Editor's note:

As the country celebrates the 29th Teachers' Day, we extend our heartfelt greetings and our respect to those teachers who are devoted to passing on their knowledge to the younger generations and instilling good virtues in them.  

Their selfless devotion has cultivated people of great talent in various fields, people who have been instrumental in China's rapid progress, who have helped transform the country into the world's second-largest economy and made possible such achievements as putting manned spacecraft into orbit.

It is more urgent to tackle the difficulties teachers face.

They deserve better living and working conditions and higher salaries in both rural and urban areas.

• A lesson in putting children first

Liao Zhanfu, 43, still remembers the dreadful event in 1977. A villager in his home county of Tongjiang, Sichuan province, threw his two children, aged 6 and 7, into a pond near the school playground where he was playing with several other second graders.

• Sign language used as a matter of course

When talking with strangers, Ji Siniu often uses gestures. She speaks slowly and pauses from time to time. "It is an occupational disease," said the 45-year-old teacher from Nujiang Special Education School in the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province.

• Young teacher revitalizes impoverished school

When Cai Zengping arrived at the Yangqing Village Primary School in Ningtan, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in 2007 to work as a teacher, she wanted to immediately flee. Never had she seen such an impoverished school. The classrooms were shoddy and there were no toilets or playground facilities.

Parents debate Teachers' Day gifts

As Teachers' Day approaches, many parents in China are debating giving gifts to their children's teachers, an issue widely viewed as a test of teachers' ethics and parents' confidence.

Teachers' Day falls on September 10 every year in China. It is an important occasion in the country, where a high value has traditionally been put on education and where teachers are widely respected.

People use the day to show respect for teachers in various ways, and it is also a good chance for parents to show gratitude to their children's teachers.

However, good intentions have soured as the practice has become an unspoken rule for some.

Gifts do not make a teacher good

More than gratitude is expressed on Teachers' Day. In fact, the special day has acquired a different meaning over the past two decades. Almost all parents (and their children) believe it is mandatory to offer gifts to teachers. Since classrooms in China are crowded, teachers cannot give "special attention" to every student, so they have to be showered with gifts, often expensive, to do so to certain students.

Many parents admit gifting jewelry, imported delicacies or other expensive gifts to teachers is a kind of corruption. Such parents want to get out of the system, but how?

A mother said it is improper to give expensive gifts to teachers but she has to because other parents do so.

A string of high-profile scandals involving esteemed teachers are putting their image at stake, prompting negative associations to the once decent occupations. 

Teacher held for alleged sex with 8 students

A junior high school teacher in central China's Hubei Province has been detained for allegedly having sex with at least eight of his female students.

Teacher detained for molesting 8 girls

A teacher in central China's Hunan province has been detained for allegedly molesting eight of his female primary school students, local authorities said Friday.

Teachers ordered to raise moral awareness

Guideline issued to strengthen teachers' ethics

Govt proposes tighter teacher qualifications

China to tighten management of teachers

China puts teachers' ethics under stricter scrutiny