As the country celebrates the 29th Tea-chers' Day, we extend our heartfelt greetings and our respect to those teachers who are devoted to passing on their knowledge to the younger generations and instilling good virtues in them.

Their selfless devotion has cultivated people of great talent in various fields, people who have been instrumental in China's rapid progress, who have helped transform the country into the world's second-largest economy and made possible such achievements as putting manned spacecraft into orbit.

Since its establishment in 1985, it has become routine for society to place teachers under scrutiny on Teachers' Day and talk about whether they are paid enough, their social status, the achievements the country's education has scored and the problems in the education system that need to be addressed.