Why teaching is one of the most unwanted jobs in China

Ejinsight: Back in 1985, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed a resolution declaring Sept. 10 of every year as Teachers’ Day across China.
Coincidentally, it was on Teachers’ Day this year that Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma Yun announced that he is going to retire next year in order to return to his previous profession of teaching.
Suddenly, it looks as if teaching were the noblest, most promising job in the mainland!Unfortunately, the opposite is true for many teachers in the country.
In May this year, some 200 unpaid public school teachers in the city of Liuan in Anhui province took to the streets to demand payment of their wage arrears, only to face a crackdown by the local police who used excessive force to quell their protest.
Some of the protesters were handcuffed. An injured female teacher was denied hospitalization by the authorities, and had to be carried to a maternity and child healthcare hospital to receive emergency treatment.
After the incident, a female teacher who took part in the protest and experienced the harsh treatment from law enforcers, posted an angry thread on Weibo, saying: “I’d rather be a prostitute than a teacher!”She might have posted the message in anger, but there seems a kernel of truth in it.At least from her point of view, school teachers in the mainland are sometimes even worse off than prostitutes in terms of pay and social status.
Alibaba’s Ma might have decided to return to teaching just for fun, and those who will become his students are very likely to be wealthy.
But what happened to the dozens of unpaid teachers in Liuan who are relying on their salaries to support their own families is a different story.
As we all know, education forms the cornerstone of a nation.
Cognizant of the vital role teachers play in society, many developed and developing countries hold them in high regard, and show their appreciation by showering them with various kinds of allowances and subsidies including housing allowances and social security benefits, as well as bonuses, honorary titles, medals and citations.
In fact, in many countries, teachers are often paid more than those working in other fields with similar qualifications.
For example, in Japan, the average salary of primary and secondary school teachers is 16 percent higher than that of those who graduated from college in the same year but who are working in other industries.