You're listening to Roundtable with myself, He Yang.
I'm joined by Steve and Yushun in the studio.
Hi, everybody.
Hi, Yushun.
It's good to have you here as always.
Coming up more than a date on the calendar.
Teachers Day is a moment to recognize those who have taught, guided and inspired us.
This year.
Educators are getting benefits and recognition, but beyond the perks, it's their wisdom, patience and inspiration that make the difference.
So who's been your most unforgettable teacher?
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Now let's switch gears.
In China, honoring teachers has been a cherished virtue since ancient times.
As the 41st National Teachers Day dawns upon us, the nation is rolling out a wide range of thoughtful initiatives to celebrate them, from housing assistance and exclusive financial services to psychological support.
Yes, even AI companions to chat with, plus discounts on public transport and museum tickets.
Honoring teachers today means taking real steps to support their well-being and help them grow professionally.
How might these tangible benefits inspire the next generation of educators?
And what more could we do to celebrate those who impact our future?
We'd love to hear some more background on Teacher's Day.
How did it start and what does it mean today?
So today um is the september the 10th, which is the 41st teachers day in china, and the theme for this year's teachers day is directly translated as fostering teachers with the spirit of educators to forge a strong nation in education and composing a new chapter in building an educationally strong nation.
So, to celebrate Teacher's Day, the Ministry of Education will launch a series of recognition and also rewarding events highlighting the spirit of teachers.
Also, a range of initiatives will be introduced to show respect and provide benefits for teachers enhancing their sense of fulfillment and well-being some of them have has already been mentioned some of the uh financial perks Or like housing assistance, free tickets for public transport or museum tickets, something like that.
We'll mention it later.
Yeah, really cool.
The Ministry of Education.
They held a press conference actually just a few days ago share what has been done over the past year to strengthen the country's teaching workforce.
And they talked about.
Their focus has been on improving teachers' professional ethics and their Yeah, today's the day, but it shows you they had a press conference about it a few days ago.
It's always an important issue in China, right?
The topic of education, we discuss it here all the time on Roundtable.
And it's a topic I think we're going to get into it a little bit about the education industry and teachers and how well they are revered, especially when you go back into history a bit.
And that's something actually Yushun and I, I think just during like casual chat, it came up.
It's considered as one of the very cherished traditions in China that yes, respecting your teacher and all that.
I think very much that sentiment is alive, but sometimes it's also changed a little bit.
Yeah, maybe you could talk a little bit about that Yushun, as well.
As considering the huge population size we have in China, then I guess the logical sort of inference is that we should have a rather large number of teachers as well um, as sort of um, you know, part of this huge sector, the education sector.
Um, so what are your observations?
Yeah actually uh, what i, what he was mentioning, was that we were discussing there used to be like a program every year on tv uh, like selecting the most beautiful teacher.
But i was asking how can we make it not sound like it is a beauty contest?
So, because it is not uh, when it's beautiful in the heart.
I understand yeah, maybe rework the title action yeah, but but yeah like, literally it's called the most beautiful teacher.
So We have that kind of TV program every year to, I think, show our respect and also tell people the importance of respecting our teachers and the hard work they have been doing and about the whole workforce.
The data from the Ministry of Education as of 2024 is showing that the total number of full-time teachers across all levels and types of education in China is 19 million.
And this number has shown a significant increase, with an increase of over 15 million compared to 2019.
And when we're breaking down to different education levels.
Primary school education is around like a student to teacher ratio is like 16 to 1, and junior high school education is around 13 to 1 and high school education is around.
The ratio is around 127 to 1.
And we've seen kind of an increase in these numbers.
And when we're compared to like the global number, it's more of like in the middle.
The student teacher ratio varies significantly by region.
Education level globally.
Some countries, like Norway and Belgium are have ratios around 10 to 1, while others, such as El Salvador and the Philippines, have much higher ratios, up to 27 students per teacher.
So basically, the level of Chinese student to teacher ratio is Kind of in the middle range.
And of course, there are like space to improve, but we can see a huge improvement or progress.
Yeah, that's a good student to teacher ratio, those numbers that you mentioned.
I think in Canada, it's around 17%.
Which I think is somewhere within the global average.
And then it's good news that you said it, that it's important where you have a population of you know what is it?
14 billion now, somewhere in that range.
You need to have a strong teacher workforce for educational purposes of those people, of those students.
And there's been, as you said, a million and a half increase in the number of teachers compared to just five or six years ago.
This is really good.
And this is one of the things where I think that Canada and America, we could, We could not learn something, but just try to turn the tides a little bit.
Canada and America are suffering from teacher shortages, as a matter of fact, and teachers are often complaining in the West that the job is causing burnout.
They're not getting enough support.
And even I think it was in 2023 this is from Ford Harvard dropped its undergrad teaching program due to declining enrollment.
And that's just one of many closures that have accelerated since about five years ago.
But it's just a problem in the West where you don't have enough young people.
I'm interested in becoming a teacher anymore, because it's not about the I don't know if it's about the respect.
Maybe that's one part of it.
It's just about being overworked, perhaps underpaid.
And not enough support.
So those numbers are really encouraging to hear here in China.
And I think you hit the nail on the head with that comment of being underpaid.
Because well, I've read lots of reports from the US and UK and even New Zealand about How teachers say that they need to pay out of their own pocket to get, let's say, stationery and other supplies in the classroom and just feeling that they're not getting paid enough to even live like a normal life, more or less.
And then if, I mean, that's...
I don't blame anybody who feel like they have to leave a profession because they're not being paid enough.
Yeah.
There was a 2022 nationally representative survey that found that fewer in one in five American citizens would encourage a young person to become a K to 12 teacher.
So, It's an issue.
And again it's why I said you know those numbers are really encouraging to hear that that's the situation here in China.
And maybe that's why the authorities and also the Ministry of Education, they're trying to encourage more people to come into this profession by highlighting that we're providing all these kind of financial support and And for a long time the stability of the profession has been seen as a major perk.
Oh, also having winter and summer vacation.
Sure.
Teachers love that.
And they deserve it and they need it, too.
And I kind of envy them a little bit in that sense.
But also, just one interesting observation.
You guys mentioned how you know the student versus teacher ratio stands nowadays and it's surprisingly low.
Low, in my opinion, or is it high?
I'm actually a little confused.
Actually, you know, just saying that like one teacher could be handling like 12.
That is not the situation for us all older well younger millennials.
When we went to school it was a lot higher.
Oh, of course it was easy to have like 50 students in one class or 40 plus students in one classroom, and then of course you had rotating teachers coming in to teach different subjects.
I don't know if that's changed much nowadays in public school classrooms, but it was common to have that kind of classroom size and it was difficult to give like very individual special attention.
Almost impossible.
Yeah, but that was common for students.
The ratio is not like that.
It's not like you have a classroom with like 40 to 50 students and one teacher is in there.
It's not the ratio of that.
Of course, when you're saying we have different subjects of teachers to rotating to to like manage that whole classroom.
And when we count, like how many teachers are administrating that one class, that is the ratio that has been calculated.
Yeah, so see like numbers. can be so misleading.
You need to look into what the numbers really reveal and see how the reality it is that paints the picture to better understand it.
So what are some of the specific measures that have been taken to improve the benefits for teachers in China?
Can we go into some of the examples or areas that you think is worth our attention? mm-hmm first of all of course about improving or having the professional development for teachers the teacher training system has been upgraded and this year the first group of graduates from the national excellence program have officially started teaching in primary and secondary schools this is kind of program that at some teacher training universities, or in China we call it normal universities, tuition is waived, but students are required to teach at a designated school. after graduation for certain years so they're kind of the tuition's waived so they don't have to pay no they don't have to pay but they don't have a choice where they have to go and teach for at least a certain period of time yeah interesting yeah so this is called like publicly funded uh teacher education And at universities directly under the Ministry of Education has also been raised from the undergraduate to graduate level.
So more programs like this has been listed.
And in central and western regions.
Nearly 10000 graduates from this program have joined the teaching workforce.
Well, the teaching profession has always been known that this is more like doing a public service For the future of your country.
So tuition is free.
And that is definitely.
It's a perk.
It's a very attractive thing to attract new teachers for sure.
It is also a responsibility.
As I said, you need to go to that designated school.
In exchange, in a way.
Yeah.
And also this is addressing the imbalance of educational resources.
You know, you've got the really prosperous, economically advanced areas where schools, Everybody wants to go and work, and you've got the areas that might be a little bit more economically backward and you need to have these special measures to attract young talent to come in.
And what about some of the other things that maybe you think is worthwhile mentioning?
To attract teachers, attract talent.
Well, the teacher training universities.
They've been strengthened too, with support from the National Development and Reform Commission.
The Teacher Education Capacity Enhancement Project was launched and, thanks to the Teacher Education Collaboration and Quality Improvement Program, a number of teacher training universities in less developed areas have been able to raise their academic standing.
Talking about the difference between Economically prosperous, largely populated areas.
You know where students, potential teachers, would come to university programs there to become teachers.
And leave less economically prosperous areas.
Well, they've tried to balance that out.
And apparently they've done a pretty good job at doing so.
Also you know about the teacher status and welfare kind of thing.
A consolidation of the policy that the average salary of compulsory education teachers is should not be lower than that of local civil servants and also house assistance system.
Also benefiting teachers a public welfare action launched in two phases, offering discounts in servicing areas like office software housing, car purchases, daily goods, dining and also transportation all of these things.
I saw some of my friends or classmates are teachers.
They have that certificate.
And then you can use that certificate to get a lot of discounts in restaurants and in scenic spots.
That's awesome.
That's great.
I think they deserve it.
Yeah.
And guys, if you could thank one teacher that changed your life.
Oh.
Yeah, we're getting personal here.
Who would that be?
I think it would be my high school hat teacher who was also my English teacher.
One thing that you know left a deep impression on me was that she asked me to, asked us to submit that weekly diary, but it's not actually a diary.
It's kind of thing that you can submit like one sentence or five pages to to her, but it's something that you would like to talk um in english.
No, no in, oh no in chinese.
Isn't she your English teacher?
She sounds like a terrible English teacher.
But you can talk whatever you like because there's no limit on length.
What was the point of that?
For a channel to talk to, I think, not only to her, but also to, I think, myself.
Sorry, I see your point now.
I thought you were focusing on the English aspect of the teaching.
It's about her as a teacher in general.
I got it.
Yeah, I think this process helped me develop the habit of having inner conversation and calming down to think.
And it shaped my attitude and perspective toward it. the world, I think.
And that is why that's the most memorable teacher to me.
What about you, Steve?
I remember in university, I had a professor, his name was Dr. Terry Whalen.
And the first thing that he asked us in class was, what's your favorite word?
And tell me why.
And he didn't, you know, this wasn't part of the lesson plan.
It wasn't something we were going to be quizzed on later, of course, but he just wanted to know.
And at the end of taking a few answers from the students, he said the reason I asked you that question is because I don't want you to think about English as just literature.
Some words that old people put on paper.
I don't want you to think about English as something that doesn't matter the way that you use it.
I want you to think about the words that you choose when you speak, and I want you to think about the words that you choose when you write, because it represents a part of who you are as a person.
Brilliant.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
I never thought about that before.
And no other teacher has ever said anything like that to me in a classroom.
So I thought that just always stuck with me.
And I think it's true, too.
So a really good teacher does shape how you think, how you look at the world.
I mean...
To that level.
They can create lasting memories with a student.
And my most memorable teacher was Miss Dorothy Donovan from PS6 in New York City, who taught me in second grade in elementary school.
She was tall, quite bulky, with black teeth.
Which I now realize probably came from smoking, but didn't know back then.
And her presence was as striking as her teaching.
Strict, fair, and impactful in the classroom.
But she also had a soft, compassionate soul.
Her presence taught me beauty is only skin deep.
Her heart was pure gold.
I'll never forget how she gave me lots of her retired classroom books when I was returning to China, which I still have kept on my bookshelves today.
She wanted me to continue studying English without worrying about the cost.
Yes, hardcover books in English are very expensive.
This act of kindness, given with genuine care and never feeling like charity, has inspired me my whole life.
Thank you, Steve and Yushun for joining the discussion.
I'm He Yang.
We'll see you next time.
