There is a lot of talk these days about what China's obligations are as a "responsible stakeholder" in a world facing a global economic crisis.
Despite the dire news from across the Pacific, business people here are finding some consolation in the fact that sales of luxury goods have maintained their momentum. The demand for Louis Vuitton products in China, for example, has outpaced local supplies. Customers have to wait for weeks for their precious handbags to be shipped from Paris to Beijing or Shanghai.
I bear no personal grudge against those who want to fill their wardrobes with more luxuries. Perhaps it is part and parcel of the rapid development and modernization that this country has undergone in the past three decades.
But both as a study in contrasts and as a reminder of the still gaping divide between city and countryside, I must share with these newly wealthy urbanites - and with readers - the story of Li Zixi and some 70 of his colleagues in Luodian county of Southwest China's Guizhou province.
After graduating with a junior middle school education in 1995, Li Zixi was asked to be a substitute teacher in a school in Jinxiang village, more than an hour's walk from his own village. The children in that village had not attended school for two years because no one was willing to teach there.
Li agreed to try two semesters, but 13 years later, he is still teaching there. Until June 2007, his annual salary was whatever remained of the 30 yuan each child paid for books, along with 177.5 kg of corn, or 500 grams of corn a day. Some villagers were too poor to pay the book fees. Others couldn't even afford to give Li some corn.
Three years ago, Li had to sell his family's pig to buy textbooks for his students.
Li once thought of leaving to become a migrant worker in a city, but he stopped thinking about it after seeing the tears of a parent, who asked him: "What would our children do if you leave?"
The Ministry of Education requires one teacher for every 23 children. At Jinxiang village, there are only 20 children. Sometimes fewer.
Over the past 13 years, Li has taught some 100 children first and second year Chinese and math. These children have been able to go on to a higher level of education.
Despite this, Li is not a certified teacher. He has remained a substitute teacher, who will be let go if a certified teacher takes the job.
But there have been no certified teachers who have stayed. Graduates of teachers schools tend to quit when they are sent to remote village schools. Even those who teach at a bigger school in town want to leave after a few years. The reason? Luodian is one of the poorest counties in the country with annual revenues of 625 yuan per capita.
As a result of media publicity, Li now gets 600 yuan a month from the county education bureau.
However, 70 of his fellow substitute teachers continue to teach in Luodian county on pay so meager it is not enough to feed a family of three.
I really applaud the central government for resolving to improve compulsory education in rural areas as part of a series of bold measures for further reforms in the countryside. This means shoring up education in poverty-stricken and ethnic minority areas.
All these are good measures and a part of the national effort to maintain a stable and relatively rapid economic development. As Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month, this is the most important contribution China can make to ameliorate the global financial crisis.
But besides good government policies, we also need generous donations from the public to help dedicated rural teachers like Li improve their knowledge and skills. Only then can they provide their students with a better education and their villages a better future.
A "responsible stakeholder" nation will make that part of the obligation, because without devoted teachers like Li, policies to improve rural education will only be good on paper.
E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 10/23/2008 page9)
