China to include teachers' online work in performance assessment

Online teaching, tutoring and correcting homework will be counted as part of the workload of teachers during the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic and be included in performance appraisals, the Ministry of Education said in a notice published on Friday. (Photo: China Daily)

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The work of Chinese teachers during the country's battle to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, including online teaching and tutoring, will be included in teachers' performance assessment by schools, according to the Ministry of Education.

Online teaching, tutoring and correcting homework will be counted as part of the workload of teachers during the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic and be included in performance appraisals, the Ministry of Education said in a notice published on Friday.

It said local education authorities and schools should arrange for teachers to carry out online teaching according to their own conditions. The epidemic has seen China postpone the start of the spring school semester.

The return of teachers to schools should be arranged according to the need for epidemic prevention and control, and teachers should not attend gatherings such as concentrated offline training or conventions, it said.

The notice also said rewards and recognition for teachers making outstanding contributions on the front line of epidemic prevention should be boosted.

Outbreak forces China education to go online

File photo: China Daily

Ministries say epidemic control and prevention the priority for schools

Donning her school uniform and a red scarf, He Xin took part in her primary school's flag-raising ceremony, a tradition at the start of each semester, only this time she was standing in her family's living room and watching the ceremony live online, like hundreds of fellow students.

Monday was originally planned to be the start of the spring semester for middle and primary schools in Beijing. However, as part of efforts to curb the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, the start of the semester has been delayed, with Monday instead marking the start of online courses being offered to students.

To facilitate the online learning activities, Xin's family, who live in Beijing's Haidian district, helped the 9-year-old register for an account on the Tencent QQ instant messaging platform to join the online chat group initiated by her teachers.

It offers the third-grader a timetable that includes morning exercise for half an hour, reading, mathematics, English and a feedback session with the teacher at the end of the day.

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a joint notice on Wednesday that epidemic control and prevention remained the top priority for schools nationwide.

The country will make learning resources available to primary and middle school students for free through a number of online and television channels, including cloud platforms and online schools, the notice said.

The two ministries warned that after-school training institutions must not take the place of schools during the process, saying that local authorities and schools must step up guidance to students on the selection of learning materials and the framing of study plans.

They also called on schools to refrain from increasing the burden on students, with measures to avoid long hours of studying online and learning beyond the curriculum.

Schools should not require students to register their attendance online or upload videos of their participation, the notice said, adding that students must be given a reasonable amount of rest time.

It emphasized that protecting students' eyesight must be a priority, with measures to expand rest periods and encourage physical activity.

Lyu Yugang, head of the Ministry of Education's Department of Basic Education, said schools must not use home-schooling to replace their normal curriculum.

"When the classes reopen, local authorities and schools must carefully assess the quality of the students' learning and come up with targeted teaching plans," he told a news briefing on Wednesday.

He also stressed the importance of extending more help to the children of medical workers fighting on the front line to curb the outbreak and rural children left behind by parents migrating to urban areas for jobs.

"We need to ensure that every student has already grasped the knowledge in online courses before starting new courses," Lyu said.

Despite the authorities' repeated reminders about the need to ensure adequate rest periods, Xin's parents are still worried about her eyesight.

To complete her online learning, Xin needs to use a laptop and a cellphone to receive messages from her teachers.

"We do not have other options. It was the only way to make sure she can keep up her schooling," said Zhou Ying, her mother.

"She also missed her classmates and kept asking when she could meet them. We could not give an answer."

Zhou said her daughter had already been using instant messaging tools to stay in touch with fellow students, which exacerbated their concerns about her eyesight.

"We can only hope that either I or her father can continue to be able to work from home. Otherwise we will have a babysitting problem," she said.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, said it would be a better option for schools to use the time before schools reopen to encourage students to learn on their own initiative.

"The extended holiday has offered students an opportunity to make their own decisions, plans and arrangements," he said. "It will spur them to take more initiative, boost their confidence, exercise more self-control and improve their self-learning abilities."

Thailand to recruit 10,000 foreign teachers to boost English standards of Thai kids

Image: Daily News

Thailand's education minister has appealed to foreign embassies and other organisations to help him find an extra 3,000 foreign teachers to help schools teach English and other subjects in English.

After a meeting with embassies and other groups Natapol Teepsuwan said that 64 million baht was being spent on the project.

He said that at present there are 7,000 foreign teachers in the kingdom. He said this is not enough for his plan to raise standards.

He wants the number raised to 10,000.

He needs foreign teachers to teach Thai children and teach Thai teachers to teach English.

Natapol used the term "jao khong phasa" when referring to the teachers he wants. This means native speakers.

Thaivisa notes that in stories of this nature the devil is usually in the detail. The Daily News story was rather lacking in that.

It was not mentioned in the Daily News story where these teachers might come from.

Thailand has faced criticism in the past for hiring English teachers from other Asian countries, such as the Philippines, though no mention was made of this issue by Daily News.

They said that the education minister felt that if the foreign teachers he hires teach the Thais to be better English teachers, then by three years time he won't need so many foreigners to teach in Thai schools.

Source: ChinaDaily; Xinhua; Daily News

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