(LI SHIGONG)

Public school teachers in east China's Shandong Province have been forbidden to tutor for payment beginning on January 1, 2010. The decision, which makes Shandong the first area to forbid tuition for payment, was made after two rounds of deliberation.

Education authorities in Zhejiang Province have also forbidden teachers to take part-time jobs at training agencies on workdays and to organize paid tutoring during holidays. If teachers violate the regulations, they could face dismissal. However, the Zhejiang regulations are construed by some as more flexible and different from Shandong's outright ban.

The controversial topic of whether tuition for payment should be banned or allowed has existed for more than a decade.

Opponents to paid tutoring believe that, if teachers are allowed to tutor students out of class, they might deliberately leave out important knowledge that should be imparted in class but provide it in after-school tuition.

Supporters who think tuition for payment should be allowed, however, argue that, although some teachers might take advantage of their work for personal gains, not all teachers will do so. To take a part-time job after eight hours' work is a teacher's freedom and also a legal right. Teachers are not yet civil servants, so they don't need to abide by "special regulations" for civil servants. Their knowledge and teaching capability are their own resource, so no one should restrict them from using it.

To ban it

Shen Yangyou (hlj.rednet.cn): If teachers organize after-school classes to improve education quality, we cannot help asking why they do not make efforts to improve quality in their regular classes. Is it because they have failed to complete the school curriculum? If that is the case, teaching after-school classes is the teachers' responsibility and they shouldn't be charging for it. If some teachers prepare regular lessons poorly, which forces students to learn necessary content in after-school classes, we can say this is a violation of the Compulsory Education Law and codes of ethics of the teaching profession.

It was not long ago that many teachers in China volunteered to tutor their students free of charge in their spare time, simply to fulfill their commitment to not leave any child behind.

In China, teachers are usually compared to "engineers of human souls," which means that ethical standards for the teaching profession are higher than those for other professions. Whether teachers can meet these standards has a great effect on our children's growth.

Banning teachers from making money from tutoring is a significant decision, which can also alleviate students' schoolwork burdens. Since teachers' moonlighting as tutors could undermine children's healthy development and damage the image of teachers, why don't we simply ban it?

Ding Mingli (www.gmw.cn): Many teachers do not prepare for their classes actively and some even intentionally skip key content in classes so they can offer valuable lectures in paid private classes.

These acts have harmed schools' education quality as well as the integrity and reputation of the teaching profession, which is greatly respected in Chinese society.

As a matter of fact, to ensure students' all-around development, teachers' duties are extended beyond formal teaching. As a result, teachers are supposed to become busier since they have to make teaching in classes more efficient—as well as design and supervise extracurricular activities, such as accompanying students on field trips. If they dutifully meet standards of practice for the profession, they probably would not be able to find time to moonlight tutoring for money.

Therefore, professional teachers should be forbidden from taking paid tutoring jobs as it could harm the country's interests in the long run.

Mei Guang (www.xinhuanet.com): Some people who promote teachers' moonlighting as tutors believe that teachers today are underpaid.

Ten years ago, it might have been justified for people to tolerate moonlighting as tutors, because teachers were poorly paid. As China gradually implements the strategy of invigorating China through science, technology and education, governments at all levels have steadily increased their input into education. Teachers' living standards and salaries have been substantially improved. If teachers today still use being underpaid as an excuse to moonlight, the dissatisfaction is purely psychological. If they hold this belief, these teachers would not be satisfied even if their salary levels surpassed those of civil servants or foreign colleagues.

Moonlighting as tutors is against the basic code of ethics for the teaching profession and undermines the relationship between teachers and students. Since this phenomenon has been widely criticized in society, the ban on teachers has in a way responded actively to popular opinion.

Zhang Haiying (Yangcheng Evening News): As we know, teaching is a special profession, and teaching is a kind of pubic service. For a teacher to charge students for tuition by taking advantage of the privilege of being a teacher is equal to government officials doing business after hours by making use of their identities as civil servants. From this perspective, tuition for payment is similar to taking bribes and students are bribing their teachers.

If tuition for payment is not stopped in time, it will encourage the violation of the Compulsory Education Law and the trampling of teachers' professional ethics.

Respect teachers' work

Miao Jie (hlj.rednet.cn): To pay a tutor who gives out-of-class teaching is a normal thing in a market economy. It's ridiculous to ask tutors to reject payment just because they are also schoolteachers. Of course, it's best if a teacher offers a free tutoring service.

What worries parents is that if laws allow teachers to tutor for payment after class, some teachers will deliberately make short shrift of normal class teaching so that they can make extra money by offering lessons out of class. We do have such teachers, but it's unwise to deny the whole group because of a small number of immoral teachers.

Tuition for payment will not disappear in years, because students need tutors. Even if the laws forbid it, the need for tutoring will still exist. If schoolteachers are forbidden from tutoring, others will replace them and maybe these people will not do it as well as schoolteachers because, after all, teachers are very experienced.

Some people are worried paid tutoring will distract teachers. In response to this, schools should set methods of appraisal. If teachers fail to meet requirements, they must be punished in some way. But in no cases should their right to give extracurricular tuition be deprived. Besides, even if tuition for payment is forbidden, it's not necessary that teachers expend all their energy on teaching in schools.

Shu Shengxiang (www.xinhuanet.com): Teachers have the right to freely allocate their own spare time, no matter if it is spent in rest or making money. I think, to measure whether a teacher is great or not, we should look at what he or she is doing in class rather than in his or her spare time. To give tuition for payment will not necessarily affect a teacher's fulfillment of duties. Otherwise, will going to the cinema or playing poker in one's spare time also have an negative effect? Is it that teachers have to spend all their time on school teaching?

Some people are worried that to have a tutor out of class will add to students' burdens. I don't agree with this point. Paid tutoring exists because there is a need for it. If schoolteachers are forbidden to tutor, other tutors might charge more.

I don't think paid tutoring should be restricted through legislation, but the freedom of dealing with the issue should be left up to the schools concerned. Schools will surely develop a set of suitable appraisal methods.

Li Yan (www.gmw.cn): It's because parents are worried that tuition for payment will affect teachers' fulfillment of duties that they hate paid tutoring.

In a market economy, tuition for payment is a way for one side to offer education while the other side offers payment. It exists because of the existence of college entrance examinations. Where there is demand, there is supply. In some cases, students' academic performance improves sharply after taking on a tutor. That's why, despite bans in various forms, tuition for payment still prevails nowadays.

Since there is an actual need for tuition for payment, it would be better to standardize it. Maybe this is the way out for this business.

Zhang Xiliu (www.xinhuanet.com): Despite bans on paid tutoring, it still prevails. It seems the more you try to ban it, the more it is cherished. Moreover, tuition for payment is nowadays a common phenomenon in China. In this context, it's better to legalize it, so that it will operate in a sound way under departmental guidance. Tutors could be asked to report their work to education authorities and, meanwhile, students and parents should have ways to complain about undisciplined tutors. If he or she is found to have neglected normal school teaching because of too much involvement in tuition for payment out of class, the teacher must be severely punished.