We can look at education in China through two comparisons. Ten years ago and now, China and western countries. The following discussion is divided into several aspects.
1. The whole people and society attach importance to and understand education. 10 years ago, parents in China tended to let school-age children go to work to solve the problem of food and clothing for their families. Now, parents tend to let their children go to work, make family life richer and prepare for boys to get married and buy a house. 10 years ago, China's parents thought that girls didn't need to go to school, they just needed to find a good partner in the future (usually money or earning money). Now parents in China are more determined to find a good partner as their highest goal, but they can go to school to achieve this goal (great progress). 10 years ago, the main parents thought that going to school could find a good job, and a few poor parents thought that going to school was useless. At present, the parents of the main body think that going to school may not necessarily lead to a good job, but they will definitely not find it without going to school. Parents of a few wealthy families think that they have paved the way for their children and it is unnecessary to go to school. A few senior parents realize that going to school can enrich their knowledge and have a skill. As for the fundamental purpose of education advocated by the Chinese nation for thousands of years-educating people-I have forgotten. Generally speaking, there is progress in thought, but under the great impact of economic development, this progress is a bit insignificant. When income is the only criterion to measure the value of human existence, no one considers what education means to individuals, countries and nations.
Of course, more and more people go to school. But that's mainly because tuition is not a heavy burden for many families. There are more and more people studying abroad, but how many parents have really considered the advantages and disadvantages of their children going abroad? Do we pay more attention to education than before? No, we are just richer.
2. Teachers' quality. If you only look at the teacher's diploma, it will be really gratifying. In a word, the changes of teachers in the past ten years are: diplomas and salaries have risen together, but the quality, I think, has not risen much. The accumulation of knowledge can be completed in a few years, the concept remains the same, and the diploma is nothing.
3. Teaching materials. Textbooks have been changing, but I can only describe this problem in four words: heartache. Ten years ago, the textbook was a bit difficult. Ten years later, the textbook was much simpler, and pediatrics learned a lot. Talk less and read more pictures, that's all. What should have been in the textbook ten years ago is still missing, and even many good things are gone. What else? It's just something new in this decade.
There are several outstanding problems:
1. Not enough attention. The state's investment in education has increased a lot, but only with the increase of economic and financial income, the proportion has not increased at all. In addition, a lot of investment has been spent on colleges and universities. What did colleges and universities do with the money? They built many buildings, recruited many students and owed a lot of debts (which also involved bureaucratic corruption). In primary and secondary schools, each teacher in the eastern region has one more computer and each classroom has one more multimedia. Some classrooms that are about to collapse in the western region have collapsed and I don't know if they have been built, and some are still alive. Except for Wenchuan, they basically collapsed in 2008, thanks to the party and the country. This also involves the problem of regional imbalance.
2. The quality of teachers is too low. To sum up, the teachers who have taught me are very dedicated, conscientious in teaching, solid in cultural lessons and have a deep understanding of the examination syllabus. If I want to grade them, how much should I score? Sorry, my beloved teacher failed in primary school, and most of the middle schools got about 60 points. Of course, I don't blame them. The quality of teachers is actually the most difficult problem to solve, which is completely related to the whole society and cannot be changed overnight. We can think of it this way. Teachers are also parents. At present, most of their understanding of education is to find a job and a small part is to learn knowledge. Teaching with this concept is, of course, the genius of the college entrance examination and the darling of the exam.
Textbook reform is a great failure. The staff engaged in the compilation of teaching materials must be very dissatisfied. I know that the compilation of teaching materials is difficult, and every word embodies the hard work of the staff. But the problem still lies in the concept, the guiding ideology is wrong, and efforts are useless. For example, more than a decade ago, there were many courses without curriculum allocation, such as labor education, health education, art, music, handicrafts and so on. They are all very good things. At present, courses are still not offered, and many teaching materials are not directly distributed; I once sent out a set of middle school vocational, life, social and other teaching materials, which felt very good, because China people generally lacked a correct understanding of work and occupation, but it was a flash in the pan and there was no lingering sound; Ancient literary poetry is required to recite, but the exam is dictation, and the teacher will definitely ask for it. After memorizing for more than ten years, I found that most of the poems that were forcibly memorized could not be remembered when I wanted to use them, and many commonly used ancient poems were not learned or known. There is something wrong with this. For ancient literature, we should give priority to extracurricular activities and read more and recite less. What you learn in this way can be called culture.
4. Bureaucracy and utilitarianism in the education system are very serious. Needless to say, this is a very prominent problem, and everyone knows it, but the resistance to solving it is definitely huge. This is really the primary issue of reform. To reform education, we must first have people who are determined and capable of reform, and the system is the main obstacle to the flow of talents to the education field. It is imperative to reform the system, which must be carried out first and without delay.
5. The integration of ideas, teaching materials and teachers is not enough. It is necessary to put the idea into the work of textbook compilation and teacher education, where does the idea come from, and from the specific work of the above two. Therefore, it is necessary not only to give teachers the opportunity to make achievements ideologically, but also to let theoretical workers and textbook writers have a deep understanding of teaching. The three should have in-depth communication channels and respect students' correct opinions. For example, when we look through middle school textbooks after graduation, we will find many interesting pictures and illustrations, which are the efforts made by textbook writers to make textbooks more interesting. But I dare say, we didn't notice at all. What we hear and see is what the teacher says and writes. Teaching materials can not be improved by a few pictures, and teaching can not be improved by putting a few slides on multimedia. It is useless not to reform ideas and communicate adequately.
To sum up, in primary school, western children were playing hard and we were studying hard-poor students couldn't afford to play. In middle school, western children begin to grow up and work hard, but we still study hard-no one can bear the consequences of not being admitted to a good university. Of course, quite a few of us (most of the so-called poor students and a good student in a primary school) began to fight, play truant and fall in love when they entered the university, and then found school boring, went out to work, and even got married and had children (I don't know about the city, it is difficult not to get married as long as I don't go to school in the countryside). When I entered the university, I found that the leaders were busy with Gai Lou's promotion, the teachers were busy with buying a house for promotion, and the brothers and sisters were busy looking for jobs and objects. We also began to learn to be busy, and then we met a primary school classmate with a child in her arms. They all felt: This is the life.
Where is the road?
I think the goal of education in China should be modern education with China characteristics. Specifically, the first is to reform the system, get rid of utilitarianism and bureaucracy, attract talents to flow in, and strengthen various exchanges and communication. Second, the reform of teaching materials should increase the cultivation of basic qualities such as music, arts and crafts, and increase the requirements of extracurricular reading, at least five to ten times as much as reading now. Third, teachers' quality training, absorbing western experience, paying attention to the special training of concept and personality education. Fourth, strengthen personality education, which is the focus of reform. Even if slogans are shouted, it will change from quality education to personality education. Let students have a deeper understanding of the meaning of life, happiness, work and study. Five, the key education in the critical period, from the fifth and sixth grade of primary school to the ninth grade of middle school, this period should strengthen additional education, such as how to treat some social and national events, the correct use of the Internet, sex education and so on. Sixth, we should pay attention to preserving the essence of China culture, such as respecting teachers, stressing filial piety and rigorous scholarship.
It is purely a personal opinion, and criticism is welcome. Limited by experience, many viewpoints are bound to have regional characteristics and are not easy to understand. I wish to point out.