10/09/2019
- Expensive presents are officially discouraged but have become the norm at many schools on day of appreciation for educators
Students at Yangzhou Technical Vocational College form the Chinese characters for “Hello Teacher” to mark China’s Teachers’ Day. Photo: Handout
Despite a decade of official discouragement, parents in China have been struggling with one of the biggest dilemmas of the school year – how to mark the country’s annual Teacher’s Day.
Ellen Yuan agonised for a day and a night before sending her son off to kindergarten on Tuesday with a 1,000 yuan (US$140) gift card in his bag for the teacher.
It was the boy’s second week of attendance and Yuan had given no thought to any Teacher’s Day obligations –until she learned that several of her friends had been busy over the weekend preparing gifts for their children’s teachers.
“It makes me feel that I am being a drag on my son if I don’t do so,” said Yuan, who works for a foreign company in Shanghai.
Respecting teachers has traditionally been a fundamental social norm in China but gift giving on the special day for educators has gone beyond an expression of appreciation by their students, as parents have taken over with ever more expensive gifts – and sometimes cash – which they hope will mean their kids are well taken care of while at school.
What gift, how expensive it should be, and how to deliver it have become the biggest questions for many parents in the run-up to September 10 each year, even though the education ministry and its subordinate bodies have repeatedly issued directives over the past decade to ban teachers accepting gifts.
Yuan said one of her friends had bought a body care set worth more than 600 yuan for each of her child’s three teachers, another had bought an 800 yuan gift card, while a third had given the head teacher a 1,000 yuan bottle of perfume.
Some parents had delivered the presents directly to the school, while others had asked their children to take the gifts to their teachers. Yuan’s plan was to message the teacher and tell her to take the gift card from her son’s bag.
“I know it’s bad. I don’t want my kid to know that,” Yuan said.
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The question of whether parents should give gifts on Teacher’s Day was one of the hottest topics on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, attracting more than 15 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
“Of course we should not, but I don’t dare to ignore it,” one user said, winning more than 10,000 likes.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, said the gift-giving trend had been partly driven by a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality.
“Everybody has given a gift. Would my child be specially treated if I don’t? This is a common concern,” Chu said. As a result, the purpose of gift giving on Teacher’s Day had become about protecting the children’s interests instead of a sincere expression of gratitude, he said.
But not every teacher gets presents – with gifts usually reserved for those teaching the “main subjects” of mathematics, Chinese and English, which count the most in high school and college entrance examinations.
Emily Shen, an English teacher from a middle school in Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, said she also prepared gifts for the teachers of her two kids. “Some chocolate for them to take to school. And I myself would give a gift card to each of those who teach the main subjects,” she said.
Zhuang Ke, a music teacher at a primary school in Jiaxing, also in Zhejiang province, admitted she was embarrassed by the parents’ different treatment of teachers of “less important” subjects like her’s. “It’s always nice to receive presents. But teachers who teach music, art and PE are often forgotten,” she said.
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State broadcaster CCTV said in a commentary on its website on Sunday that “all forms of behavior that attempt to ruin normal teaching order and interfere in equality by sending gifts should be resolutely abandoned”. A similar message was run by a series of official media outlets at local level.
“The most fundamental way to stop parents from sending gifts is to treat the students equally and fairly every day, so that parents conclude it makes no difference whether they give a gift,” Rednet.cn, the official news portal of Hunan province, said on Monday.
Although some teachers have made it explicit to students that they will refuse presents on Teacher’s Day, Yuan said her son’s teacher accepted the gift, as did the teachers of her three friends’ children.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Art, bag, body care set, bottle of perfume, Chinese, chinese parents, Chocolate, college entrance examination, commentary, day of appreciation, discouraged, educators, English, Expensive presents, fired, foreign company, forgotten, fundamental way, gift card, gift etiquette, Hangzhou, High school, hot sun punishment, Hunan Province, Jiaxing, keeping up with the Joneses, kindergarten, mathematics, mentality, middle school, music, music teacher, National Institute of Education Sciences, norm, official news portal, officially, PE, poor pay, primary school, Protest, Rednet.cn, schools, Shanghai, sincere expression of gratitude, state broadcaster CCTV, struggle, teacher, Teacher’s Day, Uncategorized, website, Weibo, Yangzhou Technical Vocational College, zhejiang province |
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25/04/2019
- Accident happened about 7.20am at residential development in Hengshui, Hebei province, authorities say
- Injured pair said to be in stable condition in hospital
Eleven people were killed when a lift fell at a construction site in Hengshui, Hebei province. Photo: Weibo
Eleven people were killed and two others seriously injured when a lift fell at a construction site in northern China on Thursday morning, municipal authorities said.
The accident happened at about 7.20am on the site of the Jade Huating compound, a residential property development under construction in the Taocheng district of Hengshui, Hebei province, according to a statement issued by the city government.
The two people hurt were being treated at a local hospital and in a stable condition, it said.
Police, work safety officials and construction authorities have begun an investigation to determine the cause of the accident, the statement said.
The accident happened at about 7.20am on the site of the Jade Huating compound. Photo: Weibo
A witness was quoted by The Beijing News as saying the crash happened in a matter of seconds.
“I heard a big bang and saw the lift had fallen,” the witness said. “Then six or seven ambulances arrived on the scene.”
Kindergarten flattened by falling debris from building site
The housing project is being developed by Hengshui Youhe Real Estate Development.
The firm said on WeChat earlier this month that the project was making good progress thanks to “reasonable construction with maximum efficiency”, despite work having to be suspended several times for environmental reasons. The post was later deleted.
Source: SCMP
Posted in ambulances, building site, China alert, environmental reasons, Hebei province, Hengshui, Hengshui Youhe Real Estate Development, Jade Huating compound, kindergarten, lift crash, North China, residential development, suspended, Taocheng district, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, WeChat |
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13/12/2018
- Parents say their children were warned that if they reported the abuse they would be punished even more
- School’s legal representative dismisses claims of wrongdoing by teachers
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 December, 2018, 6:17pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 13 December, 2018, 6:24pm
Three kindergarten teachers in northeast China have been detained on suspicion of physically abusing pupils in their care, including stabbing them with toothpicks, according to local media reports.
Police in Shenyang, Liaoning province, launched an investigation into the Kubeiland Emile International Kindergarten after receiving complaints from parents that at least 15 of its pupils had been abused by staff.
“They [pupils] would be pricked if they couldn’t finish their meal, or moved during nap time or didn’t dance well,” one parent was quoted as saying by China Business Journal.
The youngsters were even warned that if they spoke out about the punishments they received there would be worse to come, another parent said.
Several parents had medical records and photographs showing multiple prick marks on their children’s hands, legs, bottoms and abdomens, the report said.
Another parent said the school even tried to cover up the abuse by sending children who bled after being pricked to the school clinic to have their wounds cleaned up and sterilised.
In a report by video news website Pear Video, a mother was quoted as saying that she became suspicious after catching her son stabbing other children with a toothpick. When she challenged him about it, the boy said he was copying his teacher.
A father of another of the pupils echoed the claim that the children were warned not to report the abuse.
“He [the man’s son] said a teacher told them she could see and hear them talking to their parents, so they must not tell.”
The police officer in charge of the case said that three people had been detained pending a full investigation into the allegations.
However, Su Ning, the kindergarten’s legal representative, dismissed claims children had been abused and said the school had provided footage from its surveillance cameras that would invalidate the charges.
Accusations of child abuse in schools are not uncommon in China. Last month, eight teachers from a nursery in Shanghai were sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 months for roughly handling young children and force feeding them mustard.
Posted in China alert, detained, kindergarten, stabbing, teachers, toothpick, Uncategorized |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 
Chinese parents struggle with Teacher’s Day gift etiquette
Despite a decade of official discouragement, parents in China have been struggling with one of the biggest dilemmas of the school year – how to mark the country’s annual Teacher’s Day.
Ellen Yuan agonised for a day and a night before sending her son off to kindergarten on Tuesday with a 1,000 yuan (US$140) gift card in his bag for the teacher.
It was the boy’s second week of attendance and Yuan had given no thought to any Teacher’s Day obligations –until she learned that several of her friends had been busy over the weekend preparing gifts for their children’s teachers.
“It makes me feel that I am being a drag on my son if I don’t do so,” said Yuan, who works for a foreign company in Shanghai.
Respecting teachers has traditionally been a fundamental social norm in China but gift giving on the special day for educators has gone beyond an expression of appreciation by their students, as parents have taken over with ever more expensive gifts – and sometimes cash – which they hope will mean their kids are well taken care of while at school.
What gift, how expensive it should be, and how to deliver it have become the biggest questions for many parents in the run-up to September 10 each year, even though the education ministry and its subordinate bodies have repeatedly issued directives over the past decade to ban teachers accepting gifts.
Yuan said one of her friends had bought a body care set worth more than 600 yuan for each of her child’s three teachers, another had bought an 800 yuan gift card, while a third had given the head teacher a 1,000 yuan bottle of perfume.
Some parents had delivered the presents directly to the school, while others had asked their children to take the gifts to their teachers. Yuan’s plan was to message the teacher and tell her to take the gift card from her son’s bag.
“I know it’s bad. I don’t want my kid to know that,” Yuan said.
But not every teacher gets presents – with gifts usually reserved for those teaching the “main subjects” of mathematics, Chinese and English, which count the most in high school and college entrance examinations.
Emily Shen, an English teacher from a middle school in Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, said she also prepared gifts for the teachers of her two kids. “Some chocolate for them to take to school. And I myself would give a gift card to each of those who teach the main subjects,” she said.
Zhuang Ke, a music teacher at a primary school in Jiaxing, also in Zhejiang province, admitted she was embarrassed by the parents’ different treatment of teachers of “less important” subjects like her’s. “It’s always nice to receive presents. But teachers who teach music, art and PE are often forgotten,” she said.
Chinese kindergarten teacher fired for hot sun punishment
State broadcaster CCTV said in a commentary on its website on Sunday that “all forms of behavior that attempt to ruin normal teaching order and interfere in equality by sending gifts should be resolutely abandoned”. A similar message was run by a series of official media outlets at local level.
“The most fundamental way to stop parents from sending gifts is to treat the students equally and fairly every day, so that parents conclude it makes no difference whether they give a gift,” Rednet.cn, the official news portal of Hunan province, said on Monday.
Although some teachers have made it explicit to students that they will refuse presents on Teacher’s Day, Yuan said her son’s teacher accepted the gift, as did the teachers of her three friends’ children.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Art, bag, body care set, bottle of perfume, Chinese, chinese parents, Chocolate, college entrance examination, commentary, day of appreciation, discouraged, educators, English, Expensive presents, fired, foreign company, forgotten, fundamental way, gift card, gift etiquette, Hangzhou, High school, hot sun punishment, Hunan Province, Jiaxing, keeping up with the Joneses, kindergarten, mathematics, mentality, middle school, music, music teacher, National Institute of Education Sciences, norm, official news portal, officially, PE, poor pay, primary school, Protest, Rednet.cn, schools, Shanghai, sincere expression of gratitude, state broadcaster CCTV, struggle, teacher, Teacher’s Day, Uncategorized, website, Weibo, Yangzhou Technical Vocational College, zhejiang province | Leave a Comment »