A Brief Talk on the Paper on Popularizing Nine-year Compulsory Education —— Reflections on the Proposal on Extending Nine-year Compulsory Education
Abstract: Educational policy is not only an educational problem, but also a social problem, which is related to many factors such as social structure, resource allocation, value orientation, supporting industries and so on. The popularization of compulsory education has greatly improved the educational outlook of our country, and the controversy about extending nine-year compulsory education is rampant. Based on the understanding of the nature of compulsory education and the targeted analysis and systematic thinking on the proposal to extend the length of compulsory education, this paper holds that the proposal to extend the length of nine-year compulsory education is inappropriate, inappropriate and inappropriate. At the same time, it provides some thoughts and prospects for how to better realize human development under the condition of nine-year compulsory education.
Keywords: extension of nine-year compulsory education, education equity and balanced development of education
First, the background of the problem.
1982,? Universal primary education? Incorporated into the newly revised Constitution; 1May, 985, Implementing nine-year compulsory education step by step? Clearly written into the "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on the Reform of the Education System (Draft)"; 1986 04 12 was considered and adopted at the fourth session of the Sixth National People's Congress. Since 1 July 19861day, nine-year compulsory education has been implemented nationwide.
Since the implementation of the nine-year compulsory education policy, the national basic education has taken on a new look. The decentralization of the education system has fully mobilized the enthusiasm of local governments at all levels to run education. The system of raising education funds mainly by the government through multiple channels has enriched education funds, improved the conditions for running schools and the treatment of teachers, and expanded the ranks of teachers. More importantly, this policy has enabled China's basic education to enter the track of administering education according to law, and the related supporting resources of basic education have been continuously absorbed and derived, and the consciousness and concept of compulsory education have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
For a long time, compulsory education and basic education have been in parallel, and the universality, free, compulsory and unity of compulsory education have been fully implemented. Nowadays, the discussion about whether to extend the period of compulsory education is getting more and more heated. Shenzhen and other regions have begun to try to extend the period of free education. Since 2005, many delegates have made many suggestions on this topic.
Second, several basic logics.
Universal, free, compulsory and unified are the basic characteristics of compulsory education. The so-called obligation, on the one hand, is aimed at the implementer of education, on the other hand, it is aimed at the receiver of education. They should all receive education unconditionally and without exception. This policy embodies the universality and authority of this kind of education. In the history of educational development, it has a specific meaning. It can neither be a constraint to the development of education, nor should it be the handle of word games.
The basic function of education is to make people get more suitable development. The so-called suitability not only refers to the matching with people's own intelligence level, migration ability and acceptance, but also includes the matching with time cost, opportunity cost and other factors. Protecting the basic rights of human development is the original intention of education and the essence of educational equity.
Educational equity and balanced development is the theme at this stage. It should be noted that China's implementation of nine-year compulsory education has achieved initial results, but it has not yet fully established a solid foundation. Difficulties in running schools still exist in many areas, and educational imbalance is still widespread. The realization of educational equity is still in the exploratory stage. In this situation and background, the fair and balanced development of education is the theme of education at this stage.
Three. Analysis of Suggestions on Extending Nine-year Compulsory Education
There are two schemes to extend the nine-year compulsory education: upward extension and downward extension. Up, that is, three years of high school education will be included in the scope of compulsory education, down, that is, kindergarten education will be included in the scope of compulsory education, and there are also suggestions to combine the two methods to extend the period of compulsory education to 15 years. Among them, there are many reasons for bringing compulsory education into senior high school. Typical views are as follows:
1. Extending nine-year compulsory education can prevent China's economy from falling into? Low-tech trap. Proponents say that there is a serious shortage of skilled workers in China, and enterprises are forced to use a large number of low-level workers. Low wages, low education, low technology, low labor productivity and high elimination rate are causing China's economy to fall into? Low-tech trap. Commentators think? The phenomenon of low-tech trap can't be attributed to nine-year compulsory education, isn't it? The best solution to the low-tech trap phenomenon has a more suitable solution. Extend life? Quantity? Can't solve the problem of talent quality? Quality? problem At present, the historical mission of nine-year compulsory education is to ensure that the school-age population enjoys a relatively balanced and equal right to education in the basic education stage. No matter how people develop in the future, the education they receive at this stage is relatively equal's, even higher than international standards in quality, but a huge gap in quality already exists. There is no direct relationship between the level gap and the years of education. On this basis, increasing the number of years of compulsory education can not widely improve the shortage of skilled workers, low wages, low academic qualifications, low technology, low labor productivity and high elimination rate. Moreover, the training of skilled workers belongs to the category of vocational education, which can be solved through scientific pre-job and on-the-job training system. It is not a question of extending the length of compulsory education, but a question of expanding the scope of compulsory education.
2. Extending the nine-year compulsory education can alleviate the employment pressure in the future. According to the proposer's prediction, in the next few years, the population over 0/6 years old in China will increase at an average annual rate of 5.5 million, and the working-age population will reach 940 million in 2020. If 12-year compulsory education is implemented, the employment time of some people can be delayed for three years or even longer. Commentators believe that extending the three-year compulsory education time to alleviate the future employment pressure has little effect. According to this inference, it is the people who have completed compulsory education and are facing employment who have really postponed employment for three years or more. This group of people have many difficulties because they lack academic ability or economic conditions. It is almost the same as people who have not completed nine-year compulsory education. The extension of three years will increase its time cost and opportunity cost, and will also increase the financial burden of the country, and the implementation of the policy will face more uncertain factors. Moreover, the population development is continuous, and the employment situation in China is still facing great challenges after three years. In the name of alleviating employment pressure? Obligation? It is inappropriate to impose it on the state finance and the educated at the same time.
3. Can extending nine-year compulsory education send children from poor families? Intellectual assets? . According to the sponsor, popularizing 12 compulsory education is to increase the knowledge assets of the next generation and improve their future employment ability. What is this for the children of many rural families and urban poor families? Send charcoal in the snow? . Critics believe that knowledge is wealth, but whether it can be given or not is two problems. In the long run, it is a universal principle of national development to improve the quality of the people and accumulate knowledge assets for the next generation. It is China's consistent policy to increase investment in education and promote the development of education within conditions. But it also depends on whether the children of poor families have the need to accept intellectual assets (especially outside the nine-year compulsory education) and whether they have the conditions to evaluate the value of intellectual assets. Moreover, the biggest educational problem faced by children from poor families is still the problem of educational resources, and the imbalance of human development caused by the imbalance of educational resources is still very prominent. The same track is 100 meters, with a standardized plastic track on one side and a muddy earth-rock track on the other. Who runs faster between two players with similar physical fitness? What if we add another 50 meters? Before these problems are solved, simply increasing the length of compulsory education may only bring more burdens to these children, increase the opportunity cost of these students and their families, and be in a more unfavorable position in the future competitive environment.
Compared with upward extension, downward extension is more reasonable, that is, kindergarten education is included in the compulsory education stage. Early childhood is the key stage of cognitive ability training and the foundation of human development, which needs more support from the state. The question is, there is a big gap in the individual development of children before the age of 6, and whether unified education is needed; Early childhood is also a key stage of character cultivation. What kind of education can fully develop every child's emotional intelligence? Education? To complete; The foundation of preschool education in China is relatively weak and there is a shortage of teachers. Is compulsory education possible?
Four. Possible problems in extending nine-year compulsory education
1. Problems in policy recommendations
According to the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the proposal to extend the nine-year compulsory education has good intentions in goal setting, but it is divorced from the reality of education in China, with high cost and low feasibility. On the basis of lack of systematic research, simply extending the length of compulsory education is easy to cause policy distortion. The key of compulsory education is to promote people's development through education, and people's development is very different. The universality, free, compulsory and unity of compulsory education make this policy pay more attention to the basic education stage. People's higher development needs should not and cannot be met through compulsory education. Under the current situation, fair and balanced development of education is the theme. What the nine-year compulsory education needs most is to further popularize, further improve the quality and further ensure the rational distribution of educational resources. Ignore China's demographic structure, social function, value orientation and other factors, and simply follow suit? Quantity? From the perspective of increasing the number of years of education, it violates the original intention of education and brings uncertainty to the policy itself.
(B) Problems in policy implementation
In the process of implementing the proposal of extending the fixed number of years downward, the biggest problem is still the problem of children entering the park. The training of preschool teachers is a systematic process. At present, the number of employees engaged in preschool education in China is small and the quality is low. Unlike at the beginning of the popularization of primary education, it is difficult for preschool teachers to form a certain scale in a short time. Secondly, the main body of the implementation organization is more complicated. At present, early childhood education in China is partly run by educational institutions and partly supplemented by the market. If preschool education is included in compulsory education, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on relevant institutional mechanisms; Moreover, children have great individual differences and different family education concepts. If these problems are not handled well in policy implementation, the policy will become superficial and difficult to implement. Therefore, critics believe that bringing children into the scope of compulsory education will take some time to cultivate and demonstrate.
Relatively speaking, the proposal of extending the fixed number of years upwards will face greater problems in implementation. First of all, the current situation of unbalanced educational resources is difficult to change in the short term. At present, the nine-year compulsory education has a low starting point and a short time, and there are problems such as weak foundation, unbalanced development and quality to be improved. In particular, the foundation of compulsory education in rural areas is still weak. A considerable number of rural primary schools, junior high school campus buildings, books, instruments and equipment, sports, aesthetic education and health facilities can not meet the national standards, the level of information equipment is still low, the task of rebuilding dangerous houses is heavy, and the phenomenon of large classes in counties and townships is relatively common. The foundation for popularizing compulsory education in some rural areas is not yet consolidated, and the problem of dropping out of school is still serious. From a national perspective, some schools can't offer complete courses and class hours according to national standards due to school conditions and teachers' equipment, and the basic education quality is difficult to guarantee. Although the enrollment rate has maintained a high level, the consolidation rate of nine-year compulsory education needs to be further improved. Increasing the length of compulsory education will undoubtedly increase the educational burden, dilute educational resources and weaken the achievements of the existing nine-year compulsory education; Secondly, environmental support needs to be further improved. The implementation of a policy needs related systems, including financial mechanism, talent mechanism, selection mechanism, market mechanism and many other elements. At present, China's vocational education is underdeveloped, the market mechanism is immature, and the talent selection and mobility mechanism is relatively simple. Extending compulsory education will increase the backlog of labor force, distract the focus of financial input, bring impact to higher education and even the job market, and then bring unstable factors to society; In addition, it may cause new imbalances or even greater imbalances. Due to the influence of local differences on policies and different implementation processes, the degree of educational imbalance will be more obvious, the entrance of higher education will be more crowded, competition will be more intense, and the development of quality education will be affected; In addition, the existing functions of high school education will be changed, and the high school education with cultivating top-notch innovative talents as the core, developing potential, extending knowledge and accumulating strength will be integrated with more complicated factors. The development of vocational education and adult education will also be affected to varying degrees. Therefore, critics believe that the proposal to include senior high schools in compulsory education is not suitable for the current educational reality in China, and there is still a long way to go.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion and prospect
Fully realizing human development is everyone's right and the consistent policy of the country. Protecting people's right to free development is the function of education policy. Based on the current national conditions and teaching conditions, the distribution of nine-year compulsory education is reasonable, and the proposal to extend the length of compulsory education is inappropriate, inappropriate and inappropriate at present.
The main function of policy is not to solve a specific problem, but to guide the transformation of structure, the allocation of resources and the improvement of ideas.
Therefore, the original intention of extending the nine-year compulsory education is worthy of recognition, and the rationalization part should be gradually realized through the following measures in combination with the current nine-year compulsory education:
1. The state pays more attention to early childhood education, increases basic investment, and bears a certain proportion of expenses in the pre-school education stage to ensure the development of each child's basic ability.
2. Strengthen the cultivation and development of the basic quality of talents in the nine-year compulsory education stage, including the ability to survive, live, practice and comprehensive innovation.
3. Further implement educational equity and balanced development of education. Establish a system to ensure the effective flow of educational resources. Increase the scope and intensity of policy compensation for special people and people in difficulty.
4. Strengthen vocational education, develop training industry, and explore the talent growth mode to meet the market demand. To a certain extent, we can implement the vocational education support policies needed by national and regional development.
5. Strengthen the connection between the high school and higher education stages and the market, support the market's collaborative sponsorship activities for talents, disciplines and scientific research, and maintain the scientificity and freshness of personnel training and discipline setting.
6. Continue to deepen the concept of lifelong learning, and encourage a few qualified areas to carry out preschool and senior high school education on the basis of nine-year compulsory education? Free? Instead of. Obligation? The attempt of education will accumulate practice and experience for the real breakthrough of the national education system in the future.
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