Teachers' salaries should be paid at the provincial level, so as to narrow the education gap in different places!
Teacher salaries should be centred at the provincial level in order to reduce the educational gap across the region.
At present, there is a clear gap in education in various parts of China, not only between the first and second-tier cities, but also between the cities and county towns and rural schools. This situation raises questions about the balanced development of compulsory education, and despite the fact that many years have passed, the gap in education seems to be widening. One of the most important reasons for this is the huge disparity in the treatment of teachers across the country.
At present, teachers' salaries are uniformly paid by the county finance, and due to different economic conditions in different places, teachers' salaries vary greatly. For example, two teachers with the same teaching experience and the same professional title, one in the urban area and the other in the county seat, the monthly salary of the former is nearly 2,000 yuan higher than that of the latter. Not to mention that compared to provincial teachers, the gap is even greater.
In recent years, the issue of teachers' remuneration has received attention almost every year, especially since the Ministry of Education has often issued documents asking all regions to ensure it"The salary of teachers is not lower than that of civil servants"。The root cause of this is the problem of unpaid teachers' salaries in many areas. It is precisely because of this reality that in the past two years, more and more people have advocated the implementation of provincial-level overall planning, believing that only in this way can the healthy and benign development of education be ensured.
First, if teacher salaries are harmonized at the provincial level, the education gap between regions will be further reduced. The problem now lies in the disparity in the remuneration of teachers, which attracts the flow of good teachers to areas with better salaries. For example, in some urban schools, almost all teachers are graduate students and PhDs from Peking University and Tsinghua University, while most teachers in small counties and rural areas have only college degrees. This gap is likely to affect the quality of teaching.
If teachers' salaries are coordinated at the provincial level, teachers' salaries in county and provincial towns will converge, so as to avoid the excessive concentration of excellent talents in large cities. This is essential for the balanced development of education.
Second, teachers' salaries should be coordinated at the provincial level, and teachers' salaries should be effectively guaranteed to be not lower than those of civil servants. Although China's "Teachers Law" stipulates that teachers' salaries shall not be lower than the average level of local civil servants, in practice, there are reports of teachers' salaries being in arrears every year. In some localities, the policy that teachers' salaries should not be lower than those of civil servants has not been effectively implemented, resulting in a gap between teachers' welfare and that of civil servants.
Through the overall planning at the provincial level, teachers' salaries are directly paid by the provincial finance, which can effectively put an end to the phenomenon of local illegal payment of arrears of wages. This will help to ensure the effective implementation of teachers' remuneration and make education more equitable and orderly.
Thirdly, the teaching staff is huge, and many places are under financial pressure, and they are effectively in debt to pay their salaries. The sheer size of the teaching staff places a heavy burden on local finances. In some places, paying teachers has become one of the most painful tasks at the end of each year due to financial difficulties. In some places, teachers have had to take out loans to pay their salaries, and even have been in arrears. Provincial co-ordination will reduce the financial burden on local governments, and the county level will no longer have to borrow to pay teachers' salaries.
At the last two sessions of the National People's Congress, Li Qiang suggested that the treatment of compulsory education teachers should be coordinated at the national level. He stressed that the treatment of compulsory education teachers should be coordinated by the state, and should be tilted towards remote rural areas, so as to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. This suggestion has received widespread attention because more and more people are aware of the many drawbacks of the current county-level financial payment of teachers' salaries. At present, high-quality educational resources are constantly concentrated in large cities, resulting in a gradual decline in the level of education in small towns. This is mainly due to the relatively low salaries of teachers in these places and the inability to attract highly qualified teachers.
In general, the imbalance in local economic development in China is one of the main reasons for the education deficit. Only through the provincial overall planning of teachers' salaries can we achieve a balanced distribution of educational resources, avoid the concentration of high-quality education at the local level, and promote the equitable development of education in the whole country. This is not only conducive to improving the level of education, but also conducive to reducing the pressure on local finances and realizing the overall and sustainable development of education.
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