Research On Primary School Teachers Management Of Shanxi Province During The Republic Of China Era (1917-1937)

In the wave of education reform in the late Qing period, Shanxi primary education began to take shape. At first, the higher primary school developed slowly, but the growth rate of primary small school was very quick. The early Republic of China, primary education of Shanxi still continued the momentum of development of Late Qing Dynasty and it was in a leading position nationwide. In 1917, Yan Xishan served as governor of Shanxi Province, who also had the political and military power and civilian power in Shanxi province. He attached great importance to education development, especially promoting compulsory education gradually by taking "Radical policy". However, the popularization of compulsory education within a short period faced serious shortage of funds and a shortage of a large number of teachers. To settle the serious shortage of education funds, he not only actively implemented a series of measures of economic development to develop the economy, but also raised educational funds actively by exploring various channels according to actual situation. In addition, he also trained primary school teachers through various channels. During 1924 and 1925, when other provinces plunged into war without leaving the normal development of primary education, Shanxi Province implemented policy the most successfully because of Yan Xishan's protection policy.The education once surpass the developed Jiangsu province. Therefore, Shanxi Province was praised as a "model province" by the outside world.However, since 1925, with the increase of war in Shanxi province and the impact of various factors, the development of primary education in Shanxi province set back. The eve of Anti-Japanese war, despite the government tried best efforts to revive the primary education, the level of primary education still could not recover and primary education got worse.In order to settle the teacher shortage problem, Shanxi government trained primary school teachers by multiple channels from the beginning, not only formal teacher education, but also short-term education training such as Teachers Training Institute and Demonstration Model Institute and so on. In addition, Shanxi government developed Rural Teacher Education and Simple Normal School to cultivate rural primary school teachers. Informal Normal College Graduates and Non-normal Graduates who wish to become qualified teachers needed special test from the primary school teacher certification Committee. The test was divided into non-test verification and test verification. Finally, quasi-teachers accepted the appointment to teach.Appointment of primary school teachers was adopted the practice of Shanxi province. Primary school principals were responsible for the appointment in primary school. If the primary school did not have principal, school board were responsible for the appointment. Shanxi primary school teachers were generally employed for six months and mostly did not graduate from various types of normal school, but from various non-normal schools. Most primary small school teachers had not received the normal education, but most senior department teachers of primary school graduated from regular normal schools. The phenomenon of nepotism existed in teacher employment process, which directly led to some outstanding talents failed to service primary education. This affected the development of primary education in Shanxi province.The government of each period set minimum salary standards of primary school teachers to protect the lives of primary school teachers. But in fact, either the Northern Government or Nanjing National Government (1927-1937), salaries of primary school teachers in Shanxi province were very meager generally. Moreover, the salary level of Shanxi province showed an obvious regional difference. Salaries of the affluent areas such as JinZhong region were higher and remote areas were paid lower. In addition, the salary of higher primary school teachers was higher than the salary of primary small school teachers. Why was salary of primary school teachers relatively meager? On the one hand, the distribution of education fund was irrational. On the other hand, the primary fund was not guaranteed. In fact, the meager salary of primary school teachers in Shanxi province was the result of a combination of factors of Shanxi specific historical conditions of political, economic and social environment. The fact that salary of primary school teachers was meager had serious consequences. On the one hand, because of meager salaries, many outstanding graduates did not want to service villages, resulting in the development of rural education lag behind urban education, and urban-rural gap was widened. On the other hand, teachers who accessed to primary education appeared split. Talents chose to change jobs or continue their studies. Teachers who stayed in school were not responsible for primary education entirely. That had seriously affected the development of primary education in Shanxi province.