A college in China has been criticised after it fined a member of staff for starting a class one minute late, saying that the educator had caused a “teaching accident”.
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The row surrounds the Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College, a non-government college in southern China’s Guangdong province.
On May 27 it was reported to have punished two teachers, one for starting a class one minute late, and another for ending the class two minutes too soon.
The college deducted five points from the first teacher’s workload, which, according to a fellow teacher who exposed the case online, is the equivalent of a 300-yuan (US$42) salary deduction.
The school deducted a further 10 points from the teacher’s performance, which will affect the bonus, and issued a public warning.
The second teacher, who ended a class two minutes early, was also given a public warning.
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The sanctions were issued in April and May respectively, along with separate warnings over less controversial “teaching accidents” such as playing with a mobile phone while invigilating at exams, and playing video footage for too long in class.
