To run or not to run: that is the question.

"Runner Fan", nickname of Fan Meizhong, has created a controversy because he ran out of the classroom leaving his students behind when the May 12 quake struck.

The country's top education authorities now say the high school teacher should not have done so to save his own life and left the students to fend for themselves.

A draft of the new State ethics regulation for primary and secondary school teachers says for the first time that protecting students is the moral responsibility of a teacher.

Education officials have placed "protecting students' safety" under the third clause of the first revision to the regulation that came into being in 1997.

The revision, online for public scrutiny till July 30, reduces the existing regulation from eight to six clauses and says teachers should "be good mentors and helpful friends".

The draft, posted on the Ministry of Education website (www.moe.edu.cn) on Wednesday, is a timely re-examination of public values after the quake.

The case of "Runner Fan" has been one of the most talked about cases. What's added fuel to fire is his justification for his action.

Last month, Fan attended the popular Tianya online forum to recount his quake experience, and said his immediate reaction was to run for life. Not a single student followed Fan out of the classroom but luckily, the school building was not damaged.

Fan, a Peking University history graduate, justified his action by saying there is no regulation that says a teacher should try to save his students over his own life in an emergency. His faith in liberalism, he said, made him prioritize his own life before all others, including his mother.

Fan, fired from his post, said in an earlier interview: "It (what he did) only challenged the traditional ideas of education and morality People believe a teacher ought to be a model of virtue for others, and in the face of disaster, students are the weaker group so a teacher has to help them."

"But the fact is that when a quake strikes, a teacher is weak too ... I love my life more."

Netizens have treated his words as strong and a direct violation of traditional Chinese values. They think his action and words insult the people, including teachers, who sacrificed their lives to save others.

No officials with the education ministry were available for comment.

(China Daily June 27, 2008)