The MOE and Ministry of Finance recently issued the Circular on the Implementation of the 2024 National Silver Age Teacher Action Plan. The Action Plan involves recruiting 7,000 “silver-haired” (i.e., retired) teachers to return to education to help improve teaching quality in rural schools and promote balanced, high-quality educational development in both urban and rural areas.
According to the Circular, the 2025 Action Plan will be implemented at the county level, primarily targeting areas that have been lifted out of poverty, less-developed ethnic counties, old revolutionary base areas, and border counties, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps divisions. Consequently, the recipient schools will be in counties, towns, and villages. In addition, provincial education administrative departments are encouraged to independently select outstanding retired teachers to teach in other educationally backward counties, townships, or areas based on their own circumstances. Regular high schools may also be involved as appropriate.
The Circular specifies that candidates applying for the 2025 Action Plan should be retired principals, pedagogical researchers, senior teachers, and core teachers, generally aged 65 or under. They should be politically reliable and in good health, with high moral standards and rich teaching experience. The recruited teachers should, in principle, hold intermediate- or higher-level professional titles.
The Circular also specifies that local education departments shall ensure proper remuneration and benefits for the recruited teachers. Their personnel status and existing retirement benefits shall remain unchanged during the service period, while a monthly allowance shall be provided, mainly to cover work subsidies, travel expenses, and accident insurance. For those serving in compulsory education, the work allowance shall be jointly funded by the central and local governments at a standard rate of 20,000 yuan per person per year.
Additionally, local education departments should promptly launch public recruitment for the 2025 Action Plan. They should also strengthen coordination to improve recruitment rates. In addition, they should identify and highlight exemplary models among the recruited teachers to summarize and promote their work experiences and research outcomes.
