Shanghai Daily news

Thousands of recent university graduates applied for jobs at a recruitment fair for teachers over the weekend, but schools in the city's suburbs proved far less popular than downtown schools.
The 2006 Winter Yangtze Delta Teacher Recruitment Fair attracted nearly 20,000 people to compete for more than 3,000 teaching vacancies at about 400 schools in the city, as well as neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
It was the largest teacher recruitment fair that the city has ever held, according to the Shanghai Educational Talent Exchange Center, which organized the event. Kindergartens located in downtown Shanghai received hundreds of resumes at the fair, mainly from people looking to work as English teachers. Many of the applicants didn't major in education at university.
"The city's education reform raised the criteria for kindergarten teachers, requiring them to have not only a solid university background but good English abilities as well," said Fan Wenyi, the center's vice director.
The new requirements make teaching a great job for graduates of top universities, officials said.
A Fudan university graduate surnamed Zhang said that kindergarten positions with fairly good payment are considered to be ideal jobs for young people who love children.
"I don't think it's a big problem for me to acquire a teaching qualification license," Zhang said.
Most elementary schools in the city's suburban areas were left out in the cold at the one-day fair.
For instance, Xize Middle School in suburban Qingpu District received only seven resumes at the fair, while its downtown counterparts all received hundreds of resumes.
"The biggest reason is that most young teachers prefer mature brand image of downtown schools even if we provide the same payment as those big names," said Lu Jianghua, vice headmaster at suburban Jiading District's Huangdu Primary School.
To encourage more people to teach in the suburbs, the Shanghai Education Commission announced last week that university graduates who sign a five-year working contract with a suburban school, will be granted an allowance of 10,000 yuan (US$1,235) starting next year.