Last week, a portal website conducted a survey on the relationship between teachers and students. 6300 netizens participated in the survey with 72 percent of them being teachers. Seventy-four percent of the participants said that they heard/saw teachers being treated with disrespect. Nineteen percent think that currently teachers fear disrespect more than anything else from students. The survey results echo the voices of many elementary and middle schoolteachers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

A teacher surnamed Xu from Jinghua Elementary School said once a student shouted at him in the classroom "I already know the stuff you are teaching me, why should I have to listen to you?" Xu also said that some students like to mock him by asking very difficult questions.

Mr. Lou is an English teacher in a privately run middle school. He teaches two classes and his students' English test marks are the highest among all class levels because he is a very strict teacher. Yet many students indicated dissatisfaction with Lou when they evaluated their teachers at the end of the semester. Lou's appraisals always lag behind the others. Lou is in his 50's and he feels pretty confused. "It is very easy to make students like me. More games in class and less homework after class; that would do the trick. But if I did this all the time, how could I guarantee the quality of my teaching?"

Some of the established, older teachers are not terribly concerned about the evaluation, but young teachers desperately need students' recognition. Some of them even compromise with the students hoping to get praise from them.

According to the survey, 83 percent of the participants think that teachers face immense pressure mainly from schools, parents, students and public opinion. Forty-two percent of the teachers think the workload they receive from school is too heavy. Twenty-four percent of the teachers think that parents have shifted all adult responsibilities onto teachers.

"Students saying no to teachers and showing little respect for their teachers, all these phenomenon suggest that the dominant position of authority figures in education are facing a big challenge with students," Chen Feng, Principle of Jiangxindao Middle School said.

Also, in another place, Chongqing Municipality, an evaluation standard on teachers' professional virtue was issued on December 17. The standard highlights how students feel about their teachers. Student assessment takes up 20 points of the total 100.

These evaluation results will be recorded in each teacher's personal archive, composing part of the records viewed when considering promotions for teachers.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua December 21, 2007)