The reasons why exam-oriented education is criticized can be summarized as follows: in terms of educational objects, attention is paid not to all students, but to a few top students; In the way of education, exam-oriented education engages in cramming education and sea tactics; For the purpose of education, the concern is not the all-round development of people, but to get higher scores in response to the entrance examination; As a result, we attach importance to intellectual education and neglect other aspects such as morality, physique, beauty and labor. The trained talents have high scores, low energy, no personality and lack of creativity and imagination, which affects the healthy growth of teenagers.
But the supporters don't support cramming education and the sea tactics, nor are they just for the education of entrance examination, nor are they training talents with high scores and low abilities, lacking creativity and imagination.
The reason for supporting exam-oriented education lies in the conflict between concept and reality. Although quality education has been advocated for so many years, the basis of senior high school entrance examination is still based on scores. Because the whole evaluation system is based on scores, students must compete with scores.
Even if quality education is carried out in the lower grades, once you enter the sixth, third and second grades of primary school, facing the pressure of further studies, quality education will be returned to its original shape, and you have to return to the tactics of asking questions. As the saying goes, "Stop in the sixth grade, stop in the third grade, and dismount in the second grade."
Even if the school wants to carry out quality education reform and relieve students' pressure, it may not be recognized and supported by parents, because in the end, it depends on the test-taking ability and scores to get into a good school. The higher authorities' assessment of the Education Bureau, the Education Bureau's assessment of schools, and the school's assessment of teachers are all based on the enrollment rate and the northern clearance rate.
In this context, it is no wonder that Lu Jianguo shouted, "We have always advocated seeking truth from facts. If it is the right thing and everyone is doing it, why should we hide it?" Why do you have to say one thing and do another? It seems that exam-oriented education is a shameful thing. "
Another reason for supporting exam-oriented education is fairness.
Under the background of large gap between urban and rural areas and unbalanced education between urban and rural areas, rural students lack enough social and cultural capital compared with urban students, and they can't compete with the so-called comprehensive quality. It is a helpless choice for rural students to make up for the congenital deficiency of educational resources and the disadvantages related to family conditions by studying hard. In the eyes of many people, it is fair for rural students to spell scores, and it is also a life-saving straw for poor children to change their destiny, realize the rise of class and improve the reality of class solidification.
Maybe quality education just looks beautiful?
Quality education appeared in the late 1980s. 1986 Compulsory Education Law stipulates that compulsory education must "implement quality education, improve the quality of education, and enable school-age children and adolescents to develop in an all-round way in morality, intelligence and physique".
However, after quality education was put forward, the controversy began. Semantically and psychologically, "quality" refers to "the anatomical and physiological characteristics that people are born with" (Ci Hai 1979), and refers to "endowment", "talent" and "talent". Since it is congenital, how to change and educate?
However, from the perspective of quality education, it was originally aimed at exam-oriented education, in order to correct the disadvantages of one-sided pursuit of enrollment rate in exam-oriented education. It's no longer meaningful to continue arguing about the original meaning of quality today.
The concept of quality education can be summarized in two aspects: comprehensive, facing all students and promoting their all-round development. But the ideal is full and the reality is skinny. In fact, quality education may just look beautiful.
While paying attention to comprehensive quality, has the burden on students been reduced? The tendency of examination-oriented quality education is becoming more and more serious, and quality education has become the second kind of examination-oriented education, and the so-called comprehensive quality has become the tool of examination.
Due to the lack of scientific and reasonable evaluation system, the evaluation standard of quality education has been quantified. In many places, schools set some hard and fast rules for students in junior high school and even junior high school. For example, a primary school must be a "three-good student" every year for six years before it can be recommended to a key school, and the condition for obtaining the title of "three-good student" is to obtain three to six certificates every academic year, including science and technology, English, art, calligraphy, mental arithmetic, music, dance, singing, Go, sports and many other aspects.
The school emphasizes reducing the burden and doing less homework, but students are not relaxed at all. They are busy with all kinds of extra-long classes and interest classes. And how many of these characteristic classes and interest classes are really interesting to students, and how many are carried out on the premise of respecting children's personality? Pay attention to courses, specialties and interests that are useful for further study, and discard those that are useless for further study. The ultimate goal is to take various certificates for further study. Quality education was dismembered into grades, scores and certificates, and was "profiteers in both places".
Talents packaged with comprehensive qualities may not meet our expectations of talents. Qin Chunhua, president of Peking University Examinations and Research Institute, feels after interviewing Shanghai students, which may explain the problem from one side.
These students all have glamorous resumes: excellent academic performance, at least in the top 5% of the grade; Outstanding artistic expertise, at least one musical instrument; Won scientific and technological innovation awards at all levels, at least the second prize at the municipal level. But they don't know what kind of person they want to be. They "look so perfect that they don't seem to see any shortcomings; It looks too much like a set of furniture made of a mold. "
In addition, there is a phenomenon that public schools carry out quality education in the name of reducing the burden, while a large number of private schools have become special zones that do not implement the burden reduction order. Not long ago, the report "Reflections on Basic Education in Shanghai" 15 pointed out that private schools "recruit the best quality students" and then "train students hard academically". The burden and pressure of students in public schools are decreasing, while academic training for further study in private schools is strengthening.
Faced with the pressure of further education, parents are trying to get into private schools, and the enrollment conditions of private schools are also rising. The admission rate of some famous primary schools is as low as 40: 1, which is as difficult as the college entrance examination. Moreover, it is necessary not only to choose schools, but also to choose parents. Even the academic qualifications and positions of grandparents have become the content of school surveys.
This phenomenon will make the development of public schools and private schools unbalanced. Due to the quality of students and fierce competition, public schools have become synonymous with low-quality education. A large number of middle-income groups have fled the public education system, while the disadvantaged groups can only receive low-quality basic education services, thus aggravating educational injustice.