Rural education is in great risk, political advisor Ma Min was told by the directors of local education bureaus during his research trip to Hubei province, China Youth Daily reported.

Ma Min, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) who is also the Party Chief at Central China Normal University, asked the group of directors about what has happened to rural schools. Local education directors from Tujia Autonomous Prefecture in the city of Enshi said they are concerned about the weakening quality of rural teachers, and they are worried about how to recruit new teachers under their administration.

Low income is the most important cause of the loss of teachers in rural areas. "Despite a pay raise, our income is still lower than other social classes, even two times lower than many migrant workers," a rural teacher said.

The teachers also reported that not enough attention is paid to their professional dignity, either. "Now I understand why they petitioned so many times last year," Ma Min said.

The rough teaching conditions in rural areas should not be overlooked. Ge Jianxiong, a member of standing Committee of CPPCC and a professor at Fudan University, said that rural teaching is more difficult than he imagined. During his visit to Xingye in Guangxi autonomous region, he discovered many problems. First, schools cannot enroll enough students, and have to arrange teaching separately, often with one school for grades 1, 3 and 5, and the other for grades 2, 4 and 6. Moreover, students have to learn Chinese by following taped lessons since many of their teachers do not speak Mandarin well. Printers at many schools have remained disused for a long time because no one knows how to use them.

Despite the pressing nature of these problems, subsidies for rural teachers and policies to support them are still being planned and have not been put into action. Based on Mr. Ge's investigation, a rural teacher only receives 200 yuan (US$32) in monthly transportation subsidy. The Ministry of Education issued a rule to compensate rural schools with less than 100 students in November, 2010. However, some schools have not received this compensation because they have no independent accounting, Ma Min said.

"You should raise rural teachers' wages by several fold!" Ge Jianxiong told Deputy Head of the Ministry of Education Li Weihong.