Tang Min: Compulsory education is the basic education that all school-age teenagers should receive. The state has the obligation to let every teenager receive compulsory education for at least nine years, and every family has the obligation to send their children to school for compulsory education. Although countries in the world have different stages of economic development and different years of compulsory education, compulsory education in most countries is free.
Beijing News: Is the educated completely free?
Tang Min: That's not true. Different countries have different concepts of free: some are free of tuition, some are free of tuition and miscellaneous fees, some are free of all fees, and there are all kinds of situations. Generally speaking, governments all over the world regard the implementation of free compulsory education as a very important government responsibility. This is true not only in rich countries, but also in many developing countries with very backward economies. Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam, Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries whose per capita GDP is only one third of that of China have implemented free and compulsory education. At present, as far as China is concerned, there is no reason why we cannot promote the implementation of free compulsory education?
Beijing News: What makes compulsory education basically equal to free education?
Tang Min: Compulsory education is very public. If it is not free, it is impossible to guarantee that all people can receive nine-year compulsory education, and such people will hardly survive with dignity in the next few decades and will become a burden to society. Urbanization is the future development path of China. A large number of rural laborers will flock to cities. Whether these people can survive after flocking to the city, whether they will become the burden of the future city or the new force of urban development is closely related to their education level. Without junior high school culture, it is difficult for them to survive in the city. Even if you survive, it is easy to become a poor household in the future city and a burden to the city. We opened a nanny school in Beijing, recruited some little girls from remote areas, trained them for a month, and then let them go to town to be nannies. We find that if these people have received junior high school education, they can develop rapidly after entering Beijing, and they can quickly find other jobs and develop elsewhere after one, two or three years. However, if you have only received primary education, it is more difficult to develop further. We used to accept a very small number of people who were close to illiteracy, and they were often sent back after one month. They can't adapt to the present city life at all, and they can't even be nannies. Urban families are uneasy about giving their children and old people to illiterate people. With the development of the future society, if you don't have some knowledge-for example, you haven't received compulsory education, it's hard for you to survive in the city. In the future, these people will have to become the targets of social poverty alleviation. When these problems are solved, the overall cost paid by society will be much higher.
Beijing News: That is to say, it can also increase the overall social cost?
Tang Min: Yes, if we don't speed up and increase investment in compulsory education now, the social and financial costs will be very high in the future. In the case of insufficient national financial resources, many countries issue national debt to invest in compulsory education. Many countries borrow from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to invest in compulsory education. We can borrow a lot of money to build highways and power plants now. Why can't we borrow money for compulsory education? In fact, a small increase in China's annual fiscal revenue is enough to realize free and compulsory education, at least in rural areas. Compulsory education first needs the state to increase investment, preferring to build fewer expressways and green squares at present, and do compulsory education first.
In addition, we can also look at the problem of free compulsory education from the perspective of how to increase farmers' income. The core of the three rural issues is how to increase farmers' income. How to improve farmers' purchasing power? The key lies in the increase of farmers' income. Free compulsory education is equivalent to increasing farmers' income. It can greatly reduce the burden of farmers' compulsory education expenditure. According to our calculation, if free compulsory education is gradually implemented within two years, the annual expenditure of farmers can be reduced by1.05-42.2 billion yuan, which is equivalent to an increase of 0.5 to 2 percentage points in the average income of farmers. Beijing News: China's education investment accounts for 3.2% of GDP, which is lower than the international average; However, the investment in higher education is far higher than the world average. Is it necessary to develop higher education at the expense of compulsory education?
Tang Min: Not necessarily. Even if the state invests in education, there is a problem of priorities. Compulsory education is universal education and should be free. If the country has money, it should first ensure free compulsory education. University education is not compulsory, and the beneficiaries have to pay part of the expenses. The state's investment in higher education tuition fees should focus on exempting poor students from tuition fees. If you have more funds, you can subsidize some of them for student loans. After more than 20 years of reform and opening up, China's national strength has been greatly enhanced. The problem now is not money, but our investment policy or investment order. It is a question of how our governments at all levels evaluate their political achievements. At present, there are many articles about the difficulty of going to college. College students are very active social groups and receive special attention from the society. They have many opportunities to express their opinions and have a strong voice, so a lot of money is invested in the field of higher education. ; In the field of compulsory education, farmers' voices are few and have not received due attention, which is unreasonable. Compulsory education should be funded by the state and free for the educated. If the state wants to subsidize higher education, it can only subsidize college students from poor families. Nowadays, many families spend many times more on choosing schools in primary and secondary schools than on university tuition. We now have only one college student in 28 families, or we subsidize 28 families by paying taxes from 27 families. It is understandable to use this tax to give some subsidies to families with low income and unable to pay tuition fees. This is the same as using financial allocation to help the poor. However, it doesn't make any sense for 27 families to pay taxes to support a young man with a rich family who can afford to go to college. So we need to change this concept. Otherwise, there will be a paradox that China's investment in the whole education is lower than the international level. But in higher education, it is far higher than the international average. Even though the state has invested so much money in higher education, it is difficult for poor students to go to college because of the uniform funding for each college student. Beijing News: What is the reason for this situation?
Tang Min: This should still be the residual poison of the planned economy system, which was inherited from the education model of the former Soviet Union. As you may remember, even during the Cultural Revolution, we had to pay tuition fees for primary and secondary schools. But in the past, going to college was free, and even most students were subsidized. So for a long time, many of us thought that going to college should be free. This is just the opposite of international practice. So now we need to reverse the "reversed history". It is not that the state should not invest in universities, but that we should not invest too much money in higher education before compulsory education is free. This is the same as a family. If you have money at home, you should buy food first instead of going to the movies first. This is a question of which is more important in the use of funds.
Beijing News: In other words, policymakers need courage to adjust their investment policies?
Tang Min: This is not only the responsibility of policy makers, but also the need for us ordinary people, including your media, to reach a consensus. This matter should be clearly debated, otherwise the voice of college students is particularly loud, and media reports are also focused on higher education and college students. Few people pay attention to how many primary and middle school students drop out of school because their families are too poor to afford school, and how many parents commit suicide because they can't afford compulsory education. Beijing News: In developing compulsory education, economically developed areas may pay more attention to the quality of education rather than the issue of free compulsory education.
Tang Min: That's not surprising. We say that we should implement free and compulsory education, which is only a basic problem in the development of education and a problem to be solved first. Not all the problems of education. For many urban residents and many farmers in rich areas, they may be more concerned about the quality of education. We have no objection to private schools charging high fees. What we oppose is the high fees charged by public schools. Private schools charge high fees, which is a kind of willingness to fight and suffer. This is understandable, as are other countries such as the United States. Although public schools are funded by taxpayers, compulsory education should be free. .
Beijing News: In other words, public schools should emphasize their public welfare functions.
Beijing News: Recently, Beijing also proposed to implement free compulsory education during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. What do you think of this?
Tang Min: I think so. At present, especially in compulsory education, public schools should emphasize their public welfare nature.
Tang Min: I feel very good. Last year, the Asian Development Bank made a research report and proposed to implement free compulsory education in rural areas in two years. China is a big country, so we can do it step by step. We are delighted to see that at present, Beijing, Suzhou, Guangdong and other places have announced that free compulsory education will be implemented soon. I suggest that compulsory education in Beijing suburbs and remote rural areas should be free as soon as possible. To do this, we should start from poor areas, and free compulsory education in cities can be delayed a little. If Beijing has money, it would be better to implement free compulsory education. From a national perspective, it should be done year after year. Do it in poverty-stricken areas first, and then do free compulsory education in rural areas, so that poor families or low-income families can get free first.
Beijing News: Can we consider allowing children of migrants who are not registered in Beijing but work in Beijing to enjoy such free compulsory education?
Tang Min: In principle, as long as there are people who work and pay taxes in Beijing, their children should enjoy this treatment in Beijing. Of course, we have to do research. Prevent a large number of educational immigrants from enjoying the relatively high-quality education in Beijing. It may cause many people who find it difficult to find a job in Beijing to flock to Beijing just for their children to go to school, and then move here first. It may cause a big urban slum phenomenon. College entrance examination immigrants are not uncommon now. Even in foreign countries, going to school still has a problem of residence and campus. You can't go anywhere you want. Beijing News: In the process of implementing free compulsory education, what experiences can countries around the world learn from?
Tang Min: One is that we still have to make a good plan. Because in Africa, some countries suddenly implement free compulsory education, which will lead to the rapid expansion of schools and no desks and chairs. We now have primary schools in some places, and no matter how free you are, you won't increase many students; But junior high school is different, especially in rural areas in poor areas. Many students didn't attend junior high school or dropped out of school. Once it is free, the number of students may increase dramatically. For example, Taiwan Province Province began to implement free compulsory education in the mid-1960s. At that time, it took two years to expand schools and make a lot of investment before opening free education, so it needed a gradual process. The second is who will pay for free compulsory education. Free compulsory education will save money for individual citizens, but someone has to pay the bill. It may not be completely reasonable if it is completely paid by the township, county or provincial finance, because the more, the more difficult it is for poor areas. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the central government's transfer payment to poor areas. For coastal areas, it can be mainly solved by provincial finance. If the central government has insufficient funds, we would rather put down some other investment cards, such as building fewer expressways and squares, and starting with free compulsory education. What can be done during the Meiji Restoration in Japan can't be done today?
Beijing News: What role does the state play here?
Tang Min: Of course, the state is a major player. In fact, at present, 90% of the funds for compulsory education in China are allocated by the state, not by ordinary people themselves. Personal burden is about 10%. The country has made great efforts. We mean, since we spent 90%, why bother with that 10%? It is not difficult to take one more step, and you can complete your merits. Such a big country has saved more than 40 billion anyway. Free compulsory education has become an international trend and practice. We are now implementing free compulsory education only to conform to international practice.
Beijing News: What is the relationship between local and central authorities in the process of promoting free compulsory education?
Tang Min: Rich areas should mainly solve their own problems. In fact, the governments in rich areas themselves clearly see the importance of developing education for their own development. If the children of local people want to excel in the competition, they must work hard on education. The more families in economically developed areas know the importance of education, so the governments in rich areas are willing to pay for the development of compulsory education. The difficulty lies in poor areas. So this definitely requires a central transfer payment. A very important principle of financial distribution is fairness. Why do ordinary people pay taxes? The purpose of paying taxes is to make the financial distribution more fair, so that the vulnerable groups and poverty-stricken areas can get enough care.
Beijing News: In other words, in the process of promoting free compulsory education, we should give full play to the enthusiasm of the central and local governments.
Tang Min: Yes. Especially in poor areas, should be mainly helped by the central government.
Beijing News: What is the development of the conditions for comprehensively promoting free compulsory education in our country?
Tang Min: It depends on where you put the compulsory education. If you put it in the same important position as national defense and diplomacy, you will have money to invest; If you put it back, there is no money to put it in. Countries whose national strength is much worse than ours can do it. Why can't we do it? Fundamentally speaking, large-scale education in poor countries is not a problem of insufficient national strength and difficulty. It is still a question of the outlook on political achievements, the order of our financial investment and public investment, or whether compulsory education is ahead or behind the expressway construction.
Beijing News: What preparations should each family make for this?
Tang Min: First of all, we should support and understand the significance of the country's implementation of free compulsory education. Because the construction of this expressway is a bit slow, the cost of gasoline has increased a little, and the city has lost a few green spaces. Don't complain Countries with gasoline prices can also subsidize. But the state should use this money to subsidize compulsory education. The second is that besides the state, our society and enterprises should also play a role. Education investment is a bottomless pit, and state investment can only solve the most basic problems. Finally, the education reform itself. The current education is a typical exam-oriented education for the college entrance examination. If this has always been the case, even if compulsory education is completely free, can we train talents who can participate in international competition in ten, ten or twenty years? What kind of people should we train our children to be? Should we train creative, competitive, adaptable and knowledgeable talents, or should we train bookworms who study hard and can only take exams? What is important in international competition is talent competition, talent quality competition and talent quality competition. So it's time for us to rethink our education system. In this regard, rich areas should make contributions, make achievements and stay ahead of the whole country.
Beijing News: In other words, besides paying attention to free compulsory education, we should also pay attention to its quality.
Tang Min: Yes. Of course, this problem is also a short-term and long-term problem. In the short term, compulsory education should be made free, and it must be done immediately; This is a premise. Of course, it doesn't mean that everything will be fine after this. We have more important things to do.
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