BEIJING, Sept.2 (Xinhua) - The Chinese government is paying more attention to the welfare of millions of teachers prior to the country's 26th Teachers' Day that falls on Sept. 10.
To celebrate the holiday, various activities, including an evening gala, singing contests and congratulatory speeches will be organized, an official with the Ministry of Education said at a press conference Thursday.
Guan Peijun, the chief of the initial teacher training department of the ministry, said that local education departments should help teachers resolve practical problems and listen to their complaints and demands.
To encourage and reward teachers who serve in grassroots rural areas, the ministry has collected more than 36,000 educational books as presents for them.
The ministry will also award organizations and individuals who had given outstanding performances in quake-relief within the educational system following the Yushu earthquake this year.
Further, officials from the Education Ministry will visit those teachers who had been injured in the Wenchuan and Yushu quakes and invite them to participate in Beijing's celebration gala and Shanghai Expo.
The evening gala, entitled "Seeding the Future", whose chief director is the president of Art School of the People's Liberation Army, will be staged in Beijing on Sept. 9. More than 700 teachers and students from 9 provinces, cities and municipalities will take part in the gala.