Chinese teacher fines pupils for wrong answers in English exam
Instructor hands money back after punishments published online
A teacher in western China has been told to hand the money back after she fined children 50 yuan (US$7.50) each time they got an answer wrong in an English exam, according to a news website report.
The teacher working at a school in Kunming in Yunnan province also handed out rewards to children who did well, but later admitted her methods were inappropriate, Yunnan.cn reported.
The fines raised a total of 3,950 yuan, according to the report. The money was returned after details of the punishments were published online.
The teacher, who was not named, said she received permission to fine children from a parents association.
The fines only applied to fill-in-the-blank questions which required pupils to memorise essays from a textbook.
One parent told the website she liked the teaching approach.
“To be honest, my boy was motivated,” the mother was quoted as saying. “After the rule, he proposed memorising textbook essays without being asked.”
A dozen pupils who got top marks in the test were initially each given 100 yuan, according to the report.
Li Erping, a professor at Kunming University of Science and Technology, was quoted by the website as saying it was wrong to give financial rewards and punishments to pupils.
“It’s normal to make mistakes in exams. They didn’t break any rules, why punish them?” Li said.
