This petition storm with the theme of "economic interests" mainly occurred in rural areas below the county level, which was regarded by the industry as a concentrated expression of the suppressed demands of rural teachers: there were dissatisfaction caused by inadequate treatment and grievances that group interests were not paid attention to for a long time; There are both the interest demands arising from life difficulties and the unbalanced mentality fermented by the gap between the rich and the poor in the industry.
The reporter of Outlook News Weekly conducted a retrospective investigation on this situation a few days ago, and found that the crux of the problem all points to the current "county-based" investment mechanism for teachers' treatment guarantee.
Performance pay fuse
On June 5438+065438+1October 18, 2008, Tan (a pseudonym), a teacher in Xinhua County, Hunan Province, got up early. I rode with more than 40 teachers in the school and finally arrived at the county seat at noon to participate in the teacher petition.
No one specifically informed Tan and his colleagues. /kloc-On the evening of 0/7, Tan heard the news that there was a teacher's party in the county that day, contacted several good colleagues and decided to "support". He said: "Most teachers in the school want to attend, but some teachers can't go because they have classes."
Teachers who participated in the petition generally thought it was reasonable and legal. In 2006, the revised draft of the Education Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stated that "the average salary level of teachers is not lower than or higher than that of national civil servants". They think that this policy has not been fulfilled in time.
According to Tan, deputy director of the Personnel Department of Hunan Provincial Department of Education, after the reform of the income distribution system of government agencies and institutions in 2006, the civil service law was implemented in the provinces, cities and most counties and cities of Hunan Province, and the allowances and subsidies for civil servants were standardized. The average personal income of civil servants has increased greatly, while the income level of teachers has not increased during the same period. Teachers petitioned mainly for performance pay and equal treatment with local civil servants.
The latest issue of the National Education Supervision Report shows that in 2006, the average annual salary of teachers in ordinary primary schools and ordinary high schools in China was 5 198 yuan and 1948 yuan lower than that of employees in state organs.
According to our reporter's incomplete statistics, the areas where teachers strike and petition frequently occur are the areas where local finance is relatively weak and teachers' treatment is low. More than 20 teachers' petitions at the end of Hunan province, more than 95% occurred in rural areas below the county level. In the cases of teachers' petitions from media all over the country, there are also obvious regional characteristics, such as few eastern regions, many central and western regions, few regions with good financial situation and many poverty-stricken regions.
"In fact, teachers' dissatisfaction with their low treatment broke out in the rural compulsory education stage. After the implementation of the new mechanism of rural compulsory education, many rural school teachers feel that their income is falling instead of rising. "More than one local cadre in charge of education in cities and counties expressed this view.
Chen Qingyuan, a township cadre in central Hunan, believes that teachers' income is not low in rural areas, but a relatively high and stable group. Many young and middle-aged rural teachers told this reporter that although teachers are very decent jobs in rural areas, their income is not only lower than that of local civil servants, but even lower than that of some farmers who go out to work.
Teacher Yu, a rural primary school teacher with a teaching experience of 12, said that his younger brother worked as a bricklayer in the city after graduating from junior high school and spent 5,000 yuan to go home for the Spring Festival every year. After graduating from technical secondary school for so many years, he only got 1000 yuan a month, which made him only prepare 2000 to 3000 yuan for the New Year, which made him "feel very shabby".
The latest issue of the National Education Supervision Report shows that in 2006, the average annual income of ordinary primary and secondary school teachers in China was 17729 yuan and 20979 yuan. The proportion of rural primary and secondary school teachers without their own housing in the western region reached 63.7%.
According to the statistics of April 2008 in Hunan Province, in 2007, the per capita annual income of teachers in compulsory education schools at or below the county level was only 1.9 million yuan.
Wang Xuejie, a professor at the Party School of Hunan Provincial Party Committee, made a special investigation on the current situation of rural education. According to his analysis, rural teachers don't have much savings. Not only is it difficult to buy a house, but they also spare no effort to get involved in investment behaviors such as stocks and houses. However, there is a certain basis for asking local government departments to honor performance pay and enjoy the same treatment as civil servants, which has caused the situation that teachers' group petitions have occurred continuously for a period of time and quickly spread to surrounding areas.
The harder the place, the lower the income.
Chen, a teacher in Longhui County, Hunan Province, said that the students who went to normal school with him not only earned twice as much as themselves in the urban area, but also teachers with similar titles and ages who taught in neighboring counties earned more than themselves.
In the investigation, our reporter found that the internal gap of teachers' profession is mainly reflected in two aspects. First, the gap between urban and rural areas is large. The survey on teachers' treatment in the first half of 2008 by Hunan Provincial Personnel Department, Finance Department and Education Department shows that the average annual income of teachers in compulsory education schools at or below the county level is 19373 yuan, while that in urban areas is 26 130 yuan, with a difference of 6757 yuan. Second, there is a big gap between regions. For example, the per capita annual income of teachers in compulsory education schools in Changsha City, Hunan Province reached 3 1.794 yuan, while that in Yongzhou City was only 2 1.206 yuan, with a difference of 1.0588 yuan.
"The harder the place, the heavier the work pressure of teachers and the lower their income." Kuang Meizai, a staff member of the education department in Anren County, Hunan Province, believes that the current treatment of urban teachers is much better than that of urban teachers, and the income of urban primary and secondary school teachers is much higher than that of rural remote areas. Social security benefits such as endowment insurance and medical insurance and some local subsidies are also dominant in urban schools, and the promotion of teachers' professional titles is also inclined to urban schools with good school management and good teaching quality. The uneven distribution of income within this industry has further aggravated the loss of rural teachers and the psychological imbalance of teachers.
Of the 69 teachers in Ma Jing 'ao Middle School in Jishou City, 18 are on leave or seconded to the education administrative department and urban middle schools. Ma Jing Ao Middle School is a rural boarding demonstration school in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture. There are hardware facilities in local rural middle schools, which are less than half an hour's drive from Jishou city. Principal Huang Shaorong said that all students are excellent backbone teachers. Schools have to "dig" teachers from less favorable schools. Teachers from remote rural schools flow to towns, excellent primary school teachers flow to middle schools, and some rural primary schools have to still hire substitute teachers. This abnormal flow chain of rural teachers has become a new factor to expand the gap between urban and rural education.
The more policies, the greater the income gap.
In Xiuyan Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province, where a group of teachers visited on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2008, a cadre who has been engaged in salary calculation for a long time said in an interview with this reporter that since the early 1990s, the state, provinces and cities have continuously introduced policies to increase and improve teachers' salary subsidies, but only the basic salary has been truly implemented. Most subsidies and treatment policies require local financial burden, and the higher authorities have not arranged transfer payments. At the same time, considering the weak financial resources of lower levels, many wage adjustment documents allow county governments to decide whether to implement them themselves. In this way, the policy of wage adjustment can be implemented at the level of provinces and cities with better financial resources, and at the county level it will become a "empty" check. The more policies are introduced, the greater the income gap.
The state has also actively adjusted its policies to narrow the educational gap between urban and rural areas. According to the data released by the Ministry of Education, in 2008, the total investment in rural compulsory education in China exceeded 300 billion yuan, with an average annual increase of 2 1.7% since 2003. In the same period, the average annual growth rate of the total investment in education in China was 18.3%, and the average annual growth rate of rural compulsory education investment was 3.4 percentage points higher than that of the total investment in education in China. Especially in 2007 and 2008, the annual growth rate exceeded 30%. In 2007, the average public expenditure of rural primary and middle school students was 544 yuan, and that of rural junior middle school students was 824 yuan, about 2.7 times that of 2003. The average public expenditure of urban primary school students is 97 1 yuan, and that of urban junior high school students is 1463 yuan, which is about 1.9 times that of 2003. In absolute terms, there are still some differences between rural areas and cities and towns, but the growth rate of rural areas is indeed higher than that of cities and towns.
Zhang Puxi, president of Golden Dongxiang Juneng School in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, analyzed that the state's investment in rural education mainly increased in ensuring school funds and tuition and fees for compulsory education. However, teachers' salary and welfare is still a "county-based" financial input mechanism, which leads to a large gap in treatment between regions, between urban and rural teachers and between civil servants and teachers to a certain extent.
Chen Ciying, deputy magistrate in charge of education in Longhui County, Hunan Province, calculated an account: excluding private schools, there are 7,546 in-service teachers and 3 100 retired teachers in the county. In 2008, the county's available financial resources were 654.38+0.8 billion yuan, plus various transfer payments totaling about 400 million yuan. Teachers' salaries and allowances reached 654.38+500 million yuan, and the total investment in the education system reached 240 million yuan. Last year, in order to calm teachers' dissatisfaction with the income gap of public teachers, the county could only adopt the "method" of not increasing the income of civil servants and teachers.
Zhou Jianyuan, deputy director of the Department of Education, Culture and Health of the Hunan Provincial Department of Finance, said that statistics show that before the transfer payment, the per capita financial resources of Hunan Province were only 10546 yuan. Previously, the subsidy standard for civil servants in nine cities approved by Hunan provincial government was 16333 yuan per capita per year. Together with basic salary and other subsidies, the average annual income of financial support personnel will reach 30,000 yuan, and more than 70% of county-level finances can't afford it. Before the implementation plan of teachers' performance pay was issued by the central government at the end of 2008, many counties and cities adopted many different "measures" to meet teachers' requirements of "cashing in performance pay and enjoying the same treatment as civil servants": some counties implemented civil servants and teachers, and some counties used "statistics" to prove that "teachers' income was higher than that of civil servants", and few county governments could really meet teachers' reasonable requirements and fully pay performance pay.
Initially clear "funds and provinces as a whole"
To the satisfaction of the grass-roots government, the detailed rules for the implementation of performance pay being formulated by various provinces have initially clarified the general principle of "coordinating funds by provinces". However, rural grassroots educators are still worried: teachers' income consists of wages, subsidies and performance pay. Even if the performance-based salary policy can be fully implemented, other income guarantee mechanisms for teachers in counties can not eliminate the income gap between regions and between urban and rural areas.
Many grassroots educators interviewed believe that education is related to social equity, and it is reasonable to realize "equal pay for equal work" and equal treatment for urban and rural teachers through overall investment by provincial governments. Even if it is difficult to achieve the complete equality of teachers between urban and rural areas and regions in the short term, government departments should actively adjust the way of financial input and establish a mechanism to eliminate regional differences in teachers' seniority allowance, class teacher allowance, special education teacher allowance, housing provident fund, social security and medical insurance. The government should formulate unified standards and incorporate them into the fiscal budget, which will be jointly guaranteed by the central and provincial governments.
It is also a common voice at the grassroots level to establish a supervision mechanism for the use of education funds. Some grass-roots teachers believe that the model of "county-based management" needs to strengthen supervision. The contribution of education investment to local officials' achievements and short-term economic growth is not obvious, and there should be a mechanism to supervise the use of education funds.
Chen Boxiang, a representative of grass-roots teachers, said that local governments should especially punish violations and misappropriation of teachers' normal treatment. In Longhui County, Hunan Province, the superior finance gives a special transfer payment of 70 1 10,000 yuan every year for the year-end 13-month salary reward of local teachers and public officials. However, from 200 1 to now, local teachers have signed for several years in a row, but only got 1 incentive funds. When interviewed by this reporter, the local government department also admitted that this transfer payment did exist, but it has already been used for local highway construction.
The grassroots educators interviewed believe that after the implementation of the compulsory education funding guarantee mechanism, local education departments have systematically supervised the funding guarantee, and the experience is worth learning. On the one hand, the basic treatment of teachers should be coordinated by provincial finance; On the other hand, it is necessary to establish a supervision and accountability mechanism for local governments to implement and guarantee teachers' treatment, regularly publicize and supervise acts that infringe on teachers' normal interests, and hold relevant responsible persons accountable.