Why retired teachers are heading to county schools
When many peers were easing into retirement, 64-year-old law professor Li Ming chose a new classroom. He left Beijing for Tumxuk, a small city in western Xinjiang, to teach local students and train younger colleagues. His move is part of the Silver Age Teaching Programme, a nationwide effort to deploy experienced retirees to schools and universities that struggle to attract and retain talent. The program leans on a simple idea, shift expertise to where students need it most. It also matches a generational reality. China has a rapidly aging population and a wave of seasoned educators who still want to serve. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance say 7,000 retired teachers aged 65 or under are being recruited this year to work in county towns and rural schools across the country. The aim is to lift classroom quality, mentor young teachers, and smooth out uneven access to strong instruction.
Officials have signaled that recruitment will continue in 2025, with the plan implemented at the county level. Posts are concentrated in places lifted out of poverty, counties with large ethnic minority populations, old revolutionary base areas, border counties, and divisions of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Assignments range from front-of-class teaching and curriculum design to school management and targeted mentoring. In universities on the frontier, retired professors have helped open new majors and build academic teams. In rural primary and junior secondary schools, veteran teachers are sent to stabilize subject offerings, coach early career staff, and model effective lesson routines. The common thread is continuity. Experienced hands help local schools deliver steady teaching and improve day to day practice while longer term staffing pipelines strengthen.
How the Silver Age plan works
The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Finance jointly set the framework. A recent circular lays out the 2024 action plan and arrangements for 2025, including targets for county level implementation and selection rules. Candidates are retired principals, pedagogical researchers, senior teachers, and core teachers, generally aged 65 or under. They must be in good health and have strong professional records. Personnel status and retirement benefits do not change during service. Local education bureaus match candidates to posts on a needs basis, and the standard service period is at least one academic year. The MOE says recipient schools will be in counties, towns, and villages, with the option for provinces to add posts in other lagging areas as needed. An official notice also specifies allowances, insurance, and housing support for the teachers. The circular is available on the MOE website for reference, including details on funding arrangements and recruitment timelines. Ministry of Education circular
Where the posts are and what teachers do
County authorities and host schools set assignments that play to the strengths of veteran educators. Retired teachers can serve as vice principals, conduct teaching and open classes, observe and evaluate lessons, run demonstration lessons, organize seminars, and lead workshops. Many are paired one to one with new hires to provide coaching and help build local professional learning communities. The plan also emphasizes school governance. Experienced administrators help install systems for lesson preparation, classroom observation, and student assessment, which often have a lasting effect even after they leave.
Funding and safeguards are designed to support service in remote regions. For compulsory education posts, the work allowance is funded jointly by the central and local governments at a standard rate of 20,000 yuan per person per year. Host counties are expected to provide accommodation with basic facilities. The allowance covers work subsidies, travel, and accident insurance. Since candidates already receive pensions, their participation does not alter retirement benefits. Age rules vary by assignment but generally cap participation at 65 for most posts, while some universities accept older specialists for limited duties. Where in-person travel is difficult, some guidance and training can be delivered online, expanding the reach of scarce expertise.
Who signs up and why
Motivations differ, yet service and professional identity stand out. Many retired educators say the program lets them keep doing what they have always loved, teach and help schools grow. For some, the draw is a chance to see parts of the country they once knew only from maps. For others, it is a way to pay forward the mentoring they received as young teachers. The promise of impact is concrete in smaller schools, where a single experienced math or language teacher can steady an entire grade level and give confidence to a staff that turns over frequently.
Personal stories from Xinjiang highlight how purpose and persistence shape the experience. Xu Shuangmin, who retired from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, joined the Karamay campus of China University of Petroleum Beijing as a volunteer teacher. She had rarely traveled far from home. The move placed her in a new city and climate, with a young campus that was still building majors and recruiting staff. After a year in the program, she extended her stay, and her account captures why many retirees remain beyond a first contract. Xu said her own learning matched the teaching she gave.
Describing that shift, Xu offered a concise reflection on her second career.
“I initially came to Karamay with the goal of educating students, but over the past three years, I have come to realize that I, too, am learning and growing.”
Another retiree, Sun Xudong, previously an English teacher at the petroleum university’s Beijing campus, helped build the English major in Karamay from zero. He drafted teaching syllabi, set up a translation discipline, and managed recruitment and training for graduate students. His motivation was simple.
“I hope to contribute my efforts to the education here and help more students realize their dreams.”
What gap are they trying to close
The program targets a long running divide between cities and the countryside. Big cities have more seasoned teachers, more specialist staff, and better access to training. Rural and county schools often contend with frequent staff turnover, fewer subject experts, and limited support for lesson planning. These gaps show up in the basics, from reading fluency by third grade to algebra readiness in junior high. They also compound later in high school, where advanced coursework requires stable teams and consistent preparation. That is why the plan leans on retired educators who can teach while they mentor.
Scott Rozelle, co-director of the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and its Rural Education Action Program, has studied education and rural development in China for years. He points to teacher quality as a key driver of the gap, and he links the stakes to China’s future growth path.
“One of the biggest differences between urban education and rural education is the quality of the teachers.”
Rozelle also frames the challenge as a question of human capital and long term growth.
“When one looks at the share of the labour force that has been to high school, one worries that China’s human capital is not enough to keep it growing on a rapid path for the next several decades.”
Attainment rates have improved steadily in the past two decades, yet the share of the workforce with a full high school education still trails richer economies. That matters for productivity and for social mobility. The Silver Age effort is one tool among many to raise quality in the schools that serve a large share of rural and migrant children. It does not replace broader reforms on funding, staffing, and curriculum, yet it can help accelerate gains in places that have struggled to catch up.
Early gains and local impact
Since the Silver Age work began in 2018 for primary and secondary schools, and expanded to universities in 2020, participation has grown from pilot batches to a sizable network. More than 20,000 retired schoolteachers and around 1,000 retired professors have taken posts in less developed areas. Many county bureaus say the most durable gains appear where retired teachers focus on team building. Open classes, lesson studies, and hands-on coaching raise the confidence of early career staff. Schools also report better alignment within subject groups, which reduces the drop in quality when a teacher transfers or takes leave.
In Tumxuk, Li Ming has taught law courses and trained six teaching assistants, who have since become lecturers. This kind of talent multiplication is a core goal. University departments in frontier cities often lack a critical mass of mid career scholars. Retired professors seed that growth by co-developing syllabi, advising academic programs, and setting up review routines that younger faculty continue. In county high schools, veteran teachers boost difficult subjects where shortages are most acute, including physics, chemistry, and English.
Karamay offers a similar arc. When the petroleum university’s campus there began recruiting English majors, much had to be built from the ground up. Retired teachers from the Beijing campus designed the teaching plan, set standards for assessment, and modeled instruction that new hires could follow. Examples like these do not solve every staffing gap, yet they can change the trajectory of a young school.
Tough realities on the ground
Service in remote areas is demanding. Retirees face long travel, a dry or high altitude climate, and the stress of living away from family for a school year or more. Host counties provide accommodation with basic facilities, help cover travel, and offer accident insurance. The allowance for compulsory education posts is set at 20,000 yuan per person per year, jointly funded by central and local governments. Those supports ease the burden, yet teaching, observing lessons, and mentoring still require stamina. Some participants, like 70-year-old finance professor Chen Xiaohe who continued teaching despite mobility challenges, choose to stay through winter and summer to prepare materials and support students.
There are also classroom realities. Language and cultural differences can shape the pace at which retired teachers connect with local students in minority areas. Curricular expectations evolve, and digital tools require refreshers even for experienced staff. County bureaus try to match assignments to skills, and program managers encourage open classes and co-teaching to ensure continuity when a veteran teacher rotates out. Where student numbers are falling, especially in some rural townships and in parts of the northeast, posts sometimes shift midyear. That calls for careful scheduling so that mentorship efforts have time to take root.
Risks and debate
Education researchers caution against overreliance on retirees to cover regular teaching posts. The program is framed as a support to local teams, not a permanent substitute for full time hires. In a tight job market for young graduates, counties that lean too heavily on cross posting can delay the creation of stable entry level positions. That can frustrate early career teachers who want a long run pathway in the profession. Program managers say the safeguard is clear role design. Retired teachers teach and advise, yet they are expected to build capacity within local teams from day one.
Cost is part of the calculation. Because retirees already receive pensions, their participation carries a stipend rather than a full salary package. For underfunded counties, that keeps the program affordable. At the same time, officials stress that allowance funded mentoring cannot replace steady investment in full time staffing. As student numbers shift, especially in smaller townships, leaders face a delicate balance between avoiding surplus staff and ensuring that every class has a consistent teacher. The Silver Age plan tries to smooth these cycles by sending experience where it can stabilize quality during transitions.
Quality control also matters. County authorities assess the work of retired teachers and can end contracts if obligations are not met or health conditions make service unsafe. Clear evaluation rubrics, joint lesson planning, and open classes help keep the focus on student learning. That approach preserves the core value of the program, sharing expertise in a way that endures after each placement ends.
A program tied to bigger demographic and economic shifts
China’s aging trend gives the Silver Age plan a wider context. By 2025, the number of people aged 60 and above is expected to exceed 300 million. Retirement ages are comparatively low by global standards, which means many educators finish their formal careers while still eager and able to work. Surveys suggest a large share of retirees want to remain active. The education system, facing a wave of retirements and uneven staffing patterns, is tapping that energy to support students who would otherwise miss out on experienced teachers.
The plan also fits within the country’s broader focus on the silver economy. Seniors are contributing as mentors, trainers, and community volunteers, not only as consumers of services. Education has become a visible channel for that contribution. In some regions, senior volunteer initiatives in health and education sit alongside the teaching program, offering a steady flow of experienced professionals for short term projects and seasonal needs. Policymakers see value in linking these efforts so that county schools can access subject experts, health educators, and counselors during key phases of the school year. For many retirees, the appeal is simple. They get to keep teaching, share a lifetime of practice, and watch younger colleagues grow into the role.
What to Know
- China is recruiting 7,000 retired teachers this year for county and rural schools, with plans to continue placements in 2025.
- The Silver Age Teaching Programme targets areas lifted out of poverty, minority counties, old revolutionary base areas, border counties, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps divisions.
- Retired teachers serve as classroom instructors, mentors, and school managers, with a standard service period of at least one academic year.
- Candidates are generally aged 65 or under and include retired principals, senior teachers, and core teachers with strong professional records.
- Allowances for compulsory education posts are funded jointly by central and local governments at 20,000 yuan per person per year, with housing and insurance support.
- Since 2018, more than 20,000 retired schoolteachers and about 1,000 retired professors have taken assignments in less developed regions.
- Experts highlight teacher quality as a key driver of the urban rural education gap, and say mentorship helps build local capacity.
- Program managers aim to avoid overreliance on retirees by focusing their roles on support and training rather than replacing full time hires.
- Personal stories from Xinjiang show how retirees are helping new campuses build majors, train young faculty, and stabilize teaching teams.
- The program aligns with broader demographic shifts, as a growing senior population seeks meaningful post retirement work in service of local development.
