In recent years, the pace of industrialization and urbanization in China has accelerated, and the national economy has developed continuously and rapidly. However, the gap between urban and rural development has widened, and rural economic and social development has obviously lagged behind. The lag of rural development is also highlighted in education. According to the survey of 20,000 farmers in different areas by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2003, among the 2.49 laborers in each household, 0.33 are illiterate and semi-illiterate, accounting for 13.3% of the labor force, which is 8 percentage points higher than the national average of urban and rural areas, and even higher in rural areas in the central and western regions. The primary school education level is 0.97, accounting for 38.9%; Junior high school education level 1.00, accounting for 40.2%; High school students have 0. 19, accounting for only 7.6%. In terms of technical quality, only 0.07 people have full-time technical titles, accounting for 2.8% of the workforce, and only 0. 12 people have received vocational education and training, accounting for 4.8%. According to the employment situation, the average labor force of households engaged in pure agriculture is 1.73, accounting for 5 1.4% of the labor force, and those mainly engaged in agriculture are 0.45, accounting for 18. 1%. The situation that "the number of illiterate, semi-illiterate and primary school educated people exceeds half of the total labor force of farmers" and "the number of people engaged in pure agriculture and mainly agriculture accounts for more than two thirds of the total labor force of farmers" shows that rural education has been emphasized for so many years, and the effect is not optimistic; Most of the laborers who stay in rural areas to engage in agriculture have low cultural and technical quality, and their education level is far from meeting the needs of rural economic and social development. Rural education is far from meeting the requirements of building a new socialist countryside. It is urgent to put rural education in an important position!
Second, the development of rural education lags behind, and the key is that rural primary and secondary schools have not received due attention.
Rural education refers to all kinds of education and various forms of education for farmers of all ages and their children in rural areas. Although rural education includes rural school education and social education, rural school education should be the basis and subject of rural education. As far as a county is concerned, regardless of the number of schools or teachers and students, rural primary and secondary schools are the "big heads" of rural school education. According to the statistics of cities, towns and villages in Hunan Province, there are more than 3,700 junior high schools in the province, accounting for 90.06% of the total, and 68. 18% in villages. There are more than 3.2 million junior high school students, accounting for 87.5% in counties, towns and villages, and 61.8% in counties, towns and villages; Junior high school full-time teachers 1.8 million, accounting for 86.0% in counties and townships and 62. 1.8% in counties and townships. The same is true of primary schools. There are more than 34,500 primary schools in the province, of which 95.25% are counties, towns and villages, and 7 1.83% are counties, towns and villages. Of the more than 4,600 primary school teaching points, 95.25% are in counties, townships and villages, and 74.53% are in counties, townships and villages. There are more than 6.6 million pupils, accounting for 88.30% in counties, towns and villages, and 65.36% in counties, towns and villages; Of the more than 300,000 primary school teachers, 87. 12% are in counties and townships, and 64.24% are in counties and townships. Even in high schools, the number of schools in counties, towns and villages accounts for 8 1.09% of the whole province, and rural high schools also account for 40.8 1% of counties, towns and villages. However, the "big head" position of rural primary and secondary schools is often ignored in practical work. From the county level, the county attaches importance to Chengguan and senior high schools. We pay attention to rural education, pay attention to the school construction in Chengguan Town, and focus on the construction of County No.1 Middle School. In many counties, on the one hand, County No.1 Middle School is worried about the construction of the new campus because of the relatively large amount of funds. In the case of the overall shortage of education funds in rural schools, blindly expanding the high-quality resources of public high schools is actually a waste of resources and repeated construction; On the other hand, rural primary and secondary schools are still rebuilding dangerous houses year by year and are still struggling for survival. These schools can't even meet the basic conditions for running schools, but the problems of rural primary and secondary schools are covered up by "expanding quality resources"
Third, running schools in rural primary and secondary schools is not a question of expanding high-quality resources at this stage, but a question of how to ensure basic conditions for running schools.
According to my investigation in rural areas of southern Hunan, the difficulties and problems in running schools in rural primary and secondary schools are mainly reflected in three aspects: First, the aging of teachers. In a town with relatively good economy, 1 1 village has 48 teachers, with an average age of 53.5 years. Less than 40-36 years old 10%, no less than 35 years old. In all rural primary schools in a city, there are almost no teachers who are good at information technology, English, music and physical beauty. Many schools have one class for one person and one school for one person, so teachers can't update their knowledge. Second, there is a shortage of funds for running schools. Although the county government tries its best to ensure the payment of teachers' basic salary, the school's running expenses and teachers' subsidies are basically solved by collecting miscellaneous fees and school income. Generally, only one third or one quarter of the miscellaneous fees collected are used for schools. The school's slightly irregular charging behavior will be strictly investigated, and there will be no investigation if financial investment is not in place. This combination of hard and soft makes running a school a "cook without rice", and it is even more difficult to run a school. In a small village not far from the county seat, the existing house was built in 1955. 1996, two nearby villages plan to raise funds to build a new house with three floors and nine classrooms. After the first floor was repaired, it was shelved for lack of funds. This release was 10 year, and it is still on hold like that. In recent years, in the layout adjustment, it is said that this school will be abolished, but the villagers are desperately demanding not to abolish it. It is difficult for the school to cope with the teaching activities of more than 70 students and 6 teachers. There is also a small village only 20 kilometers away from the county seat. Because there is no money to issue a certificate, even normal teaching activities are not easy to carry out. Only one evaluation can be made at the end of each period, and the funds must be paid in advance by the principal. The school's 10 teacher didn't receive any subsidy for a year, but on Teacher's Day, the principal gave each teacher 50 briquettes. Third, the school environment is poor. The geographical position of rural primary and secondary schools is relatively poor, and more importantly, some policies and regulations also support the strong but not the weak. If the number of teachers is fixed, the teacher-student ratio in the county is 1: 17, and in the countryside it is 1:25. There are enough students and more teachers in this county. There are fewer students and fewer teachers in rural areas. Especially in running schools, it not only caused the relative shortage of school resources in cities and counties, but also robbed the students of rural primary and secondary schools, increased the survival difficulties of rural primary and secondary schools, and increased the gap between rural schools and county schools. In rural primary and secondary schools, students can't stay, and neither can teachers. If they are a little famous, they will find another job. Organizationally, the vice principal of a school in the city will be promoted to a township school on the edge of the city as the principal. The vice principal would rather be an ordinary teacher than go. These situations are not unique in southern Hunan, and they are basically the same in all cities and States in Hunan that I know. The difficulties and problems in running schools in rural primary and secondary schools have caused students to be tired of learning and teachers to have no enthusiasm, which in turn has increased the difficulty of running schools and formed a vicious circle. The difficulties and problems in rural primary and secondary schools are actually those in rural education.
4. At present, China is still in the period of dual economic and social structure in which some relatively developed modern industries coexist with a large number of traditional agriculture, and some modern cities coexist with vast traditional rural areas.
Dual structure is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Due to the low starting point of industrialization and urbanization in China, the development of urbanization lags far behind industrialization, and industrialization has not effectively promoted the development of urbanization, so China's dual structure is more prominent than that of ordinary developing countries and exists for a long time. Although the rural population in China decreased from 73.79% in 1989 to 58.24% in 2004, and decreased by 15 percentage point in 15, China has gradually changed from an agricultural country with a large proportion of agricultural population and mainly relying on manual labor to industrialization with non-agricultural population, including modern agriculture and modern service industry. In this process, there will inevitably be differences in the level of economic and social development between urban and rural areas, and of course there will also be differences in the educational level of urban and rural population. According to the history of developed countries, this difference will not disappear until farmers account for a small part of the total population. The long-term existence of the dual structure determines that rural education and rural primary and secondary schools will also exist for a long time. The problem of rural education cannot be replaced and transferred by running a few high-quality schools. At the same time, developed countries have completed the transformation from a dual urban-rural society to an industrial social structure, all of which improve agricultural production efficiency and rural urbanization level through education-driven human capital and scientific and technological investment, so that more and more rural population can be transformed into urban population. In this sense, the role of rural primary and secondary schools in promoting social structure transformation is irreplaceable. Rural primary and secondary schools are the vital interests of farmers and an important aspect of doing a good job in agriculture, countryside and farmers. Therefore, the macro-decision of education should pay attention to rural primary and secondary schools, and solving the problem of running schools in rural primary and secondary schools should be the top priority of rural education at this stage. The dual structure determines the difference between urban and rural economic development level and social development level, and also determines the difference between urban and rural education. Analyzing and guiding rural education from the perspective of urban education or quality education is the main reason for ignoring the problem of running schools in rural primary and secondary schools. We should pay attention to the differences between urban and rural education and strengthen the guidance and policy support for running schools in rural primary and secondary schools.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) countermeasures and suggestions
First of all, we must change the concept of work. The requirement of building a new socialist countryside is not new, but it has a new background, that is, China has entered a new stage of "industry feeding back agriculture and cities supporting rural areas". Not only agriculture and rural areas, but also the income distribution structure of the whole national economy will undergo major changes, and the relationship between workers and peasants and the relationship between urban and rural areas has reached the critical point of change. In order to adapt to this new background, the working concept of rural education should also be changed. I used to use emphasis and demonstration to promote education progress and make good schools run better. This work concept of emphasizing efficiency on the basis of fairness has enabled the rapid expansion of high-quality educational resources such as urban education and county schools, which is the need of the past historical period and is worthy of recognition. Now, in the case that high-quality educational resources such as urban education and county schools have relatively self-development ability, in the new stage of "industry feeds back agriculture and cities support rural areas", if we continue this concept and practice, it will only further widen the gap between urban and rural areas and form a new imbalance in educational development. Therefore, from now on, we should start from the weak link of rural primary and secondary schools, start from the bottom line, highlight fairness on the basis of efficiency, and use the "crisis" to promote educational progress. Of course, it is much more difficult to add icing on the cake than choosing a few good ones, but it is the requirement of the new era, the concrete embodiment of education in Scientific Outlook on Development and the basic responsibility of governments at all levels.
The second is to effectively adjust the school layout. At present, great changes have taken place in the rural school-age population. The change of school-age population will inevitably affect the change of school layout. The adjustment of school layout is not only related to the efficiency of the allocation of educational resources, but also to the vital interests of farmers. In the adjustment of the layout of rural primary and secondary schools, the reduction and merger of schools is by no means a compression of rural education, but for better development. Whether it is to increase or decrease the number of schools, there are common requirements for improving school conditions, strengthening school management and improving teaching quality. To meet these requirements, it is impossible to achieve without input. So in this sense, it is not good to adjust the layout of primary and secondary schools without increasing investment. At the same time, we can't imagine that in a county, most rural primary and secondary schools are transformed into a few high-quality schools, which are concentrated in cities and towns, making schools more and more divorced from rural areas and rural education more and more divorced from rural economic and social development. We should not only consider reducing the cost of running a school by the government, but also increase the cost of schooling for farmers and the burden on rural students, making it more difficult for students to go to school. If this problem is not handled well, rural educational resources will be far away from the countryside, teachers will be lost, students will drop out of school, and schools will be abandoned, which will greatly affect the healthy development of rural education and delay the new generation of farmers in the new countryside.
The third is to stabilize and improve the level of teachers. It is conducive to the stability and improvement of rural primary and secondary school teachers, and it is a guiding principle that should be highlighted in the reform of teacher personnel system. Rural primary and secondary school teachers can't "cut across the board" according to the practice of cities and towns, and can't simply "go out without entering". According to different situations, the classification is gradual to ensure the stability and improvement of rural primary and secondary school teachers. In particular, we should pay attention to policy guidance, so that teachers working in rural primary and secondary schools can be treated better than those working in county schools, so as to attract young teachers to work in rural primary and secondary schools.
The fourth is to ensure the basic investment of the school. The existing rural primary and secondary schools are basically public schools, undertaking nine-year compulsory education in rural areas. These schools can't run well without investment. Whether it is two exemptions and one subsidy for poor students or exemption of tuition and miscellaneous fees for rural students, the majority of farmers directly benefit. However, it will be more difficult to run schools in rural primary and secondary schools if the investment of governments at all levels cannot be put in place accordingly. The school can't run well. First of all, the government has an unshirkable responsibility, which harms the vital interests of farmers. Insufficient financial input is an objective reality in China at this stage, and it is unrealistic to meet the basic needs of rural education through government financial input. Therefore, ensuring the basic investment of schools is not only the financial investment clearly stipulated by laws and regulations, but also the policy support for absorbing social funds. Governments at all levels should open up social donation channels to help students control school fees. Charities should be encouraged to donate money to rural primary and secondary schools, not just to help students.