Substitute teacher Jin Xueming is teaching at Jinjiajing Primary School in central Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Faced with such pressure, most of substitute teachers caved in, but 18 teachers held out and refused to sign the new contracts, and 11 of them were dismissed.

When asked by China Economic Weekly to comment on the story, the head of the local Publicity Department, Chang Taizhou, said that the government would be holding a special meeting to discuss the issue on July 2, 2008.

On July 8, 2008, the government released a written statement that upheld the dismissal of the teachers and ruled out any prospect of reemployment.

According to China Economic Weekly, many substitute teachers have since quit their jobs and Huining is facing a severe teacher shortage.

One local official told the newspaper that although Baiyin City has a plan to dismiss all the substitute teachers within three years, Huining County simply could not cope without them.

"If we got rid of all substitute teachers some rural schools in Gansu would have no teachers at all," said Luo Zhongwei, adding that regular teachers and college graduates would not put up with the bad living conditions in the area.

According to Gansu Provincial Education Department, there are 32,000 substitute teachers in the province, making up 28.2 percent of primary school teachers in rural areas. Apart from their wages of around 200-300 yuan (US$29.2 -US$43.8) per month, they have no other income or means of support. Many people believe it will take at least another ten years to replace them.

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia, October 31, 2008)