NEWS//Teacher's Day

Today is Teacher's Day across China.

Since 1985 Teacher's Day has been an official holiday that recognizes the important work of the country's educators.

Honoring teachers

On Teacher's Day, China holds meetings, festivals, and awards ceremonies. In prior years, pupils gave flowers and gifts to their teachers. Common gifts included cash and gift cards. Sometimes teachers received even more expensive gifts, like Ipads, handbags, and cosmetics. This year, however, gift-giving is not permitted.

To honor teachers, local governments are encouraged to light landmarks, public transportation vehicles, and schools from 8:00 to 9:00 pm on Friday. Lighting landmarks began in 2017 in four cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Last year on Teacher's Day, 245 cities across all 31 provinces lit up their landmarks. In addition, this year, China's key social media platforms will show promotional videos that honor teachers.

Improving education

Teacher's Day 2021 also highlights reforms that the Chinese government has enacted in order to improve the quality of its education.

• Reforms include guidelines for homework, online learning, after-school care, and integrated school development.

• The government's promotion of education has led to an increase in the number of teachers. China has 609,400 more teachers this year than in 2020, an increase of 3.52 percent. The total of kindergarten teachers and teachers at higher education institutions grew by over 5%.

• New regulations mandate that salaries for public primary and middle school teachers are not lower than those of local government officials in the same region.

• The student-to-teacher ratio is dropping due to the hiring of more teachers.

Sources: China Daily, Advantour, There is a day for that, CGTN, BellaOnline, Peoples Daily