Beijing offers incentives to rural schoolteachers

Beijing will continue to improve the quality and incomes of rural schoolteachers to provide equal education opportunities to students in both urban and rural areas.

The capital will offer incentives to encourage rural teachers to stay and work in the countryside, Li Yi, spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Since 2016, the municipal government has been encouraging normal schools to increase enrollment of students majoring in teaching.

Meanwhile, the government will give 40,000 yuan ($6,100) to each rural teacher who graduates from a normal school or comprehensive college with a non-teaching major and who has been working in a rural area for five successive years.

In addition, each rural teacher will receive a monthly travel allowance of between 1,400 yuan and 4,000 yuan, depending on the distance of their work location from the center city.

By Nov 6, 17,489 rural teachers in 383 schools had received the allowance.

Li said the government is discussing the provision of low-cost rental housing for rural teachers.

Beijing has also allocated 20 percent more financial support to the training of rural teachers compared with urban schoolteachers.

Rural teachers who go to urban schools for teaching training practice will receive 530 yuan per person each time.

Cui Haiming, a physical education teacher in Huairou district in Beijing, has been working in rural schools for 28 years.

In 2013, he started working in a primary school in a remote mountain area as a volunteer, he said during the news conference. When the voluntary period came to end he decided to stay.

“My salary was 5,000 yuan a month in 2014. As the subsidies policy has been implemented, I now get about 10,000 yuan a month, which has improved my living conditions,” Cui said. He said he will stay in the rural school for the rest of his working life until retirement.