The Ministry of education has recently issued new regulations, known as the “six red lines” (六条红线), which strictly prohibit teachers from activities such as accepting gifts, money etc. These regulations have been issued in order to combat the growing moral degradation in many Chinese schools today.
Bribery and moral misconduct in the Chinese education system come in a variety of ways. For example, this article cites one teacher who reported that the parents of students sitting in the first three rows of class all paid money for that privilege. The parents of the students in the back did not regularly send presents to the teacher. If a student makes a mistake, a common punishment is to buy the teacher snacks or a meal. In another school district, it was reported that some teachers had made agreements with certain families. In exchange for room and board, the teachers privately tutored the families’ children.
China is currently working to implement significant educational reform, and many hope that reform will help alleviate these problems. Although many are calling for an increase of funding to schools, the author of this article believes that in order to truly implement effective reform, supervision of instructors and evaluation of teachers both need to be strengthened and improved.
