Two Chinese professors suspended from their positions for getting into an argument at the China University of Political Science and Law has again drawn public concern about teacher ethics.

One of the teachers, Yang Fan, claimed that his colleague, Jin Shuren, plagiarized more than half her book, “China’s Human Resources Strategies in the 21st Century,” from the doctoral paper of one of Yang’s students.

Not long after, Jin in turn reported Yang to the school authorities for alleged plagiarism.

An investigation confirmed the plagiarism by Jin but cleared Yang. However, when the dispute became public, the university earlier this month decided to suspend both professors to protect its reputation.

Yang also hit the headlines in January, when he fought with a student who left his classroom without consent during a lecture.

His behavior prompted a series of negative comments about teacher ethics on Chinese Web sites.

“They don’t deserve the reputation of famous scholars,” read a posting on sina.com.cn, one of China’s major portals.

The Ministry of Education has issued ethics guides for primary and middle school teachers, but there are no guides for college teachers.

“Both college teachers and students should avoid plagiarism,” said Zhang Li, an official with the ministry. “This is one of the basic academic rules.”

The China Youth Daily and Tencent, another major Internet portal, conducted an online survey asking for opinions on how these incidents affect the public.

It showed that almost 62 percent of the 7,327 people surveyed felt that “teachers should have higher moral standards than ordinary people.”

Experts said an increasing number of disputes, as well as complaints from the public, were largely due to the social and general education environment.

An exam-oriented education system tends to neglect the cultivation* of a well-rounded personality, said Zhang Zhiyong, deputy director of the education department of Shandong Province.

“Unfortunately, teacher performance is often evaluated by exam grades,” Zhang said.

He said high school teachers were not expected to cultivate students’ personalities, but to help them pass the national entrance examination and enter university.

More than 70 percent of respondents ascribed falling teacher ethical standards to external factors.

Among these, 28.7 percent thought it was caused by “harmful effects of the social environment” and 25.6 percent attributed it to “defects in teacher evaluation and management,” while 18.6 percent considered it the result of low pay.

Only 26.5 percent said it was connected with “teacher quality and accomplishment,” the survey showed.

Caring about students, being a role model and respecting and loving one’s work were considered the most important and basic moral qualities of teachers, the survey indicated.

(SD-Agencies)