounted for 8.9 % of the total number.
Since 2003/04, there have been no minban teachers in central primary schools in
Ansai. As elsewhere the substitute teachers are mainly concentrated in incomplete
primary schools, accounting for 15 % of all the teachers. In 2008/09, there were
1,655 primary and junior secondary school teachers, 590 teaching staff for junior
secondary schools and 915 teaching staff for primary schools. As many as 150 were
substitute teachers accounting for 9.1 %. There were no substitute teachers in junior
secondary schools. In comparison with two decades ago, this is a great progress.
In 2008/09, among 102 teaching staff in Yanhewan primary schools 85 are official
Table 5.2 Change in
number of substitute teachers
(1990–2012)
Year Primary Secondary Total
1990 426218 126204 552422
1991 424078 127740 551818
1992 573328 143982 717310
1993 628508 138196 766704
1994 652767 133196 785963
1995 717997 141919 859916
1996 771601 146967 918568
1997 859786 145704 1005490
1998 841884 136173 978057
1999 706535 112872 819407
2000 551429 104364 655793
2001
2002 477010 119543 596553
2003 423857 119047 542904
2004 378614 120535 499149
2005 330658 116950 447608
2006 311833 115691 427524
2008 250852 103309 354161
2009 234502 100671 335173
2010 203802 92804 296606
2012 176979 90076 267055