September 10th was designated Teachers' Day in 1985, the first
festival day for any profession and indicative of government
efforts to raise the social status and living standards of
teachers.?
To improve the quality of teaching, the government has started the
Nationwide Program of Network for Education of Teachers. Its aims
are: to modernize teachers' education through educational
information, providing support and services for life-long learning
through the teachers' education network, TV satellite network, and
the Internet; to greatly improve the teaching quality of elementary
and high school faculty through large-scale, high-quality and
high-efficiency training and continuous education.?
As required by state law, all parts of China are implementing
teacher qualification systems and promoting in-service training for
large numbers of school principals, so as to further improve school
management standards. Currently, in schools of higher learning,
professors and assistant professors account for 9.5 percent and 30
percent respectively. Young and middle-aged teachers predominate;
teachers under age 45 account for 79 percent of total faculty, and
under age 35 for 46 percent. Teachers in higher education
constitute a vital contingent in scientific research, knowledge
innovation and sci-tech. Of all academicians in the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, 40.7 percent (280) are in the higher education sector;
for the Chinese Academy of Engineering the corresponding figure is
35.3 percent (234).
