A number of scandals involving the misconduct of teachers has provoked wide public criticism recently, and the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, have responded by releasing a document aimed at strengthening the professional ethics and competence of teachers.

It says that over the next five years, China will tackle the structural imbalance between teachers in urban and rural areas, create a sound system for the cultivation and training of teachers, raise their pay and make teaching a more attractive profession.

The document proposes establishing a long-term mechanism for the evaluation of teachers' ethics, including their personal credit records and a negative list system.

According to Ministry of Education's statistics, by the end of 2016, there were 15.78 million teachers at various levels nationwide.