As many as 223 teachers who answered the government's call to teach in the countryside have failed to receive their salary for three months, China Youth Daily reported Monday.

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The staff, in Yugan county, East China's Jiangxi province, responded to a national campaign by policymakers to alleviate the chronic lack of education staff in China's rural areas.

Jiangxi province hired 3,100 college graduates in 2010 as "special post teachers" in a scheme jointly financed by local and central government. One teacher in a village in Yugan county has been forced to borrow money from home after not receiving pay for three months.

"I would quit the job if not for the children," said Chen Su, not his real name. He and two other teachers live in a house converted from a classroom which has been declared unsafe for living.

Chen had telephoned the local education bureau about his salaries and got no explanation. He said they had also been warned not to appeal to higher authorities or stir trouble by the headmaster of the school.

An official surnamed Zhang at the county's education bureau said the local finance bureau didn't receive the appropriate money from the central government. While an official of the financial bureau blamed the education bureau for not offering them the relevant materials of the teachers, including numbers of their salary accounts and ID cards.