Solutions on recruitment, bullying, toxic tracks in pipeline

Chinese education minister Chen Baosheng speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of the political sessions on March 12, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

China's Ministry of Education is trying to come up with a way to regulate personnel management at institutions of higher learning. 

The ministry also has plans to stop school bullying and eliminate toxic running tracks.  

Some higher education institutions in China are offering higher salaries to attract new personnel with better qualifications. 

But this move has sparked fierce competition and blown the salary structure out of proportion. 

China's Ministry of Education issued a circular last month demanding that all higher learning institutions in the eastern part of the country regulate the recruitment process. 

Education minister Chen Baosheng says they will further implement the plan to all such institutions across China. 

"We demand all institutions of higher learning to strengthen their management of appointment contracts. In the next step, on the basis of the provisions of the February circular, we will encourage these institutions to form alliances, formulate articles of association and standardize the terms regarding annual salaries," he says. 

The ministry is working on the government's plan of building the world's top class universities and disciplines. 

The minister says they will examine elite universities to determine if they have the potential to develop into world class institutions. 

"They will be assessed by a third party or an expert panel. After assessment by the expert panel, the short list will be submitted to the government, which will reexamine them to see if they fall in line with the national development strategy. The selection is dynamic, with a prescribed cycle. It is not permanent," the minister says. 

Meanwhile, Chen Baosheng says school bullying is still a problem and they will continue to work with other parties to stop the behavior. 

"We have a plan that includes two aspects. One of them starts from within schools, which we call the security program. There will be staff especially assigned for that task. The other is a comprehensive management program outside schools. It involves streets, neighborhoods, police stations and enterprises in the vicinity, and calls for support from society, from parents and from schools to stop bullying," Chen says. 

Investigations have found toxic running tracks that caused illness in many students were built with out-of-date standards. 

The education ministry is working with research institutions and government bodies to draft a new set of standards to ensure the quality of these tracks.