‘Most beautiful’ Chinese teacher who discriminated against students by demeaning their parents forced to step down
- The teacher, once voted the ‘most beautiful’ for her outstanding teaching, blamed her students’ bad behaviour on their parents’ income and position in society
- A recording of her criticisms went viral online, prompting a social media outcry
An award-winning Chinese schoolteacher has been discharged from duties after discriminating against students based on the incomes and positions of their parents.
The middle school teacher surnamed Xiao, from China’s eastern Tianjin municipality, was voted the “most beautiful” teacher by the school in 2014 for her outstanding performance in teaching mathematics, but had her working licence revoked last week when an audio recording of her demeaning students was released online, prompting a social media outcry.
In the clip, recorded by one of the students, Xiao can be heard saying: “Don’t blame me for looking down upon you. If I told you that the annual income of [the student] Zhao Ting’s mother is equal to what your mother earns in 50 years, do you think your qualities can be the same [as hers]? They can’t be!”
The discriminatory comments were made after the teacher had initially criticised her class for talking during an exam.
Xiao blamed this “bad behaviour” of the students on their families, who had lower incomes than previous students of hers. She said her previous students were better behaved because they came from families of high-ranking officials and wealthy businesspeople.