China to set up teacher swap system

BEIJING -- China will set up a system to swap principals and teachers among schools to ensure even distribution of educational resources, according to the Ministry of Education.

In a Monday statement, the ministry said the move aims to arrange competent educational staff to guide the development of underdeveloped primary and middle schools, mostly in the country's western regions, and boost their teaching and educational quality.

"Educational foundations in some regions are relatively weak, lagging behind our country's average. It's an arduous task to achieve educational balance," it said.

The mechanism will be fully revealed in a future document and swaps will be implemented within counties on a regular basis in three to five years, it said, without specifying how long the swaps will last.

In 2011 and 2012, province-level governments signed a memo with the ministry to boost local educational balance through various measures, including funding and facility upgrades, and nearly 400 cities and counties nationwide had passed official evaluations as of last month.

However, the ministry revealed Monday that eight province-level regions did not see a single city or county pass evaluations, noting slack government efforts.

The ministry vowed to monitor the educational gap between different regions on a regular basis and hold accountable those who fail to do their jobs.