By Zhang Li and Shan Dasheng, educational quality research team, Development Research Center of the State Council(DRC)

Report No 100, 2014 (Total 4599)

Summary:

The key to raising the level of education in China's primary and secondary schools is, simply, top-quality, devoted teachers. And, in spite of the increased growth in educational input and teacher pay in recent years, today's primary and secondary school teachers are not meeting the educational needs in quality. The teaching profession has seen a weakening in its appeal and it is getting harder to attract, and keep, the better teachers. The reasons for this are as follows: teachers' status and reputations are declining which makes teaching a less attractive option. In addition, certain policies for teacher education have been dropped, and social views have changed, and there has been restructuring in teacher education, less attractive pay, and insufficient chances to develop in the field.

The country needs to improve teachers' status, increase their pay, and provide chances at promotion to attract more talented people to teaching and to keep them over the long-term.