Model high schools are welcomed by parents, but they are also questioned because of some problems exposed. How to treat the development of model high schools?
The new era needs quality schools.
"Since the mid-1990s, it has been proposed to build about 1000 experimental demonstration high schools nationwide." Zhou Feng, a professor at Guangzhou Institute of Education, said that before that, the state had been implementing the policy of key senior high schools in the development of ordinary senior high schools, which was established according to the special national conditions that large-scale education and socialist modernization in poor countries were in urgent need of talents at that time, and tilted towards elite education. Since the end of last century, with the improvement of living standards, people are no longer satisfied with "learning", but want to "study hard". Establishing high-quality schools and running high-quality education have become the educational requirements of the public. The original way of key high schools has not adapted to the reality, and model high schools have emerged.
"The reason why we propose to create a number of model high schools is that we hope these schools can take the lead in pursuing the breakthrough of quality education, highlight the school's personalized school-running characteristics, have basic hardware requirements for them, but pay more attention to the school's' soft power', thus driving the development of ordinary high schools." Zhou Feng said.
According to Han Min, deputy director of the National Education Development Research Center, in the process of popularization, ordinary high school education should face a wider range of people, expand its educational functions, and shift from elite education and education based on further studies to national quality education, which not only transports qualified talents to colleges and universities, but also trains high-quality qualified workers for the society and lays a more solid foundation for students' lifelong learning and continuing education. In this context, the model high school should undertake the task of improving the overall level of high school.
"At present, the characteristics of the development of senior high school education in China are: First, the popularization level has been greatly improved nationwide, especially in coastal areas and large and medium-sized cities; Second, great progress has been made in structural adjustment, and the ratio of secondary vocational education to ordinary high school education in many areas tends to be reasonable; Third, the decrease in the number of students enrolled and the development of the scale of higher education have increased the proportion of ordinary high school graduates entering colleges and universities. " Tao Xiping, general adviser of the State Inspector and vice president of China Education Association, analyzed this.
In his view, based on this feature, and the task of popularizing compulsory education nationwide has been completed, the positioning of ordinary high schools has actually changed accordingly. On the one hand, the independence and uniqueness of ordinary high schools are increasingly prominent; On the other hand, the task of sending qualified freshmen to higher schools in ordinary high schools will be relatively aggravated; Moreover, the talent training mode of ordinary high schools tends to be diversified, and the school-running mode will also tend to be diversified. Tao Xiping believes that because China has not yet formulated a separate law to regulate the school-running behavior of ordinary high schools, the direction and policies of different regions are not consistent with the development of ordinary high schools, thus leaving a broader space for the independent development of ordinary high schools, and at the same time, there have been some states that violate the laws of education and run schools out of order.
"At present, ordinary high school education faces the dual tasks of standardized development and independent development. Strengthening guidance in various ways has become an urgent task to promote the healthy development of ordinary high schools. The most important way is to use the successful experience of some school education reform and development as a demonstration. " Tao Xiping said.
The root of excessive enthusiasm is still in society.
"Of course, we recognize model high schools, and we can see the difference between model schools and non-model schools at a glance, not to mention the quality of teachers and teaching. Especially the excellent college entrance examination results of these schools, how attractive. If you send your children to these schools, it is like entering the' safe' of the college entrance examination. We will be practical as parents three years in advance. " A parent in Shaanxi said this.
In this regard, Gao Hongyuan, a professor at Beijing Normal University, believes that the establishment of model high schools actually gives people a strong signal that these schools are strongly supported by the government and are good. It is understandable that the people pursue themselves. After all, everyone wants their children to receive a better education.
"Some people say that we just showed a high enrollment rate, but this is not the case. Our school also promotes quality education, which is also quite good. Of course, for principals and teachers, the main pressure now comes from the college entrance examination. What is the quality of the students trained? Parents, society and leaders mainly look at the enrollment rate. If the college entrance examination fails, parents and society will certainly be dissatisfied. No matter how good it is, I won't buy it. " The principal of a model high school in Guangdong said that on the surface, being a principal is beautiful, but in fact, the burden is heavy. Now the competition between schools is not as interesting as the online rate, but it is more interesting than Tsinghua Peking University.
Some experts pointed out that it is not difficult for the environment of exam-oriented education to change obviously, and it is not difficult for parents to flock to it, because of the gap between existing ordinary high schools and the shortage of quality education resources. However, these people want to make great achievements in quality education and lack the corresponding conditions and atmosphere. It is not that they don't want to do it, but that it is difficult to do it. "So all kinds of problems are manifested in education, but the root cause is still in society." An expert said frankly.
High-quality resources need demonstration and promotion.
In recent years, Shanghai, Anhui, Dalian and other places have accelerated the enrollment system in which high-quality high school enrollment indicators are evenly distributed to junior high schools, which has played a great role in rationally allocating educational resources, narrowing the inter-school gap in the conditions and quality of running ordinary high schools in the region, and alleviating the fever of choosing schools. This practice is also a test for model schools, how to maintain high-quality education when all students are not excellent.
"Demonstration high school is a kind of cultivation of high-quality educational resources. The intention of cultivation is to make this high-quality resource play the role of amplification, radiation and promotion. Its existence value is to provide a model for relatively backward schools to learn, emulate and catch up. If the conditions of the demonstration school are so high that other schools can't learn, imitate or catch up, there will be no demonstration and the value of existence will be lost. " Yang Xiaowei, a professor at East China Normal University, said.
"If a model school is to be worthy of the name, it cannot be slack. In particular, we must make great efforts in connotative development and find a way out, instead of continuing to rely on limited educational resources in the region for development. " Yang Xiaowei told reporters.
Yuan Guilin, a professor at Beijing Normal University, said: "These high-quality schools have gathered huge high-quality educational resources. We need to take advantage of the situation, establish an energy release incentive mechanism for demonstration high schools with higher strategic vision and courage, open these schools, produce stronger radiation effects, and promote the development of regional education. "
Some experts also pointed out that with the vigorous development of secondary vocational education, in some county-level areas, the number of students in ordinary high schools is gradually decreasing, and one or two high schools may be able to meet the demand. Under such circumstances, the local government should pay attention to the relatively weak schools, and it is also the unshirkable responsibility of the model high school to help the brother schools make progress together.
In order to give full play to the role of model high schools, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education made a decision in 2007 to suspend the evaluation of model high schools, establish and improve the assistance mechanism of model high schools to other high schools, send backbone teachers to weak schools as teachers, establish and improve the sharing mechanism of educational resources, equipment and facilities among high schools, and actively explore and gradually establish a rotation exchange system between model high schools and ordinary high schools.