As Teachers Day is drawing near, some people issue the good news on the Internet: This year's Teachers Day falls on a weekend, and it happens to be during the Mid-Autumn holiday, so no need to worry about giving gifts! Lots of parents are planning to send teachers gifts in the name of the traditional festival; some even started posting requests for Groupon online, mainly for gift cards from supermarkets and shopping malls.
In fact, many parents follow the trend for fear of disadvantage to their children if everyone else is "bribing" teachers. Ms. Wang, whose child is in sixth grade, said "We started this only since last year, mainly because all the other students do so. We belong to the working class. Since the child entered kindergarten, we thought instead of giving gifts that would probably be disdained, we'd rather not give any." But not long before Teachers Day last year, the child came home complaining about losing face, for most classmates would have "actions". Ms. Wang had no choice but to buy a bouquet for the child to bring to school.
In fact, like Ms. Wang, many parents are not really willing to send teachers gifts. A poll conducted by China Youth Daily shows that 60% of parents interviewed hope relevant authority to issue ban on sending teachers gifts. 61.7% of interviewees support such a ban and some even sugguest abolishing of Teachers' Day.
In this respect, Hong Kong sets a good example. In Hongkong, staff at public schools are considered public servants, who would breach the law if he/she accepts the benefits as rewards or in price of abusing power. On the other hand, teachers at private schools must obey the guidelines made by school board in accordance with laws banning bribing. If teachers or parents breach rules above, they may face a fine of 100,000 HK dollars and 3 years' jail.
"No teachers would run a risk of breaching law for gifts. Besides, teachers have a good salary with some having a monthly salary as high as tens of thousands yuan," Zhou Jinxiang, Head of Qiantunmen Primary School committee in Hong Kong, told Southern Metropolis Daily. No teacher are punished for accepting gifts in his memory, he added.
