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Too much work puts Guangdong teachers under stress

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-13 07:39

GUANGZHOU -- Every weekday, Zhao Guanmen wakes up at 6:30 am to catch a shuttle bus bound for the Guangzhou University Town, situated in the southern suburb district of Panyu.

After finishing four long lectures, the 35-year-old professor at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, does not call it a day. He cannot even if he wants to.

"Usually, I have no classes in the afternoons and I would like to return home for lunch and a short nap. But I have to stay in the university to prepare for scientific research and study," Zhao said.

Scientific research is one of the most important assessment elements for teachers to get promotions and pay raises in most universities here.

"The workload is heavy, and it's begun to affect me physically and psychologically. But there's no other option," he said.

Like Zhao, a large number of college teachers in the southern province of Guangdong are suffering from physical and psychological problems, like hypertension and depression, due to the heavy workload, said a proposal to the Guangdong provincial session of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The proposal, drawn by the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party, cited a recent survey saying as many as 80 percent of college teachers in the province were prone to mental problems.

More than 75 percent of teachers often feel exhausted and about 46 percent of them suffer from sleeping disorders, it said.