The old words go like "A good teacher is like a candle: it consumes itself to light the way for others.”  We are greatly indebted to our teacher for where we are today. For kids in remote rural area, a good teacher will open the door to the world and change the students’ lives forever.  However, as many of such teachers are not officially in “system” so they are not qualified for state salary and benefits. 

Biying Wei is one of such teachers. She has been teaching in Congjiang, Guizhou for 19 years. The comments from the school is that Biying has always been a dedicated, loving, caring teacher for 19 years. The average score of students in her class ranked first in the city.  She is a great teacher. However, her starting salary in 1992 is not even $10 per month and her current yearly total salary is below $1000. Her family income is less than $1400-- With a child of her own going to college, no property and not any spare money,  life is very tough and seems so unfair to a selfless teacher who consumes herself for such a long time to light the way for students. 

CTEF recently launched Teacher Award program to assist good teachers such as Biying Wei. We recently received a letter from her.  We hope there is more we could do to help teacher such as Biying.