104 5 Rural Teacher Issues
improved. Traditionally becoming a teacher has been one of few pathways for
higher performing rural students to become mobile and improve their social sta-
tus. Two kinds of mobility related to teacher turnover have developed. The first is
benign mobility which is planned to make the best use of available resources. As
the population of children falls and as urban migration takes place the geographic
distribution of teachers needs to change to reflect the new demography. Alongside
this unplanned mobility of teachers is taken place which is not controlled and is
the result of pressures to move away from rural areas and migrate to richer urban
areas. This is related to but not the same as what can be called invisible mobility.
This occurs when teachers are appointed but borrowed by other departments. The
teachers may then work in jobs unrelated to teaching in different locations whilst
nominally working in schools.
5.5.1 Relative Stable Teaching Force
Educational quality depends on a stable and qualified teaching staff and stability is also
necessary to increase teacher motivation and job satisfaction working with the same
groups of students. Rural teachers incomes have improved and have been regularized
so that payment is predictable in order to encourage more teachers to remain in posi-
tion. The situation now can be compared with that 25 years ago. Thus in 1990 our case
studies show that in rural and remote areas in village primary schools the teachers’
working and living conditions were very tough. There was little demand to become
a teacher and most of the teachers had low levels of qualification. Our analysis indi-
cated that a majority expressed the view that if they had a choice they would choose
another job (Lu 1993 ). Comparing vertically over time the levels of teacher job sat-
isfaction appear to have improved considerably. The main reasons are that there are
fewer deeply rural schools as school consolidation has taken place, and salaries have
greatly improved for rural teachers, especially where there are hardship allowances.
Compared to the 1990s it appears that fewer teachers in both rural case study
areas are now changing jobs. The main reasons for turnover are normal retirement
and new teachers being appointed. Incentives are now offered to attract outstand-
ing graduates from normal universities to rural schools. These include a program
of special posts for rural teachers which allows graduates a choice to stay or leave
after three years. In both Zhaojue and Ansai, special posts graduates indicated that
they will choose to stay on.
The situation appears different in the more urbanized Tongzhou county which
contains within it variations in development level. The overall development of Xiji
township is less than that of Majuqiao township. In the rural parts of Xiji, teach-
ers’ motivation is low and there is dissatisfaction with the development of the local
town and working environment. In recent years enrolments have shrunk by 25 %
and so has the school staff and non teaching staff. More teachers transferred out
than in. In addition, the teachers who transferred to urban area were mainly young
and backbone teachers.