While some Chinese women are even paying for expensive IVF treatments to bear a child, especially with the relaxation of China’s one-child policy, a private primary school in Henan is even banning its teachers from getting pregnant.
Liu Zhu, headmaster of the Shangqiu Shangbo School, a private primary school in Henan Province, even confirmed that four teachers signed contracts that banned them from becoming pregnant. It the tutors violate their contracts, they would be fined 2,000 yuan ($305).
Besides the penalty, getting pregnant during the fall semester would mean not being allowed to teach in the spring semester. Liu defended the contract and said the fine would be used to pay the salaries of substitute teachers. Liu added the pregnant teachers, after they give birth, could resume their jobs.
The issue became a hot topic on microblogging site Sina Weibo when a teacher from the school bared the onerous contract which violated the law for not providing them maternity leave pay, reported Global Times.
Liu said the contract aimed to avoid frequent changing of teachers to protect the interest of the school’s 1,100 pupils. He explained, “We don’t want teachers to quit midway. It is irresponsible to frequently change their teachers.”
China has a Protection of Women and Children Law that banned contracts that disallow employees to marry or bear a child.
In the comments section of The Paper, an online news website in China, one user described that the school’s contract “is also a form of birth control,” reported Epoch Times.