China Education News reporter Jinke

September 1 has always been the time for primary and secondary schools to start school in autumn in China, but in pingdu city, Shandong Province, the time for starting school in autumn has been firmly pointing to the beginning of August every year for many years. It should be said that the practice of starting school in advance is not the first of Pingdu, nor is it unique to Pingdu, so people almost turn a blind eye to this common phenomenon that is constantly being interpreted in rural cities across the country. However, when teachers and students call for "we should rest" and "help us" together, we have to focus on "starting school early" and have to explore-where is the fast-moving hour hand?

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At the beginning of August, for primary and secondary school teachers and students in most parts of the country, the legal summer vacation in this country was only half over. However, in Pingdu, Shandong Province, after a short pause of about half a month, the rush of class bell and the noise of children in the new school year rang again on major campuses.

On August 5, the reporter came to Pingdu, Shandong Province, and visited the No.1 Middle School, No.9 Middle School and Development Zone High School which the local people thought best represented the education level of the city. In these schools, the "Happy Newspaper" signboard of the college entrance examination, which reflects their high enrollment rate and high teaching level, is placed at the school gate. Through these signs, it seems that the strength of the "National Advanced Basic Education County" has been fully demonstrated. Behind the glowing "good news", the reporter saw this scene:

In front of the dormitory building of pingdu city No.9 Middle School, students have been busy carrying luggage in groups of three and five, doing all kinds of preparatory work before school starts; In the classroom of the school, teachers also began to teach various knowledge points patiently. ...

Why is the clock here fast?

Similar to Pingdu No.9 Middle School, since August, other high schools in the city have started classes one after another, and some students even arrived at school on July 30. According to the red-headed document "Summer Vacation Work Arrangements for Primary and Secondary Schools" issued by the Municipal Education and Sports Bureau on July 8, the holiday time for primary and secondary schools in the city is July 13- 15, but the actual holiday time for most senior high school teachers and students is 18. In other words, most schools have only half a month's summer vacation from the official holiday to beginning of autumn!

According to boss Lin, who has been doing stationery business for 8 years at the entrance of Pingdu No.9 Middle School, compared with previous years, the summer vacation in No.9 Middle School this year has been quite long.

When did the very common phenomenon of early school start in Pingdu, Shandong Province begin? Few local people interviewed can explain it clearly. It seems that going to school here has long been a common phenomenon, which is not surprising at all. According to a high school principal who has worked in a local middle school, since he came to work in the school, the middle schools here have started to open in autumn in early August. Xiao Liu Ye, a senior 2 student in Pingdu No.9 Middle School 18, said that he had no memory of starting school in September since he was a student.

Pingdu is only a county-level city in Qingdao, but in the whole Qingdao area, if you ask "where is the best place in the city's education quality", many locals will answer: "pingdu city!" When inquiring about the quality of education in pingdu city, many people can list the number of students who entered Peking University, Tsinghua and other famous schools in Pingdu No.1 Middle School and No.9 Middle School and their ranking in Qingdao in one breath. If you ask why you have achieved impressive results, they will tell you: "The school here is tight! Students work hard! The teacher is dedicated! "

Indeed, pingdu city's college entrance examination rate has been very high, which has long been regarded as a "myth" and a "banner" of Qingdao's basic education. Every year at the beginning of the new school year, a large number of Qingdao students, even students from other provinces and cities such as Beijing and Anhui, come to "defect". Looking through the statistics of college entrance examination scores in pingdu city this year, we have to marvel at this "big college entrance examination county" where rural students account for about 70%: although the number of candidates only accounts for 14% of Qingdao, the number of candidates who achieve the second place in the college entrance examination accounts for about 30% of Qingdao. This year is also the fourth year that the online rate of undergraduate college entrance examination ranks first in Qingdao.

Not only that, as early as 1986, Pingdu was awarded the titles of "National Advanced County in Basic Education", "National Advanced County in Early Childhood Education" and "National Advanced County in Adult Education", and the "private education" mode and "dual system" of vocational education in this county became successful examples of promoting learning in China at that time. In the words of the head of pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau, 20 years ago, the way of running schools here was a "model" of national basic education, leading the direction of national basic education reform.

However, such a model county, which was famous in the field of national education in the 1980s, why did it advance the start of autumn to the beginning of August, which is still a national legal holiday? Is pingdu city carrying out a new round of educational exploration, or does it have other purposes and secrets? The mystery has to start with the "September 19 model" that Pingdu people are proud of.

"919 model" creates myth

In Pingdu, an agricultural city with a population of 6.5438+0.3 million, No.1 Middle School and No.9 Middle School are considered as the "templates" of basic education in this city and even the whole Qingdao area, and their teaching methods have also become the "benchmarks" of education in this area. In the eyes of ordinary people, as long as children enter these two high schools, "there is basically no big problem in going to college."

So, what makes Pingdu No.1 Middle School and No.9 Middle School have such a high enrollment rate? The porter in No.9 Middle School affirmed: "The school usually takes time and the teachers teach well, which is the main reason why the college entrance examination can achieve good results."

In the words of President Liu of Pingdu No.1 Middle School, in recent years, the second-class online rate of undergraduate college entrance examination is over 80%, mainly because the school has formed a scientific and standardized management system, which is often referred to as the "No.1 Middle School Model".

According to President Liu, the biggest feature of this "scientific and standardized management system" is the teacher's "collective excellence" system. Its main content is: the school divides the school members into several groups according to the nature of subject teaching or work, and the evaluation of teachers is mainly carried out in groups. For example, to evaluate the teaching effect of a teaching and research group, the school only randomly checks the daily teaching situation of one teacher from this group, and the teaching performance of this teacher is the teaching performance of the whole group. Then the school grades the group according to this sampling evaluation, and the grading result will be directly linked to the teacher's salary. Although teachers go to work together and carry out daily teaching activities together, sometimes there is a monthly salary gap of 1200- 1400 yuan between the two groups of teachers, which is about half of the teachers' monthly income!

Under this "binding" management mode, teachers must urge each other and go all out. Because the results of spot checks by one teacher in a group often directly determine the income of all teachers in a teaching and research group. If there is something wrong with the teaching of a certain group in a certain month, the income of all teachers in the whole group will be reduced, and other teachers in the teaching and research group or grade group may urge the "backward" teachers to strengthen their business and improve their teaching in various ways.

In order not to drag down the grade or the teaching and research group, "tied" management naturally forces students to prepare lessons collectively before class, so that everyone's teaching level is at the same level. "Here, all the teachers' lesson plans are similar, and there is no personality. Even the number of exercises done in the whole grade is basically the same. "A physics teacher who has been teaching in a middle school for 20 years said this.

This "bundled" management and various detailed rules for education and teaching evaluation formulated by the school have intensified the competition between teachers and schools. The teacher doesn't want to fall behind anyone. You hold the students tight, I hold the students tight. President Liu said: "On the one hand, teachers can be encouraged to compete and supervise each other in such a small scope as grade group or teaching and research group;" On the other hand, it can also stimulate the horizontal competition between teachers and similar schools, and finally realize the overall improvement of education quality. "

It is under this teaching evaluation mechanism that over the years, the students' work and rest time in this city has gradually formed a unique "flat mode": students get up at 5: 30 every morning, start a stressful study life at 6: 0010, and generally study for three nights at 9: 30. The teacher's schedule is basically synchronized with the students: around 6 am 10, the teacher comes to work at school; During the evening self-study, all teachers in the school must go to school to prepare lessons and correct their homework, whether they have classes or not.

Under this management mode, teachers' professionalism has been carried forward to the extreme. When Qingdao Education Director came to investigate the college entrance examination, President Liu told two short stories: A few days before the college entrance examination this year, a young Chinese teacher, Dou Guiling, accidentally sprained her foot while riding a bicycle. Although the school arranged for her to have a rest, in order not to let the students' grades drop, she asked her lover to push her to school by bike every day, and then pushed her back after tutoring the students. Yu Zhenxi, a math teacher, had to stay in bed for two months because of lumbar disc herniation on the eve of the college entrance examination, but went to school a little better. When he couldn't stand it, he squatted on the floor at home to solve the college entrance examination simulation problems for students. ...

At 5: 30 pm on the 5th, the reporter saw in No.9 Middle School that the teachers who had just dropped out of school hurried home for dinner on bicycles. A teacher told reporters that 1 half an hour later, they will go to school to work the "night shift".

The person in charge of pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau proudly said that the "99 Model" has long been a successful practice that Shandong education circles are familiar with and eager to emulate!

An unpleasant reason to set the clock.

According to the document No.56 [2006] issued by pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau on July 8, Notice on Doing a Good Job in Summer Vacation for Primary and Secondary Schools in 2006, the first and second grades of senior high schools in the city officially started classes on August 6. The city's primary school, junior high school, vocational high school grade one and grade two officially started on August 2 1; The third grade of ordinary high school and vocational high school is arranged by the school according to the actual situation.

"Taking the initiative to start school in advance is not only based on the reality of Pingdu, but also the result of parents' requirements." Sun Deliang, deputy director of pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau in charge of basic education, explained, "In Pingdu, most students come from rural areas, but in rural areas, there is no infrastructure such as libraries and stadiums. If you take a two-month summer vacation in accordance with state regulations, on the one hand, children have no local activities at all; On the other hand, parents are busy with farm work all day and have no time to take care of their children, so parents strongly urge schools to start school early. "

However, the reporter learned from the survey that although the annual summer vacation is very short, most of the students interviewed said that they would either help their families with farm work or review their lessons at home. On August 6th, I just reported to pingdu city Development Zone Senior High School as a junior high school student, who lives in the countryside of Malan Town. According to him, he has been helping his parents with farm work at home since the mid-June senior high school entrance examination. He wants to use the summer vacation to help his parents do more farm work and reduce their burden, but the holiday is too short. He said regretfully, "The farm work in the field was not finished when he left."

The owner of a small restaurant selling ribs rice near No.9 Middle School said that his daughter, a sophomore this year, "went to school as required by the school" on the 6th. Although at first I felt that children usually study hard and didn't agree to start school early, I agreed to the school's practice because I thought that the school would not charge much and could increase the number of people admitted to the university in the future. "I never asked the school to start school earlier." He said.

A mother who came to send her children to school said, "Last semester, the school scheduled the start of school before the holiday. Even if parents or children have opinions, there is no way to change them. "

Regarding the statement that "the school started early because of the lack of rural infrastructure", a teacher in a high school in this city believes that rural primary and secondary schools in the vast areas of the central and western regions do not have enough infrastructure such as libraries and playgrounds, but teachers and students there still have a complete summer vacation every year. Using the summer vacation, they can not only adjust their body and mind, but also experience the real life of farming and studying. Who can say that this is not a good summer social practice for rural children?

The Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job of Starting School in 2006-2007 released by the Teaching and Research Office of pingdu city on June 16 explains the significance of starting school in advance in this way: the college entrance examination is advanced two years to June, and the senior high school entrance examination is also advanced this year. The baton of the college entrance examination affects the time of the college entrance examination ... If the college entrance examination is advanced by one month and the new semester is not advanced, it means that the review time of senior three is shortened by one month, which will inevitably affect the teaching effect of senior three, and also affect the students' "role consciousness of senior three", and ultimately affect the college entrance examination results. ...

In the eyes of the Education and Sports Bureau, it is tradition that affects the results of the college entrance examination. Speaking of this guidance, Ai Dianshu, deputy director of the pingdu city Municipal Education and Sports Bureau, told the reporter: "In the 1980s, Pingdu established a rural basic education development fund system in a form similar to the rural' three mentions and five unification', which not only set an example for poor countries like us to run large-scale education, but also formed a good tradition that all people attach importance to education."

In this regard, the view of a high school teacher in pingdu city Development Zone is that as early as 20 years ago, Pingdu was a model of national basic education. On the one hand, all the education departments were afraid of losing this signboard. On the other hand, under this golden signboard, the enrollment rate has become the most important standard for the education department and society to measure the level of running a school, and the online rate of the college entrance examination has correspondingly become the only indicator for the school to evaluate the teaching effect of teachers. Under this evaluation mechanism, the school is also very helpless. It has naturally become a normal state of the school to compress holidays and start school in advance in winter and summer vacations.

The inequality of "quality" supremacy

School starts on September 1, which has become a well-known practice in China education. Shandong Pingdu started school in early August, which means that its ordinary high school will be extended by three weeks compared with other parts of the country. With the extension of the semester, has the teaching plan changed? How does the school arrange this "extended" time? What purpose do you want to achieve by working so hard to lengthen the teaching time?

During the interview, although the local education authorities only said that "teaching is organized according to the normal plan", according to some school teachers and the staff of the guidance office, the school started three weeks ahead of schedule and basically continued last year's curriculum for teaching. For example, if you don't finish the new lesson in the third grade, continue to talk about the new lesson; After the new curriculum, organize students to review the college entrance examination as planned; Generally, the second year of high school is to study the new courses in advance and reserve a long review time for the third year of high school.

Corresponding to this kind of early start of school, the "college entrance examination war" can also start ahead of time after the study courses in high school can be ended ahead of time. According to a physics teacher of Grade Three in Pingdu No.1 Middle School, except for a few subjects, the new curriculum of Grade Three basically ended ahead of schedule, and most subjects have been transferred to the first review stage of the college entrance examination. From this point of view, the early start of school in pingdu city is an important reason to seize the opportunity and start the college entrance examination war in advance.

In the eyes of pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau, primary and secondary schools are a complete education chain: the teaching effect of primary schools determines the quality of junior high school education, and junior high school determines the online rate of college entrance examination, which is 6+3≥3.

It is precisely because of this educational inequality that the "domino effect" in pingdu city's basic education is formed. In order to monitor the "quality of running a school" in all stages of primary and secondary schools, the Municipal Education and Sports Bureau has also introduced a very detailed education evaluation system: rewarding schools with qualified enrollment rates; For school leaders who fail to meet the standards for several years in a row, the Education and Sports Bureau will take measures such as demotion. Pingdu No.1 Middle School and No.9 Middle School have won hundreds of thousands of cash prizes from the municipal government and the Municipal Education and Sports Bureau for their high enrollment rate.

In the face of the logic of "6+3≥3", it seems to be the common pursuit of schools at different levels to make full use of holidays and winter and summer vacations. Around August 15, all junior high schools and primary schools will start classes directly. Every year in mid-June, after the enrollment of senior high school entrance examination is over, all senior high schools go through the enrollment procedures for freshmen such as paying tuition fees in advance to complete the military training for freshmen.

"Time is tight, not just high school. In fact, the children here have been tight from elementary school to junior high school. " Ms. Liu, a parent who sent her children to high school in Pingdu Development Zone, said, "Usually, children not only have to do homework in all subjects after coming home every night, but also have almost no holidays except one day off every month. Here, teachers are tired, parents are tired, and children are more tired! "

postscript

Time passes through the night at a constant pace to welcome the dawn. Pingdu teachers and students, who are ahead of time, may have a closer understanding of time. In their struggle for high scores in time, time has become a stepping stone to enter the university; In the struggle against time, running students and teachers are full of contradictions. They want to rest and are afraid of losing. They were placed on a huge roulette wheel and could not stop. "As long as you can get into an ideal university, it's worth it." We can see that this logic makes the helplessness of starting school early more like a collective unconsciousness that spreads in many parts of the country.

Why do you want to start school early? What are the advantages and disadvantages of starting school early? No matter what difficulties or helplessness there are, we hope to hear more readers' views on this phenomenon. We want to use this report as an introduction to the discussion, so that teachers, students, administrators of education administrative departments, parents or other professionals can express their views and talk about their feelings. I look forward to rational and in-depth thinking on this issue.

Please send the manuscript to :shidian@edumail.com.cn or to: China Education News Center, Wenhuiyuan North Road 10, Haidian District, Beijing (postcode:100088); Please mark "discuss in advance" on the subject or envelope of the email. -Edit

Caption: In August, teachers and students began to sweat in the classroom.

China Education News, 3rd edition, August 27th, 2006.

Voices from schools, teachers and students

Teacher: It's not easy to take a vacation.

Regarding the "serious shrinkage" of summer vacation, an old teacher from Grade 2, No.9 Middle School in Pingdu said: "Teachers in other parts of the country can take a summer vacation, but here, although everyone complains privately and wants to have a complete summer vacation, after years of unsuccessful practice, everyone finally becomes numb, no one complains, and no one defends their rights and interests, because in this local environment, everyone is used to it.

Another young teacher in the school said that he had worked in the school for three years and wanted to take advantage of the winter and summer vacations. However, "the education bureau started school ahead of schedule, which made the school only follow the rules, and the teachers had to choose to swallow their voices."

At the same time, some teachers have questioned the early start of school in summer: is it overtime or normal work to occupy the teachers' legal holidays? If it is overtime, should there be extra overtime allowance?

When the reporter asked whether the school appropriately raised the teachers' salaries or gave corresponding subsidies at the beginning of the school term, although the local education and sports bureau did not give a positive answer, according to some school teachers, the usual salaries were basically the same and they were not paid according to overtime.

Student: I dare not take a vacation if I want to.

"From the bottom of my heart, although I want to rest in my heart, in fact, even if we have a complete summer vacation, we will still invite a tutor to continue studying at home." Xiao Wang, a high school girl from Pingdu No.1 Middle School, said: "Teachers and parents often remind me in my ear that high school is hard for 3 years and happy for 30 years. Between long-term happiness and short-term happiness, I can only temporarily suppress my personality and sacrifice my happiness. "

On August 5th, in Pingdu No.9 Middle School, the reporter met Liu Tongxue Jr., who graduated from the school three years ago. He said: "I was almost completely bound by books when I was in middle school. I wanted to use the winter and summer vacations to develop my hobbies, but in the end, I was always washed away by the early start of the summer vacation, which led to my failure to develop any hobbies in college. "

Pan Xiao, who graduated from Pingdu No.1 Middle School last year, thinks that it doesn't matter whether he has a summer vacation in high school because of the great pressure of entering a higher school, but he must have a summer vacation after going to college to adjust his mentality and cultivate his hobbies.

Some students also said that after the school started in early August, the semester was nearly 20 days longer than usual. Before the end of the semester, both teachers and students may feel physically and mentally exhausted. "The scientific nature of starting early is still questionable."

Xiaojin, a senior three student in Pingdu Development Zone, revealed that after the start of school on July 29, the weather was still hot, and many students living on campus found it difficult to sleep at night. Students often fall asleep in class the next day. "In fact, the effect of class is not as good as expected."

Parents: As long as you can go to college, three years of hard work is worthwhile.

"The reality is that if children can't go to college, they have to go back to the countryside to farm. Going to college is the only way for farmers' children to change their fate. "The owner of a small grocery store in front of Pingdu No.1 Middle School said," Although I usually have to do my homework late into the night when I see my children 10 coming home at night, I feel very uncomfortable, but if I can change the status of farmers after three years of hard work, it is worthwhile to work hard again! As parents, we can only try our best to improve children's lives and strengthen their nutrition. We still support the early start of school. "

The son of taxi driver Master Wang is a sophomore this year and starts school on July 30th. He said: "Now, although I have to be busy until morning 1 every night, I have to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to help my child prepare breakfast. This is something that can't be helped. For most families, children who attend high school for three years are actually not just children who study alone, but the whole family. As long as the child can be admitted to the university after 3 years, no matter how hard we work, we feel valuable. "

Education and Sports Bureau: No score, no quality.

In the interview, the person in charge of pingdu city Education and Sports Bureau said: "After the country put forward the concept of quality education, many parts of the country thought that it was quality education to let students participate in more activities. No matter how others understand it, we still believe that the essential score of quality education is the first. No score, no quality. In a sense, students' scores are still in direct proportion to their ability and quality. "

"No matter how quality education is mentioned, quality is the ultimate goal pursued by quality education. On the surface, quality education seems to make students sing, dance and have fun, reduce the burden of schoolwork, reduce school time, rank second, and implement a grading system for students' grades. In fact, they are all one-sided. Since quality education has not cancelled the senior high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination, our teaching objectives have to remain unchanged. "

China Education News, 3rd edition, August 27th, 2006.

Pingdu city teaching and research section: the significance of starting school in advance

The college entrance examination has been advanced to June for two years, and this year's senior high school entrance examination has also been advanced. The baton of college entrance examination affects the time of senior high school entrance examination, which is only a formal role in middle school teaching. Its essential guiding value needs our educators to study and dig, and to do in-depth and solid creative and pioneering work. To this end, the teaching and research section puts forward the following guiding opinions on the early start of the new semester:

The college entrance examination is one month ahead of schedule, and the new semester is not ahead of schedule, which means that the review time of senior three is shortened by one month, which will inevitably affect the teaching effect of senior three, students' "role consciousness of senior three" and ultimately affect the college entrance examination results; The college entrance examination is one month ahead of schedule, and the time for the senior high school entrance examination is also ahead of schedule. If we still start school according to the starting time of the college entrance examination in July last year, the study time of senior one students admitted this year will be reduced by one month compared with before, and the time of junior three graduates at home will increase, which will not only neglect their studies in vain, but also easily distract their learning will, and even increase the management difficulty after returning to school because they have been wandering in society for a long time. Starting school in advance can not only ensure the study time of senior three students, but also ensure that senior three students enter the "state of preparing for the college entrance examination" as soon as possible, and act in advance, winning the initiative to create an atmosphere for senior three students; Starting school early can not only ensure the total study time of freshmen, but also enable freshmen to form a "high school student" mentality as soon as possible and enhance their enterprising spirit.

In a word, starting school in advance is the need of the situation and work, which is of great practical value to ensure the teaching quality of high school and cultivate students' good learning quality and ideological quality. -Excerpted from "Guiding Opinions of pingdu city Teaching and Research Office on Doing a Good Job in Starting School in Advance in 2006-2007".

China Education News, 3rd edition, August 27th, 2006.

Reporter's note: helplessness and embarrassment under the high expectations of society

China Education News reporter Jinke

There is only one and a half days holiday every month, and more than ten hours of "fighting" every day. Parents' expectations are eagerly awaited ... The reality of Pingdu education makes it bear a heavy burden on itself, but it seems to make us even heavier. This heaviness comes not only from the helplessness behind the one-sided pursuit of enrollment rate by schools, families and society, but also from the helplessness of Pingdu in continuing the tradition of enrollment rate and keeping the "golden signboard".

With the high expectation of the society, no one in Pingdu is willing to lose the golden signboard of "National Advanced County in Basic Education", and no one can lose the glorious tradition of high enrollment rate. Impetuous social demand forces Pingdu to do everything possible to race against time to maintain the high school enrollment rate expected by the society. Is it to meet the immediate expectations of society, or to focus on the long-term goal of talent training? Obviously, Pingdu education is in a dilemma. This embarrassing situation not only sacrifices the normal vacations of teachers and students, but also violates the laws of education itself to some extent.

Of course, the reason for this embarrassment is not only the deviation of the school's understanding, but more importantly, it is closely related to the evaluation standard of the society to measure the quality of the school by the enrollment rate, and also closely related to the current employment mechanism of the whole society.

The core of quality education is to solve the problem of how to cultivate people and what kind of people to cultivate, and its ultimate goal is how to make students develop physically and mentally healthily. In fact, compared with exam-oriented education, real quality education can also maintain a relatively high enrollment rate and meet the high expectations of society. The key is how to improve the efficiency of classroom teaching and accurately understand and grasp the laws of education.

Just a few days after the reporter left Pingdu, elementary schools and junior high schools there also started school ahead of schedule. We don't know when Pingdu, an advanced county in basic education with a glorious tradition, can travel lightly and simply; We don't know when Pingdu will get rid of this helplessness and embarrassment.

China Education News, 3rd edition, August 27th, 2006.