If you're not a college graduate in China, you may soon not even be qualified to manage public toilets.

According to a recent recruitment notice from central China's Wuhan City, applicants for a district public toilet supervision station must have graduated from a university. 

The job requirement quickly drew debate on Chinese social media, as many joke they are not even eligible to clean toilets, saying the requirement promotes a waste of talent.

On Weibo, user @ayuehunzipistacia said, "It seems that I have to line up to be a cleaner."

And user @yanzhifeifei questioned, "Why do we have to study that much then?"

In response, Wuhan authorities say the jobs do not consist of cleaning toilets, but managing them. "Administrators will be in charge of a number of public restrooms, including daily patrol and maintenance. We attach great importance to the construction of public toilets, so we hope to recruit talents to manage them."

At the same time, successful candidates will enjoy treatment equal to civil servants at such public service institutions.

The justification has resonated with some netizens. User @passionatei on Weibo commented, "It is not surprising. There are too many university graduates. It is possible that in the future, one cannot be a cleaner without degrees."

@xinxinli said, "It is irresponsible to say that working at public toilets is a simple task, and recruiting university graduates is not reasonable. There is no necessary correlation between jobs and degrees. As long as requirements are in line with job responsibilities, it is okay."

Meanwhile, city planner @shuixiangpeiwoqufangyang said, "A warm reminder: it relies on people to make decisions in terms of location of public toilets, fund allocation, bidding of construction and sanitation. There are many detailed standards in building urban public toilets and improve their environment."

The Internet user also mentioned "toilet revolution," a campaign pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in recent years to upgrading the country's toilet access and facilities, driven by the belief that toilets are a gauge of a country's civilization.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)