School head and class advisor sacked for 'expelling' whistleblowing student

The head of a middle school in Jiangxi Province has been fired following a class advisor's dismissal after the school reportedly expelled a student for his whistle-blowing, China Youth Daily said today.

The class advisor has been sacked for telling the student, Liu Wenzhan, that he was expelled after he accused the school of giving illegal extra lessons and taking extra tuition.

Yudu Experimental Middle School in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province claimed that it was the advisor's personal opinion and not the school's position. They asked Liu to return to class, which he declined to do. So far Liu has been off school for more than ten days.

Liu had written to different government departments about his school giving extra classes to students at the weekend for a fee, starting on March 7 of this year.

His class advisor soon asked Liu if he was the complainant, which led him to believe that his personal information provided in the complaints had been disclosed to the school. Later, more of Liu's complaints came out.

Before the start of the fall semester, Liu's mother received a WeChat message from his class advisor, saying the school would not accept Liu's registration and asking him to change schools. The advisor was later dismissed for "delivering messages under the name of the school without gaining the proper prior approval".

Officials at Yudu Experimental Middle School in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, allegedly talked with Liu a few times over this matter.

Liu told Beijing Youth Daily that the head of the school visited him on Tuesday and apologized for the advisor's actions.

The school's extra weekend classes were confirmed by Yudu's county publicity department, the newspaper said.

To explain his motive for filing the complaints, he said the county he is living in is a poor one and the extra tuition could be a huge burden for those poverty-stricken students. "Some of my schoolmates had to quit school because they couldn't afford the tuition," he said. "I also come from the countryside so I know how they feel."

Liu is among the school's top students, allowing him to enjoy free tuition.

Investigation teams have been dispatched to Yudu Experimental Middle School and Yudu County's education bureau by the county government for further probing, an announcement released by Yudu's publicity department shows.