China will improve salaries and housing for rural teachers, and confer honorable titles on those who stay in their village jobs for decades, said Yuan Guiren in an interview ahead of the opening of the fourth session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, on March 3.

The educational gap between urban and rural areas is obvious and the key to improve rural education is the teachers, the minister said.

China last year issued a plan for the 2015-2020 period to support rural teachers showing the central government’s determination to tackle the problems, Yuan added.

He said the government had come up with a slew of supportive measures to build teams of rural teachers, such as encouraging more university students to voluntarily support rural education, providing subsidies to rural teachers and launching national training programs.

“And more investment will be put into improving facilities for compulsory education in rural areas. The government will invest more than 34 billion yuan ($5.23 billion) every year,”Yuan said.