Director Chen helped introduce Lin Wei to her new job.
However, the term "new job" is not quite accurate. Strictly speaking, this should be considered a short-term part-time job.
The reason for the part-time job was that a female teacher in the military primary school gave birth to a child. Before the summer vacation, she agreed to take a leave of about one month to cover the delivery and confinement period.
She taught three classes in total. It was originally agreed that during her leave, three other teachers would help cover for her and each would teach one more class. Although the workload is a bit heavy, it only takes about a month, and there is extra compensation for substitute teaching, so the three teachers are very happy to do it.
The problem was that the female teacher had just been admitted to the hospital for vacation, and one of the substitute teachers was also admitted to the hospital due to a broken bone. Besides, a broken bone takes a hundred days to heal, so he will have to take at least three months off.
Although the teaching staff in the military district primary school is considered sufficient, the teachers' work is not idle. In the lower grades, because the courses are relatively easy, generally one teacher teaches three classes. In the higher grades, because the homework is more, one teacher teaches two classes.
If one teacher takes leave, the burden can be shared and staff can still be mobilized. But if two teachers take leave, Feng Ying, the principal of the military primary school, becomes worried because the number of classes that need substitute teachers increases from three to six at once.
And because elementary schools usually have two classes in a row, a teacher who teaches three classes has to teach at least six classes a day, so his time is already filled. Therefore, substitute teachers can only be found in higher grades, and due to subject restrictions, the choices are very limited.
In addition, although senior teachers only teach two classes, they have to prepare lessons and correct homework. Some teachers have heavy family burdens and have no time to help substitute classes, so there are fewer candidates.
When the female teacher asked for leave, Feng Ying asked all the teachers, and finally she took on an extra class herself and was able to barely get enough substitute teachers.
Now there are suddenly four more classes that need substitute teaching. Feng Ying is really worried and scratching her head. After she asked all the teachers again, only two teachers said they could teach one more class.
Before discussing this matter with Chen Wenfang, Feng Ying had already asked the remaining two classes to study Chinese on their own for three consecutive days.
After listening to Feng Ying's words, Chen Wenfang asked: "Have you ever considered hiring another teacher?"
"I have considered it, but you also know that the tuition fees of the military district primary school are cheap, and it has been able to operate until now entirely because of the military subsidy. Although the higher-ups are willing to subsidize, we cannot increase expenses casually just because someone is covering the bottom line. If there are no accidents, the school's current faculty and staff are sufficient, and there is no redundancy."
At this point, Feng Ying sighed: "If we hire one more person, the urgent need will be solved, but when Xiao Ding finishes her confinement and Xiao Fang recovers from her leg injury and returns to work, what will we do with the new person?"
Feng Ying was one of the first military wives to join the troops in the early days of the establishment of the Sanlin base.
At that time, the Sanlin Base was not as big as it is now, and the family area was not so big. There were only a few adobe houses. The old house that Lin Wei and others live in now was built one after another after more family members followed the army.
There aren't that many units outside the family quarters, and there's not even a trace of a primary school.
In fact, at that time, not only did the base have no primary school, but the surrounding communes also had no schools. If children wanted to go to school, they could only get up early and travel to Ya County Primary School a few kilometers away.
The children of military officers are better off. Promotion in the army also depends on educational level. Parents are aware of this and will send their children to school no matter how hard or difficult the life is.
However, members of the surrounding communes and brigades rarely had the idea that their children must go to school. In addition, the schools were too far away and few children could endure the hardship. As a result, very few people in the local area finished junior high school.
Therefore, the army established a military primary school not only to facilitate the enrollment of soldiers' children, but also to contribute to local basic education.
Feng Ying was the first teacher after the establishment of the military district primary school. She was also the only teacher in the early days of the primary school.
Because at that time there were very few members of the surrounding community who were willing to send their children to school. In their opinion, they would not be able to learn anything anyway, so instead of letting their children waste time in school, it would be better to let them do more work at home to reduce the burden on parents.
There were a total of more than twenty children in the family quarters. Excluding those who were too young to go to school, there were also those who were already in junior high and high school, so there were only twelve or thirteen students of school age.
Adding up the children from both sides, the military primary school had a total of 19 students in the first year, distributed in all grades of the primary school, and there was only one teacher, Feng Ying.
In order to facilitate teaching, Feng Ying adopted a double-class teaching model, arranging the 19 students in the same classroom and taking classes in batches.
In addition to teaching, Feng Ying often went to surrounding communes and brigades to visit parents with school-age children, giving them examples, reasoning with them, and lobbying them to send their children to school.
Although the lobbying process was difficult, thanks to her efforts, the number of students in the military primary school increased to 30 in the second semester and to 70 in the third semester.
Over the past twenty years, the number of students in the military district primary school has increased from the original 19 to the current 700 to 800, and the number of teachers has also increased from one to the current 13.
It can be said that the Military District Primary School was established by Feng Ying with the support of the army.
Before she made a decision, the first thing she considered was not her own convenience, but the interests of the army and the school.
Hiring an extra teacher would certainly solve her immediate problem, but it would also mean that the school would have to incur additional expenses. Don’t think that since there is only one teacher, the cost won’t be too high even if there is an additional expense.
The standard salary for a primary school teacher who has just started working is 26 yuan. After one year, the salary will be graded based on the work performance. The highest salary is 32 yuan, and the lowest is 29 yuan. It is not easy to increase the salary later. Except for Feng Ying, the monthly salary of the teacher with the longest teaching experience in the Military Primary School is only in the early 40s.
To hire a new teacher, the minimum salary is twenty-six per month, which is three hundred and twelve per year. In addition, there are various annual and festival benefits. Adding up all the miscellaneous benefits, the annual cost is at least four hundred.
If the four hundred was a necessary expense, Feng Ying would have applied for it without blinking an eye, but the problem was that it was not.
Under normal circumstances, there is no shortage of teachers in the military primary school. It is only because two teachers are in the hospital that two classes are temporarily unattended.
If we recruit people now, the immediate problem can be solved. However, when the hospitalized teachers return to their posts one after another, there will be redundant staff, which will add additional expenses.
Thinking of this, Chen Wenfang sighed: "That's true."
Seeing that the cup in front of Feng Ying was empty, Chen Wenfang picked up the teapot and filled her cup with tea. She said, "But it's not a good idea to let the kids in those two classes study on their own all the time, right?"
Feng Ying thanked him and said helplessly: "That's what I'm worried about."
Although it is not a graduating class and the children are not under pressure to go to college, if this problem is not solved, such self-study will have to last at least a month.
A semester only has four months in total. Isn’t it a waste of time to let the children study on their own for a month?
Feng Ying held up the enamel cup and said, "I'm thinking, why not let the children in these two classes attend classes together with other classes."
Chen Wenfang asked: "Are the children in these two classes in different grades?"
Feng Ying shook her head: "They are all second graders."
"I remember there were three classes in the second grade of elementary school? How many students are there in each class?"
"There are three classes, each with about fifty people, and a total of one hundred and fifty people in the three classes."
After pondering for a long time, Chen Wenfang asked, "One hundred and fifty people, can't sit in one classroom? Moreover, the courses of the same grade should be staggered. If they are allowed to take Chinese classes at the same time, then other subjects must also be adjusted. But the teacher of the same subject in the same grade should be the same person?"
"Yes, one thing affects the whole body. This is what I am troubled by now." Feng Ying leaned back in the chair, covered his forehead and sighed.
Chen Wenfang picked up the enamel cup and took a sip of tea, then said thoughtfully: "If you don't hire a new teacher, have you ever thought about hiring a temporary substitute teacher?"
Feng Ying was stunned: "What do you mean?"
"Recruit a temporary worker and tell him to cover the class for one to three months. This way, the problem of temporary staff shortage is solved. When the hospitalized teacher returns to work, you don't have to worry about redundant staff."
Feng Ying thought about it: "This method is feasible, but where can we find people?"
“Contact the principal of the county high school and ask if there are any suitable students?”
Feng Ying shook her head without giving it much thought and said, "This method is not very reliable. It might be better to let the children learn on their own than to let them teach the students." It's not that she looks down on today's high school students, but the cultural level of this group of high school students is worrying.
Those who are in high school now basically just started elementary school before the big movement. They had only attended formal classes for a few days before the classes were suspended. They went home to play for two years, and after classes resumed, they jumped from grades one or two to grades four or five in a daze.
If they had attended classes carefully after skipping to the fourth or fifth grade, they could have made up for it, but those years were very chaotic, many intellectuals were persecuted, and there was a shortage of teachers in schools. The higher-ups don't attach much importance to education. The courses they arrange are often half a day of cultural classes and half a day of industrial and agricultural studies. God knows what the children have learned.
It's like this in elementary school and it's still like this in junior high school. When these children go to high school, the situation doesn't get much better.
As far as Feng Ying knew, the course arrangements for the students in the county high school were normal in their first year, but things became worse in their second year. The whole day was either spent in meetings or criticizing and judging others. Few of them had real skills or knowledge.
Feng Ying was really worried about letting them substitute for the class.
Although Feng Ying didn't say it explicitly, Chen Wenfang had known her for a long time and could probably guess what she was thinking, so she said, "Since you don't want to choose someone from the county high school, then I'll recommend someone to you."
"Who?" Feng Ying asked.
Chen Wenfang said: "Lin Wei, a military wife who just came to join the army in June."
In the first few days after Lin Wei arrived on the island, Feng Ying went to attend a meeting in the district, and when the elementary school was on summer vacation, she left the island and returned to her hometown. Her mother was old and in poor health, so she went back to visit her and did not come back until the end of August.
Therefore, although Feng Ying knew that a new military wife would join the army in June, she had no idea who she was, what her name was, or what her situation was.
After hearing Chen Wenfang's story, Feng Ying asked, "What is her education level?"
Chen Wenfang neither nodded nor shook her head, but simply introduced Lin Wei's situation: "She was in high school, but in fact she only went there for a little over a month, and she went home when classes were suspended. But she had excellent grades in junior high school, and according to her file, she ranked in the top ten in the city in the high school entrance exam."
In Feng Ying's case, the academic qualifications of high school students before the suspension of classes, even if they only studied for more than a month, are much more valuable than those of today's high school graduates, not to mention that Lin Wei's grades in junior high school were quite good.
But Feng Ying didn't stop there and continued to ask: "What kind of job did she do before she joined the army? She has not fallen behind in her studies after being away from school for so many years, right?"
"Before she joined the army, she worked as a warehouse manager at the cotton mill in her hometown." Chen Wenfang saw Feng Ying frowning slightly, and continued, "She didn't have a job after joining the army, so she set up a primary school to teach her own and neighbors' children. I met her with her child some time ago, so I asked a few more questions. Her child can already write dozens of words."
Feng Ying asked again: "How old is her child?"
"They are over three years old but less than four years old. Both of her children are quite smart."
Feng Ying nodded. She was an educator and knew very well what three or four-year-old children were like. But Feng Ying did not make a decision immediately. She only asked Chen Wenfang where Lin Wei's home was. She wanted to talk to someone first.
Chen Wenfang said as soon as she heard it: "There are too many people at her house, I'll go call her over, and you can talk at my house."
Feng Ying thought Lin Wei lived in the townhouse area, so she said, "Thank you for your help."
"We have been friends for many years, let's not talk about this." Chen Wenfang smiled and asked Feng Ying to stay at her house while she went to invite the person over.
Lin Wei was a little puzzled when she was called out of her home. After listening to Chen Wenfang's words on the road, she couldn't help but say, "I've never been a teacher. Is this okay?"
"What's wrong with that? As for experience, which job can be arranged for you near the base do you have experience in? Don't you have to start all over again? What's so scary about that?" Chen Wenfang was very confident in Lin Wei. "Besides, how can you not have experience? Isn't the elementary school you run at home quite decent?"
Lin Wei didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "My school is not a primary school at all. I just let the children play and I teach them randomly. They learn randomly, which is very different from being a formal teacher."
Director Chen didn't believe it: "Don't lie to me. Your two children are only three years old, but they can already write dozens of words. They also have no problem with addition and subtraction within ten. If you call this teaching indiscriminately, then I can only say that none of the teachers in the primary school teach the children seriously."
Fortunately, Lin Wei has enough self-control. If it were someone else, they might not be able to withstand being flattered like this by the teacher's wife.
But even Lin Wei took several steps back unconsciously and told the truth: "Look, I'm only teaching three people now, and they are all my own children. No one will blame me if I make a mistake. You suddenly asked me to teach hundreds of students, and I'm scared. What if I make a mistake, wouldn't I be misleading the students?"
Chen Wenfang felt that Lin Wei's words were too pathetic: "Since you are afraid of misleading the students, can't you do more homework and try not to make mistakes? As for suddenly teaching hundreds of students, who has experience as a teacher? Don't most people teach dozens or hundreds of people right away? Why can others do it but you can't?"
Lin Wei stopped talking.
Seeing her lower her head, Chen Wenfang softened her tone, "Principal Feng has no other choice. Two teachers have been hospitalized one after another. All the teachers who can fill in the gaps in the school have stepped up to fill in, but even so, there are still two classes of students who have no classes. If we can't find a substitute, these children will have to study on their own for the next month."
Lin Wei was silent for a moment and asked, "Besides me, is there no one else who can substitute for the class?"
Chen Wenfang thought for a while and said, "Yes, there are, but Principal Feng looks down on those people, and I'm afraid they will mislead the students." He expressed Feng Ying's concerns in a few words.
Although Lin Wei was a high school student before the suspension of classes, there were also students in her mother's team who went to junior high school and high school after the suspension of classes, and their cultural levels were indeed uneven.
Lin Wei hesitated.
In fact, she didn't mind being a teacher. Although teachers in the old days were the main targets of struggle, it was not to the extent that every teacher was criticized. Those who were struggled against were either high-level intellectuals, or had other problems with their class background, or had said something wrong and were labeled as such.
And what are high-level intellectuals?
Someone like Lin Wei who barely got a high school diploma definitely doesn't count. She must have at least graduated from a technical secondary school, or even attended college.
As for the issue of class background, Lin Wei came from a poor peasant family, had experience working in the countryside, and married a soldier, so there was no problem with her class background. As for saying the wrong thing, she has always been cautious, and if she really said the wrong thing, she would not be able to keep her job no matter what it was, whether she was a teacher or not.
As for the fact that teachers are too busy to take care of their families, Director Chen just mentioned it. She only teaches two classes, which means four classes a day. If everything is arranged in the morning, she will have the afternoon all to herself and will have more flexible time.
Moreover, she is a substitute teacher and will teach for three months at most. If the teacher with a broken bone recovers quickly, she may be able to step down within two months.
The only problem is that substitute teaching might affect the Military Family Settlement Office's efforts to arrange a new job for her.
But Lin Wei changed her mind and realized that the jobs outside the base were all assigned to specific positions, and positions would only become vacant if someone changed jobs or was transferred. And if the vacant position does not have any educational requirements, it will be arranged for the military wives who joined the army earlier. When it comes to Lin Wei's turn, she will have to wait at least a year or two.
If there is a vacancy for a position that requires academic qualifications, it will be her turn soon, but there are so few positions that it is uncertain whether there will be a vacancy before the New Year.
Moreover, before she survives the life-and-death crisis, she wants to spend more time with her family. If the vacant position requires a lot of work and long hours, she may not want to go.
Thinking about it this way, the temporary job at the military primary school is really suitable for her.
So Lin Wei said nothing more and followed Chen Wenfang to her home to meet Feng Ying.
Feng Ying is a few years older than Chen Wenfang and has wrinkles on his face, but he looks energetic and speaks fluently. After meeting Lin Wei, he didn't beat around the bush. He explained his purpose in a few words and gave her a brief test.
Although Lin Wei has been away from school for many years, she has a solid foundation and a good memory, and she has not forgotten what she learned. In addition, after she taught the children, Zong Shao asked someone to get two first-grade textbooks, so she answered the questions easily.
Feng Ying was very satisfied with Lin Wei, but a teacher not only needed to be knowledgeable, but also had to be able to speak well. It didn’t matter if he was very humorous, but at least he had to pass on what he knew.
Therefore, after the test, Feng Ying invited Lin Wei to take a trial class. She needed to watch Lin Wei's class before making a decision.
However, Lin Wei did not accept the invitation directly. Instead, she asked Feng Ying to report to the Military Family Settlement Office according to the procedures, and the Military Family Settlement Office would arrange for her to take a trial class.
After hearing Lin Wei's words, Feng Ying was slightly stunned and turned to look at Chen Wenfang.
Chen Wenfang knew that Lin Wei had learned from her mistakes, so she gave Feng Ying a look and asked her to agree.
The two had known each other for more than ten years. Feng Ying knew Chen Wenfang very well. Seeing her expression, she knew there might be something fishy going on. She smiled and said, "Okay, I'll report this to the Military Dependents Resettlement Office tomorrow."
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