At the invitation of relevant media, the author recently published two articles, namely, Three Themes of Education, Respect for the Elderly, Charity and Harmonious Society, and Developing Balanced Education and Promoting Educational Equity, which aroused certain repercussions in the society. So, how can we better solve these problems? What are the key issues that affect education equity in China? What are the good measures and methods?
To solve these problems, we must first balance the relevant points and then prescribe the right medicine. In the Theory of Balanced Management, the author once pointed out that balance is one of the most basic natural laws, and everything follows the development trend of "balance-imbalance-balance". And these things have related equilibrium points in the development process, and the essence of balanced development is to find equilibrium points. When the equilibrium point appears, the purpose of equilibrium is achieved.
As far as the development of balanced education is concerned, the author thinks that its equilibrium point is nothing more than three aspects: schools, teachers and students. Here, the author talks about his own views on these key equilibrium points and solutions in order to attract more attention.
First, increase public investment, implement one-vote veto and run "every school" well.
Education is related to the future of the country. Since the founding of New China, with the great attention of the Party and the government, China's education level has improved significantly. At present, the popularization of education is close to the average level of middle-income countries. The popularization rate of nine-year compulsory education has reached over 95%, and the illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged people has dropped below 5%. This is not unrelated to the substantial increase in investment in education. However, it is a fact that the high growth rate of education investment in the whole society "masks" the relatively slow growth rate of public finance investment.
China's public resources investment is seriously insufficient. According to official data, China's actual public education investment accounts for only 2.4% of GDP, which is lower than that of India's 2.7% and equivalent to half that of the United States. As far as the proportion of public education investment in China is concerned, it is also at a low level in the world. In 2005, the proportion of public finance expenditure in developed countries was 86%, the average level in developing countries was about 75%, the world average was about 80%, and China was only 46%.
In fact, as early as 1993, China has clearly stated that by the year 2000, the national financial education funds should account for 4% of GDP. 1995 promulgated and implemented the education law, and made corresponding provisions. However, this goal has not been achieved until now.
Therefore, first of all, we should further increase the financial investment in education, so that incremental public resources can play an active role in the equalization of educational services; Secondly, we should do a good job in the allocation of public resources, such as rural areas between urban and rural areas, western areas, vocational education between different types of education, weak schools between schools, and difficult groups among groups. Thirdly, we should further broaden investment channels and increase investment in non-tax revenue. As some experts suggested, it should include "3 trillion", that is, more than 1 trillion social security funds, more than 1 trillion land transfer fees and more than 1 trillion profits paid by state-owned enterprises. At the same time, the author believes that education, as a basic national policy of our country, should be regarded as a "hard indicator" of government assessment, just like family planning and safe production, and a one-vote veto system should be adopted. As long as the investment is not in place, the year-end assessment will be "no play".
At the same time, an effective education management system should be established and improved. For example, the basic model of "ISO 900 1 quality standard system" should be used for reference to establish and improve the "ISO 900 1 quality standard management system" for education management, that is, to establish a virtuous circle system that starts with the construction of school infrastructure and goes through basic elements such as resource allocation planning, teacher introduction, teaching process control, teaching quality inspection and supervision, corrective and preventive measures control, and education result evaluation.
Second, strengthen the education system, allocate teaching resources and train "every teacher".
2 1 century, especially since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of Scientific Outlook on Development, education has been given priority, education equity has been promoted, and education quality has been improved, and the education system reform has entered a new era. However, there are also some problems that need to be solved urgently, among which the unbalanced allocation of teachers is the most prominent problem.
At present, China's teacher resources are similar to administrative divisions, showing a five-level "ladder model" step by step, that is, a large number of excellent teacher resources are gathered in first-class developed cities, followed by secondary central cities such as provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and most of the rest are gathered in municipal cities, county-level primary and secondary schools, and then to the township level, with rural schools at the bottom.
Then, how can we better allocate teachers' resources, so that "every school is a good school" and "every teacher is a good teacher", so as to ensure the steady progress of teaching quality? The author believes that it should be strengthened and improved in the following aspects:
The first is to optimize the structure of teachers in urban and rural areas. Establish a new teacher supply mechanism, create new teacher posts, recruit more normal graduates, meet the needs of rural schools and weak schools in cities and towns, and unify the standards for the establishment of teachers in cities, counties, townships and rural areas.
The second is to comprehensively adjust and clarify the teacher assessment reward and punishment system. It is necessary to increase subsidies for rural teachers, improve their promotion opportunities, and increase the proportion of middle and senior teachers in rural teachers. Establish a system for urban teachers and newly recruited normal graduates to teach in rural schools, and take the teaching experience of urban teachers in rural schools as a prerequisite for the evaluation of senior professional titles, so as to promote the rational flow of urban and rural teachers.
The third is to strengthen the training of rural teachers. At present, there are still 240,000 rural teachers in China who have not reached the national accreditation qualification, and there are nearly 380,000 substitute teachers. Improving the level of teachers has become a key factor restricting the quality of rural education, and the quality of teaching and educating teachers must be qualified. Mainly to carry out planned, targeted and effective discipline training for on-the-job teachers, and effectively improve the overall comprehensive quality of existing teachers.
Fourth, we will continue to promote the pilot project of free normal students, continue to implement the characteristic post plan for rural teachers in the central and western regions, and attract outstanding young people to engage in education, go to the west and go to the countryside.
The eastern region and developed regions should be strongly encouraged to help rural areas by implementing the "hand in hand" project. Of course, it is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish. It is more important to improve the teaching philosophy, professional level and moral quality of teachers in aided schools through assistance projects.
Especially in training "every teacher", we should pay more attention to the construction of "high-quality principals". The headmaster is the "soul" of a school, and it is precisely because of this "soul" that the school shows infinite charm. As the saying goes: "the train runs fast, all by the headband." Whether the educational concept of a school principal is advanced or backward, whether the professional level is high or low, and whether the moral quality is good or bad is directly related to the sustainable development of the whole school. If the current objective conditions permit, a number of "high-quality principals" training bases can be established on a regional basis, and the base construction will radiate the surrounding areas, promote the general development, and achieve balanced development through unbalanced development.
Third, break through regional protection, promote quality education and teach "every student" well.
Improving people's quality is the foundation of rejuvenating the country. To achieve educational equity means that our education can not only cultivate a few elites, every student should enjoy the same rights and opportunities to receive education, and every student should receive high-quality education equally. This is what we call quality education.
Quality-oriented education is based on the aim of socialist education and the correct guiding ideology of running a school. It pays attention to the long-term effectiveness of education and takes promoting students' development and quality improvement as the fundamental purpose of education. Its basic characteristics are the integrity of educational activities and the diversity of students' development.
The game between exam-oriented education and quality education has never stopped. On the one hand, people generally believe that there is no doubt about implementing quality education, and people also realize the importance of implementing quality education; On the other hand, people are still doing exam-oriented education, and the baton of the school also involuntarily points to exam-oriented education. So, where is the root of this contradiction? What practical measures can be taken at present?
First, we should break through the "regional protection" of the enrollment plan. The practice of regional protection of national key universities has been criticized by all walks of life and is considered as a typical unfair education. The regional protection of enrollment in key universities not only makes the fairness of education unable to be guaranteed, but also is one of the most important reasons why exam-oriented education in various places is difficult to die out. Whether to pay attention to local protection or resolutely "break the ice", whether to pay attention to immediate interests or long-term development, tests the ruling wisdom of local governments at all levels.
Second, we should correctly handle the relationship between quality education and exam-oriented education. We should be soberly aware that the transition from exam-oriented education to quality education is a long and tortuous process, which cannot be achieved overnight. "Exam-oriented education" and "quality education" are not incompatible. "Exam-oriented education" does not exclude the improvement of ideological and political morality and the development of physical and mental quality, but it is not comprehensive enough and easy to lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another. Correctly handling the relationship between them is of great and far-reaching significance for reducing the resistance of educational reform, reducing costs and promoting the sustainable development of education. We should start from three aspects:
First, constantly improve the theoretical system of quality education and strengthen the concept of quality education in the whole society. It is necessary to change the school's view of running a school, strengthen their "people-oriented" educational concept based on improving the quality of the people, and prevent the distorted view of running a school from being measured by "high score" and "enrollment rate". We should devote ourselves to training more talents and outstanding talents. Running a school is not only to teach talents, but also to teach students to be human beings.
The second is to follow the laws of education and the objective laws of students' physical and mental development. We should not only pay attention to the all-round quality development of students, but also pay attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. We should conscientiously implement "differential teaching" and "hierarchical teaching" to make education suitable for the development of each student, to enable students to acquire a sustainable learning ability, development ability and creativity, and to make lifelong education possible.
Third, fully understand China's national conditions, seek truth from facts, adjust measures to local conditions, and adopt a step-by-step and hierarchical approach to effectively promote its smooth and orderly transition. We should choose the deepening point of reform, make quality education by going up one flight of stairs, constantly improve the quality education model, and embody more educational quality in students' body and mind as much as possible, such as reforming the content and form of education; Do a good job in combining classroom teaching with extracurricular practice; Cultivate students' good physical and mental quality.
Third, quality education is a systematic project of the whole society, which requires the joint efforts of the education department and the whole society. It is really not an easy task to change from exam-oriented education to quality education. This requires changing educational concepts, reforming educational contents and methods, establishing a scientific educational evaluation system, strengthening the construction of teachers and optimizing educational environment. This project is very complicated and involves a wide range. Without extensive attention and support from all walks of life, there will be great resistance and the pace of reform will be slow.
In a word, education reform is imperative. To realize the transformation from "exam-oriented education" to "quality education", from "key development" to "balanced development", from students' "intellectual development" to all-round development, and finally realize the balanced, healthy and sustainable development of education, we must find the balance point of education reform and grasp the most fundamental problems. We just need to stick to the reality of reform.