It has all been said on here before.
The free market is what has happened. Several things are going on.
For employers the teaching market is not the gold mine it used to be. There is far more competition in the market. The new rich kids are fully catered for and now the middle and lower middle and even working class families are looking for classes. Initially the growth led to a glut of students, now there is a glut of schools competing with each other and fees have gone down.
Also for employers, costs have gone up, including rents. Imagine being located in a fancy mall.
For teachers there is competitive pay. The job will go to the suitable person who is willing to work for lower pay. There are more expats coming to Kunming. Yes there are quality issues with some teaching (pay peanuts, get monkies, de—motivate then and get problems), but many owners of the private schools don't care about that TIC. They will just wrongly complain about inept and expensive teachers.
For the customer parent/student you get the McDonalds effect. All the little diners, some of which produced real quality, have been replaced by burger bars. There is only room in any market for a few centres of excellelence.
Public sector pay has not moved, but that is regulated.
Trend noticed on here. I have seen employers openly advertise crap pay (120) and others have taken this as an anchor/example and others are now also advertising crap pay.
What can we do? Not much as this is market forces. The new visa regulations will cause a blip in the teacher supply thing for the first wave, but actually could even force rates down as some employers will use some borderline legal cases to leverage rates down IMHO.
One thing we can do is hit the employer where it hurts, by wasting their time and money. Actually apply for jobs you are not going to take, send resume (use bogus hotmail address), change name and photo, do the phone interview etc, and when you are offered the job, don't turn up, and send an email later saying 'crap pay mate'. IF WE ALL DID THAT.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byDidn't look like a jest.
Sounds like someone else is rewriting the past.
Chinese college freshmen increasingly unfit
Posted byI agree that it is not the fault of the university. The university is just where these out of shape kids end up.
There is a cultural issue and the parents are part of the problem. Most parents would let their kids study longer and sleep less, which is why laws were introduced to limit school hours.
The only way to effect uniform change is for sport to be mandatory in schools. If all kids spend a few hours less in the classroom there is still equity of learning hours in all schools. Some of the heat of GaoKao will be off, not increased.
The levels of fitness will vary, as kids from the countryside often do help on the farm, especially at harvest. Harvest is just before kids go off to university. However, the kids from the countryside are less likely to have had access to an education that will set them up for entry to China's elite universities in Beijing or Shanghai.
The study harder, get better grades, get to a better school, get better grades IS a virtuous circle. But only if you look at grades and forget the whole person. These kids may be top academically but may be physically, and emotionally damaged. This also impacts in their future families and this will affect society.
Yunnan Shanquan to raise prices 50 percent
Posted by50% margin sounds like a lot, but actually it isn't for this type of industry. The margins on some of things you buy can be as high as 300%.
We think of low margins when we look at mass selling, dry grocery in the supermarkets for example. Unless a product is ONLY available in the supermarket, and supermarkets only compete with each other, we don't see low margins. A lot of products in the supermarkets (e.g. chips and soda) have margins of 30% plus).
Yunnan Shanquan to raise prices 50 percent
Posted byIt is only a matter of time before others follow.
To be honest, I was amazed that they could do it for 10rmb.
Green Lake to get wetter, brighter, noisier
Posted byIf the picture in the article is recent, it also shows another design problem with Chinese fountains.
All the pipework and lights are usually above the water. This is easier for maintenance, but in the 99% of the time when the fountain is not operating, it is an eyesore. Putting the pipes, etc. below the water is done in most other countries, that way people can enjoy the ambience of the lakes waters most of the time.