Volunteer teachers, who will work in Yunnan Province for one year, take part in a farewell party in the city yesterday. A total of 101 teachers will be assigned to 19 elementary schools in seven rural counties.

The sixth batch of local teachers set out yesterday to work as volunteers in the country's underdeveloped Yunnan Province for one year.

The 101 teachers, with an average age of 38, will be sent to 19 elementary schools in seven rural counties of Yunnan, including Simao, Honghe, Wenshan, Banna and Lijiang. Most of them teach major subjects like Chinese, math and English.

The volunteer teachers will give classes to native students and help native teachers improve their teaching ability, among other roles.

"Despite harsh living conditions, teaching in Yunnan is a meaningful job, which serves those needy people while at the same time enriches one's life," said Shen Xiaoming, director of the Shanghai Education Commission.

Since 2000, the city has sent five batches of 460 teachers to work in Yunnan for one year.

Jiang Sheng, one of the teachers, said he and his colleagues regarded the job as a lofty career, rather than an imposed grind.

"The hard job there is both an opportunity and challenge for myself to build up a good image of Shanghai teachers in the minds of Yunnan natives," the 50-year-old teacher of history revealed.