China’s looming teacher crisis
Semafor Signals
Supported by
Insights from Bright Society Educators, China Teachers Daily, and Foreign Policy
The News
Teaching is considered one of the most respected and important careers in Chinese society. But the industry is now also one of the riskiest.
As China experiences a population decline, officials predict the country to have a 1.9 million-teacher surplus by 2035, the South China Morning Post reported. What was once considered an “iron rice bowl” career — an industry that could guarantee jobs in China’s shaky economy — is now facing job losses all around.
In addition, budget cuts and a national curriculum model means that teachers are facing more pressure than ever.
SIGNALS
Expectations for teachers are higher than ever
As university admissions criteria become even more demanding, teachers face tremendous pressure – and even aggression – from parents intent on students achieving success, according to the Bright Society Educators WeChat blog. Beyond high-demanding classroom responsibilities, provincial budget cuts in the last few years mean that teachers have to carry out school duties other than teaching, such as cleaning classrooms, overseeing vaccination campaigns, and conducting building safety inspections, according to the Excellent Teachers in Famous Classrooms blog. A recent Wuhan University survey found that an overwhelming number of teachers work overtime, but that they only spend 25% of their working hours actually teaching.
Rural counties move to dismiss teachers found to be ‘lying flat’
Rural counties across China are strengthening assessments this year to dismiss teachers found to be “lying flat” — a term similar to the “quiet quitting” phenomenon in the West that sees younger workers opt out of a cutthroat workplace culture, according to the China Teachers Daily. Ostensibly the goal is to enhance educational standards – but there is also a drive to “optimize” the allocation of teachers in primary and secondary schools, the paper wrote, perhaps indicating a move to slim down bloated numbers. It will be difficult for officials to assess exactly who is coasting in their role, argued an anonymous writer for Mó dōu chī shǐjūn, a culture and lifestyle WeChat channel, adding that class averages can vary widely and that grades alone should not determine teacher competence.
Defeated students opting out of a cut-throat educational environment
Years of intensely competitive classroom environments and reforms to promote math and science over humanities have led growing numbers of defeated young people to choose to ‘lie flat,’ Helen Gao wrote for Foreign Policy. Beijing’s education policies were aimed at cultivating a generation of workers primed for an economy built on information technology and advanced manufacturing. But the state, Gao wrote, “wants people to put national interests above those of the individual,” and this culture has led students who are unwilling or unable to participate to choose passivity, instead of submitting to a nationalized curriculum and cutthroat competition for university places. Perhaps recognizing the toll being exacted on students, in 2021 China banned most after-school tutoring services in an effort to improve young people’s mental health and level the socioeconomic playing field for university admissions. That ban has now been lifted, but most private tutoring agencies – once “testaments to the ambition and accomplishments of the Chinese middle class”, according to Foreign Policy — now offer services more akin to counseling rather than hothouse tuition, one WeChat lifestyle blogger wrote.
