CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, September 11, 2020 | 5 CHINA Soldier send-off High online tutor salaries attract grads Companies prefer to hire from top universities in China and overseas
By ZOU SHUO recently, Beijingbased online edu [email protected] cation app Qingbei Online School, affiliated to Chinese tech giant More graduate job seekers have ByteDance, offered annual salaries been turning to the emerging of more than 2 million yuan to online education sector for job online teachers for primary and opportunities in recent years, and junior high school students. industry experts say the trend has The company said it wanted continued this year amid extra experienced teachers who prefera pressure from a record number of bly graduated from Tsinghua Uni university graduates and the COV versity or Peking University, ID19 pandemic. China’s top two universities, which A report based on a survey of are both based in Beijing. 274,000 graduates from 30 provin There is no upper limit for teach ciallevel regions by education con ers’ salary, the notice said, because sultancy MyCOS showed that 15.9 the company believes that the “best Crowds wave goodbye to newly drafted soldiers in Luocheng Mulao autonomous county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Wednesday. percent of college graduates chose educators deserve the best pay”. The county sent 82 new recruits away this year. MENG ZENGSHI / FOR CHINA DAILY to work in the education sector last Jiang Yeguang, assistant vice year, up by 1 percentage point from president at NetEase Youdao, said 2018. compared with offline tutoring, The report also found that more where teachers usually teach up to XIAOKANG@GRASSROOTS students preferred to work at pri a few dozen students, online tutors vate education companies catering need to teach hundreds or even to primary and secondary students thousands of students simultane last year than at public schools at ously and can thus earn much More female migrant workers return to aid children the same level, with the former more. attracting 7.6 percent of graduates The reason the company placed By YAO YUXIN in Qingyang, Gansu and the latter 6.1 percent. such high value on the educational [email protected] Yumen The demand from Chinese fami background of applicants was that lies for quality education and their many students and parents wanted Ma Haizhe, a mother of two, willingness to spend large sums on teachers to be graduates of famous decided to return to her rural home Qingyang afterschool tutoring have fueled universities, he said, adding that town — Xiaohe village of Tianshui Gansu demand for highquality talent in around 90 percent of teachers at city in Gansu province — in 2014 to the education sector, with the the company graduated from top take care of her children when her online education sector growing Chinese universities. 6yearold son was preparing to even more rapidly this year due to Becoming a good online teacher attend primary school and her the pandemic, the report said. Tianshui is no easy job, given the number of daughter, 3, was old enough for kin Online education companies in students they need to teach. Apart dergarten. China have offered extremely high from learning the teaching materi Like many other couples in Xiao CHINA DAILY salaries to attract graduates from als by heart, he said, it was even he, Ma and her husband left home famous universities as the pandem more important that they commu and migrated to find work in a big “I can help them with homework,” ic has prompted more students to nicate effectively with students and ger city. The couple became servers she added. embrace digital learning. make sure they are interested in the in a restaurant in Xi’an, capital of Though the couple has reached a Beijingbased online tutoring classes. Shaanxi province, soon after they consensus on the importance of company NetEase Youdao said it Pan Jiasheng, who graduated married in 2008. parental care, they have had to Women embroider sachets at Qihuang Culture Communication Co was offering annual salaries of at from Tsinghua in 2016 and started Ma gave birth to their son in Xi’an make a compromise. in Qingyang, Gansu province, on March 10. E SHAOFEI / FOR CHINA DAILY least 500,000 yuan ($73,200) to to teach at NetEase Youdao last and came back to the village with Her husband now migrates alone new graduates who will teach high year, said he expects to make him the next year. to work in the Xinjiang Uygur school students, with excellent around 3 million yuan this year. Ten months later, she left him autonomous region to support the including crossstitching, knitting red tiger head. She said her child teachers receiving more than 1 mil Pan, who majored in finance and with her mother and rushed to Xi’an family. sweaters or woolen slippers and was admitted to college years ago lion yuan a year. taught at other education compa for work. For six years, the couple Given the increasing number of making wind chimes. and has now found a decent job in However, the company prefers nies part time when he was a post rarely came home other than during “leftbehind” women like Ma who Ma posts her work on WeChat the city. graduates from a handful of well graduate student, said the high the Spring Festival. stay in their villages to take care of and Kuaishou, a shortvideo plat As moms come back to the village, known Chinese universities and salary and his interest in teaching Like Ma, 32, a growing number of their parents and children while form, to attract buyers. Apart from rural pupils are increasingly being foreign universities that ranked in prompted him to change his job to rural women who are paying more their spouses work in big cities, local covering household expenses, her admitted to colleges, said Liu Lan the top 50 of the 2020 QS World become an online tutor. attention to their children’s educa groups and enterprises are training crafts earn her an additional 1,000 fang, founder of Qihuang Culture. University Rankings, it said in a “The experience is really amaz tion have chosen to stay in their them to make handicrafts they can yuan ($146) per month. Different from traditional factories notice issued recently. ing and fulfilling, as I usually need hometowns to care for their kids sell and sometimes offer them jobs “I’m happy to ease the burden for where workers are stuck in assembly Graduates who have won top to teach 2,000 to 4,000 students at themselves, according to Huang Lixia, to increase their earnings. my husband,” she said. “Spending lines, women in some local firms like prizes in national competitions for once, and making a difference to so director of the local women’s federa About a year ago, Ma used her my own money boosts my confi Liu’s are free to work from home, math, physics, chemistry, biology many students seems unimagina tion in Huangmen township. spare time to learn an elaborate dence and happiness.” which enables them to look after and computer sciences and who ble for traditional teachers,” he said. “The kids have improved a lot since handicraft that threads plastic In Qingyang city, northeast of their parents and children. have scored top places in the Pan said he plans to continue his she returned,” Ma said. Compared beads into strings and twists them Tianshui in Gansu, a group of women “Cultural inheritance was my national college entrance exams online teaching career for seven to with other children being cared for into various shapes to form decora from nearby villages are sitting at a main focus at first,” said Liu as a will also be given priority in recruit eight years as he believes the sector by grandparents, instead of spending tions such as vases with flowers, pen table and doing embroidery to make woman beside her embroidered a ment, it said. has bright prospects in the wake of a lot of time watching TV and playing holders and animation figures. sachets, which the city is famous for. frog, which symbolizes fertility and In a recruitment notice issued the pandemic. on their mobile phones due to lax Led by the local women’s federa Mi Xiaoying, who has worked in blessings. “Now, I also support the supervision, they have formed good tion, women in the town could Qihuang Culture Communication mission to lead more sisters to get study habits, she explained. choose to learn many other skills Co for a decade, is embroidering a rid of poverty.” Exsenior official pleads Greenhouses produce steady income for villagers guilty to taking bribes
By CAO CHEN in Yumen, Gansu “Surprisingly, I had a good harvest notebooks and searched for answers By CAO YIN Commission [email protected] that year and the quality of life imme when running into any obstacles,” [email protected] for Disci diately improved. My success encour Gao said. pline Inspec With seven greenhouses produc aged many others to do the same and In 2016, the revenue of Gao’s solar Qin Guangrong, a former senior tion and the ing fruit and vegetables, Gao Hou learn to operate greenhouses.” greenhouses hit 30,000 yuan, com legislator and exParty chief of National feng no longer worries about food. Positive changes happened again pared with around 5,000 yuan in an Yunnan province, pleaded guilty Supervisory Gao and his family moved to Liuhu in 2015 when the local government average greenhouse. to taking bribes of 23.89 million Commission. town, Yumen city, Gansu province, introduced solar greenhouses, which Gao’s achievement encouraged yuan ($3.49 million) at Chengdu Qin was from their hometown in Huining in provide adequate heat that plants more people to join the group and Intermediate People’s Court in accused of 1998, seeking a better area with irri need for growth even during the develop modern agriculture. Gao Sichuan province on Thursday. taking bribes gated land to grow crops to make a night or cold seasons. The technique patiently guided them and communi From 2003 to 2014, Qin made Qin Guangrong in November living. is generally used in the northern cated with companies in other cities use of his positions, including as 2019 after “The Huining region was too arid regions. to increase sales. provincial Party secretary, gover the case was to grow crops. We couldn’t even get “I took it as a great opportunity “We have regular buyers in cities nor and vicegovernor, to help transferred to the Supreme Peo enough food to eat,” the 50yearold for a good change, as we can grow like Beijing now,” he said. some departments and individu ple’s Procuratorate from the said. plants the whole year. In the winter Gao has also set up a farming coop als benefit from construction pro National Supervisory Commis Despite irrigated agricultural Gao Houfeng holds a bucket of and spring, we usually had nothing erative along with some 30 residents, jects, equity transfers and job sion. land, Liuhu was rather desolate in tomatoes. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY to do at home or went to other discussing greenhouse management promotions. In return, he accepted The antigraft watchdog said the 1990s. As one of the first batch of towns for work,” he said. skills and expanding the market. bribes directly or through his rela the investigation found Qin lost 80 people to move there, Gao built a “However, most residents didn’t Since 2015, Fumin village, which tives from 2000 to 2018, according his faith, abandoned his original house with materials offered by the in environmentally controlled want to try, fearing that they has 783 residents, has built 168 ordi to the prosecuting authority in aspiration, disobeyed Party disci local government, including steel regions through greenhouse farming. couldn’t learn the techniques to nary greenhouses and 10 solar Chengdu. plines and was no longer loyal to beams, bamboo poles and straw. His “At the beginning, we built ordi manage a solar greenhouse and greenhouses for growing cash crops Sentencing will be announced the Party. family was also offered a small piece nary greenhouses. The government worrying about selling produce.” like cherry tomatoes, melons, straw at a later date, the court added. He was found to have participat of land — less than 667 square provided steel frames, plastic film, In order to motivate residents, berries and dragon fruit, according More than 30 people, including ed in superstitious activities and to meters per capita — to grow wheat technical guidance and greenhouse Gao suggested the local government to Gansu Daily. By the end of 2018, journalists and deputies to the have visited private clubs. in front of the house. construction for free. I only spent invite technical experts in Wuwei all 167 people in 44 underprivileged National People’s Congress, the He also accepted vacation trips Residents had to go to other some 6,000 yuan ($860) building six city to come to teach. For three families in the village had been lift country’s top legislative body, provided by private companies, towns to buy rice, noodles and vege 80meter greenhouses to grow years, locals learned skills like ditch ed out of poverty. attended the hearing. obtained gifts excessively and tables, which required a roundtrip tomatoes, watermelons and pep ing, transplanting seedlings and “I am confident that I will lead the Qin, 69, surrendered in May last intervened in the transfer of min walk of up to five hours, Gao said. pers,” said Gao, who is also deputy controlling the temperature in solar residents to expand the scale of pro year and was placed under investi eral resources. Life has become better since 2013, secretary of the Party branch in greenhouses in different weather. duction and live better lives,” Gao gation for serious violations of dis The watchdog added that his when the town started to grow plants Fumin village. “I recorded the key skills in three said. cipline and law by the Central family was also corrupt.