An impoverished county in southwestern China issued an apology for arranging its primary and junior secondary school teachers on stage to pose for photos alongside prominent characters depicting humiliation due to their students’ low test scores.
The images, which went viral on social media, sparked widespread public condemnation. They were captured at an internal meeting organised by the Leibo County Education Bureau in Sichuan province in late August, as reported by Zhengzai News.
During an award and punishment session, over 20 primary school teachers were instructed to stand on stage for a group photo, with a large screen behind them displaying the median scores from their students’ most recent exam, which were below 30 out of a total of 100.
Two large Chinese characters, chi ru, meaning “humiliation” in English, were prominently displayed in the centre of the screen, directly behind the teachers.
Later, another group of 20 junior secondary school teachers, whose students’ average scores fell below 15 out of 100, also took the stage for group photos, similarly featuring the humiliating characters on the big screen.
These photos rapidly circulated online, and the incident of public humiliation directed at the teachers garnered over 100 million views on a leading social media platform alone.