Foreign teachers face stronger regulation

Recent incidents have sparked concerns among parents and authorities. Zou Shuo reports.

On Aug 2, Mayorga Heredia Daniel Oswaldo, a teacher at a kindergarten run by RYB Education in Qingdao, Shandong province, was sentenced to five years in prison for molesting a female student.

The Colombian national was given the sentence by Laoshan District People's Court in Qingdao for abusing his position and molesting the girl during nap time in January, the court said in a statement. He will be deported after he has served his sentence.

Video footage showed the 35-year-old entering a classroom at about 2 pm on Jan 25, and putting his hands under the girl's quilt for about one minute while the caretaker visited the bathroom, according to a statement released by RYB Education, a preschool education provider headquartered in Beijing.

Earlier last month, another incident involving foreign teachers caused outrage, when 16 foreign nationals－seven teachers from the Xuzhou branch of EF Education First and nine students from nearby schools－were among 19 people detained in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, during an anti-narcotics crackdown, according to the local public security bureau.

EF Education First, an international company that specializes in language training, issued a statement saying that it forbids employees to possess or use narcotics or controlled substances, and the contracts of the teachers would be terminated if they were found to have been involved in illegal drug use.

The incidents triggered a flood of posts on social media platforms, with some demanding that the establishments be closed, while others called for the teachers to be deported.