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Last week, a media report on the miserable state of laid-off "substitute teachers" triggered online debates over the government's plan to qingtui - screen and discharge - teachers not on its regular payroll. While some argue in defense of the government, the better half of the online critics accuse the education authorities of "killing the donkey after the milling job" - a Chinese proverb meaning getting rid of somebody after he has outlived his usefulness. I will not concentrate on whether the Ministry of Education's decision to qingtui substitute teachers is reasonable or not. Theoretically speaking, replacing substitute teachers with relatively low qualifications with more qualified ones is commendable. The outcome, however, has been a far cry from what the authorities had hoped. The ministry announced in March 2006 that steps would be taken to qingtui the country's 448,000 substitute teachers "in the shortest possible period of time". Nearly four years have passed since then, but 310,000 of them are still working in primary and middle schools, and the plan does not look like being accomplished any time soon. In fact, last Wednesday a ministry spokeswoman ruled out setting any deadline for the qingtui plan. These facts are the best proof that substitute teachers are still indispensable in the country's elementary education sector. My question is: Why don't the authorities officially acknowledge such teachers' role and give them some kind of status? The least they deserve is remuneration in accordance with their contribution. | 
