Students have a computer class at Dulongjiang Center School in Dulongjiang Township of Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 23, 2019.

Education authorities in South China's Guangdong Province plan to punish teachers for sexual misconduct with students by dismissing them and blacklisting them in the education system. Experts noted that the measures need to be further detailed to consider the type of sexual harassment so as not to miss any predator teachers. 

The Department of Education of Guangdong Province issued a draft document on Monday saying that teachers who have improper relationships with students or who conduct any form of abuse or sexual harassment will be punished by being dismissed, having their teacher qualifications revoked and their name recorded in the education system, which will ban them from further engaging in teaching, scientific research and management in the education field. 

The measures will form a combined force along with the criminal law and the law on public security administration to prohibit sexual misconduct at schools, which has long been a major concern for society and law makers, experts noted. 

China's Ministry of Education (MOE) specified a code of conduct for teachers in a document issued in November 2018, including the punishment for sexual misconduct. Guangdong's new regulation requires schools to strictly impose the measures at the administration level in accordance with the MOE's guidelines, Zhu Wei, professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

However, Zhu noted that the measures need to further detail the type of the sexual harassment just in case predators might get off due to loopholes in the regulations. 

"It should be made clear that sexual harassment is not limited to behavioral misconduct; verbal harassment should also be counted, such as telling dirty and suggestive jokes and saying overly intimate words to students," said Zhu. 

He added that the regulation should specify circumstances where sexual harassment might happen, such as a teacher and a student staying alone in a confined space with the door locked, whether in a classroom, the teacher's office or outside the school.

Netizens expressed support for Guangdong's new regulations on social media, suggesting that other places in the country should also adopt the same measures.

Some even think the punishment is too light, saying that predator teachers should not only be blacklisted from the education field, but from other industries as well. 

Incidents of sexual harassment by teachers have been frequently reported in recent years. A high school student in Baoding, North China's Hebei Province revealed to the media on May 16 that she was sexually harassed by a male teacher for years but the teacher got off without any punishment. 

A survey conducted by the Guangzhou Gender Education Center in 2017 showed that 69.3 percent of the surveyed college students and graduates had experienced sexual harassment to some degree.

School sexual harassment has also been a hot topic for Chinese lawmakers. 

In China's first Civil Code, which was adopted at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress on Thursday, a new regulation was included that required schools to set up a reasonable mechanism to prevent teachers from sexually harassing students. 

Though the regulation was set mainly to protect students, Zhu also cautioned about the circumstances in which students maliciously report or falsely accuse teachers of sexual misconduct. "Any false report or libel by students should also be punished," he said.