The wind of high education is blowing through China’s elementary, middle, and high schools… A large number of graduates from prestigious universities and Ph.D.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Sook-hee = While the number of elementary, middle, and high school teachers with master's or doctorate degrees is increasing in China, the number of highly educated people from prestigious universities entering the teaching profession is also noticeable.

According to Chinese local media Cheil Finance and Singapore's Chinese language media Yonhap Newspaper on the 14th, among full-time teachers at elementary and middle school educational institutions in China as of 2024, 5,910 had a doctoral degree and 855,634 had a master's degree. The number of graduate school graduates exceeds 860,000.

In the case of Shenzhen Middle School (middle and high school), which is considered a prestigious school in Guangdong Province, southern China, it was found that there are about 100 teachers with doctoral degrees.

About 150 people graduated from China's most prestigious universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University. About 100 people graduated from prestigious overseas universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oxford University, and Cambridge University.

In particular, all 21 people scheduled to be appointed to this school this year have graduate school degrees. For example, a doctorate in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University will be appointed as a high school math teacher, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Cambridge University will be appointed as a high school physics teacher.

Suzhou Middle School (middle and high school) in Jiangsu Province hired 13 students last year, including 6 from Tsinghua University and 4 from Peking University.

By educational background, 8 people had doctoral degrees and 5 master's degrees, and none had a teacher's degree.

Ding Changfa, an associate professor of economics at Xiamen University, said, "As China's economy develops, cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou began attracting graduate school graduates as elementary, middle, and high school teachers about 10 years ago. Recently, schools in some economically powerful small and medium-sized cities and county-level cities are also attracting graduate school graduates by providing welfare benefits."

In China, the number of cases of current elementary, middle, and high school teachers pursuing master's or doctoral degrees in education is increasing.

Local media analyzed that the appointment of these highly educated people is contributing to raising the level of education in Chinese schools.