With the rapid development of China's urban economy, the gap between urban and rural education is growing. Especially English education in primary schools. How to improve the level of rural primary education and narrow the gap between urban and rural education has become a hot issue in today's society. This paper investigates the present situation of primary school English education in Nanjing and its surrounding areas, analyzes the reasons for the gap between urban and rural primary school English education according to the collected data and materials, and puts forward some relevant countermeasures for these problems.
Keywords: analysis of the causes of the education gap survey and countermeasures
First of all, the questions raised
In recent years, the gap between urban and rural education has attracted more and more scholars' attention. Yu Huadong pointed out that the gap between urban and rural education is growing, and the gap between urban and rural teachers is crucial. Wu Chunxia studied the evolution of the urban-rural gap of compulsory education funds in China from 1993 to 2005, and found that the urban-rural gap ratio of compulsory education funds per student experienced an evolution process of first increasing and then decreasing, then increasing and then decreasing. Zhang Yulin inspected the distribution of urban and rural educational resources and the gap between urban and rural education under the hierarchical school-running system.
(China Statistical Yearbook 2007, in the chart 1: 1= total number of rural primary and secondary school students, 2= total number of urban primary and secondary school students, 3= total number of county and town primary and secondary school students).
As can be seen from the figure 1, the number of rural primary and secondary school students in China accounts for nearly half of the total number of students in the country. From the perspective of the proportion of students, we can draw the following conclusions: the level of rural education is related to the overall level of national education.
However, on the basis of extensive social investigation and data collection, we must admit that there is still a big gap between rural education and urban education in China. An education official of UNESCO once said in Beijing: "China is regarded as one of the most successful countries in providing education for its people." However, when talking about rural education in China, he also admitted that experts "saw another reality". The gap between urban and rural education can not be ignored.
Second, the importance of narrowing the gap between urban and rural primary English education
By consulting some documents, it is found that the gap between urban and rural education in China exists in all disciplines, but the gap is particularly obvious in the subject of primary school English. Due to the lack of funds, poor school conditions and low salaries of teachers in rural areas, it is difficult to retain excellent teachers, which directly leads to a shortage of teachers. Moreover, due to the lack of English learning atmosphere and insufficient understanding of the importance of English in rural areas, rural areas obviously lag behind cities in English enlightenment education. By combing the data of senior high school entrance examination over the years, it is found that after graduating from junior high school every year, other subjects of rural students and urban students are almost the same, and the biggest difference is English subjects. We believe that enlightenment education is very important for personal development, especially English learning, which requires correct pronunciation and grammar training from an early age in order to lay a solid foundation for future development. At the same time, through extensive investigation and study, it is found that the uneven English level of college students is also related to the different quality of primary education received by individuals. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to investigate and analyze the gap between urban and rural primary English education.
Third, the survey data and information collation
Based on the gap between urban and rural areas in primary school English education, this paper investigates the English teachers and hardware facilities in many primary schools in Nanjing and its surrounding areas. Among them, the typical representatives of urban primary schools are beijing east road Primary School in Nanjing and the primary school affiliated to Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing. Typical representatives of county and suburban primary schools are experimental primary school in Lai 'an County, Anhui Province and Xianlin Primary School affiliated to Nanjing Southern Normal University. The typical representative of rural primary schools is the Great Wall Primary School in Xinji Town, Dachang District, Nanjing. We randomly selected 100 students from the third and sixth grades of each primary school, and conducted a simple questionnaire survey and test on their English learning.
Figures 2 and 3 are statistics on the correct rates of five English objective questions in cities, counties and villages. First of all, from the analysis of the correct rate, urban primary schools are far ahead, followed by counties and towns, and rural areas are relatively backward. From the comparison of the stability rate, the correct rate of county and town primary schools fluctuates the most. It can be seen that the regional gap in education is still quite prominent.
(In Chart 4: 1= Pre-kindergarten 2= Kindergarten 3= Grade 1 4= Grade 2 or After Grade 2)
As can be seen from Table 4, primary school students in urban areas start learning English the earliest, while most primary schools in rural areas start learning English after grade two or after.
While distributing questionnaires to primary school students, we also conducted separate interviews with teachers in various schools. From interviews with teachers, we know that English courses in primary schools are basically like this, and they are basically kept at 3-4 classes a week. In addition, all the primary schools surveyed use multimedia-assisted classroom teaching, which shows that high technology has gradually entered the primary school classroom, the teaching facilities in primary schools have been greatly improved, and the gap between urban and rural areas is not obvious. When asked about the education background and age of English teachers, we found that the gap between the primary schools surveyed was not obvious. English teachers have an education background from junior college to undergraduate (among them, young teachers are mainly undergraduate), and most of them are in their twenties, which is relatively young. In addition, municipal key primary schools and non-urban primary schools regularly train their English teachers, and most of them are arranged in their own districts. Among them, beijing east road Primary School and the primary school affiliated to Heather Normal University also have special training for English teachers in our school.
Through interviews with teachers, we also found that several urban primary schools we investigated have weekly oral English classes since grade one and formal English courses since grade three. Primary schools in counties, towns, suburbs and rural areas have offered English courses since the third grade.
Fourthly, analyze the reasons for the differences.
Through the questionnaire survey of primary school students and interviews with their English teachers, we find that the gap between urban and rural English teachers and school teaching facilities in Nanjing and its surrounding areas is not obvious. The reasons for the gap between urban and rural primary school students' English level can be analyzed from the following aspects.
(A) differences in parents' quality and family education concept
Family education is closely related to children's personality, personality, intelligence and sense of achievement in learning. Generally speaking, the more parents participate in their children's educational activities and give them more guidance and encouragement, the healthier their children's development will be. Without the cooperation of families, the educational function of schools will be greatly weakened. Because of their special living conditions and lifestyles, non-urban residents are different from urban residents in educational concepts, attitudes and behaviors, and there are some problems to varying degrees. On the one hand, these problems are related to parents' cultural quality and social class, on the other hand, they are related to their group characteristics, economic conditions and living environment. First of all, the way parents educate their children is backward. This is reflected in the requirements of parents for their children. Some parents may only ask their children to complete the school's academic level, while parents in most cities have high requirements for their children because of their high level. Their requirements for their children are probably not just to finish their studies, but to finish their studies well and prepare for entering key junior high schools in the future. In addition, parents and children lack communication. Because parents' own cultural level is not high, it is difficult to provide a lot of help to their children in their studies and help them solve their learning problems. For example, some parents are very concerned about their children's test scores, but they can't give specific guidance in action. Secondly, parents seldom buy extracurricular books for their children because of their lack of economic strength.
Geographical differences lead to unequal educational opportunities for urban and rural students.
Because of their geographical advantages and living environment close to urban areas, urban primary school students have far more opportunities to receive extracurricular English education (such as extracurricular remedial classes) than non-urban primary school students, and this opportunity to receive extracurricular English education can undoubtedly greatly improve students' English level, which is also one of the important reasons for the gap between urban and rural primary school students' English level.
Differences in school curricula
From interviews with teachers, it can be seen that beijing east road Key Primary School and the primary school affiliated to Heather Normal University have offered oral English courses since the first grade, which can stimulate students' interest and enthusiasm in learning English to a certain extent, and can also effectively improve students' daily English communication ability, while other primary schools only give students the opportunity to contact English in class from the third grade. This difference is undoubtedly a major reason for the level gap of primary school students.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) and the countermeasures to narrow the gap
The gap between urban and rural enlightenment education has gradually become a hot issue of current social concern. The development of a country depends on the overall improvement of national quality. Therefore, narrowing the gap between urban and rural education and improving the overall quality of education are responsible for the development of the whole society.
(A) to strengthen the construction of primary school teachers in urban and rural areas
The administrative department of education should strengthen the daily management of urban and rural primary schools, including the management of school-running behavior of school-running, as well as the construction and management of primary school English teachers. It is necessary to implement the teacher qualification system according to law, fully implement the teacher appointment system, activate the employment mechanism, broaden the source of English teachers in primary schools, and actively encourage qualified teachers to teach in schools by using some preferential policies.
(2) Establish parent classes to improve the quality of parents.
In view of the important role played by parents in their children's growth, it is necessary for schools to keep close contact with parents, set up regular classes for parents, conduct reasonable education and publicity for parents, make parents realize the importance of English education in primary schools for their children's future English learning, clarify their responsibilities, and ensure that parents play an active role in their children's growth and learning.
(C) schools to improve English courses
In view of the fact that English courses in some schools can't meet students' requirements for English learning, it is necessary to standardize English courses in all schools so that English courses in urban and rural primary schools tend to be consistent. In addition, because rural schools are far away from urban tutoring, some classes with difficulties in English learning can be set up in schools to help those students with poor foundation keep up with the daily progress of English learning; You can also set up some extra-curricular English learning remedial classes to give extra guidance to those students who have spare capacity for learning.
Objectively speaking, the gap between urban and rural areas is absolute, and achieving balance is relative. However, narrowing the gap between urban and rural education and promoting the balanced development of education is the development concept of education, the eternal task of education development, and the policy and direction we should always follow.
References:
Yu Huadong. Viewing the education gap between urban and rural areas from the situation of rural teachers [J]. Journal of Hubei University for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2008, (04).
[2] Wu Chunxia. Research on the Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Urban-Rural Compulsory Education Funding Gap in China [J]. Education Research, 2007, (12).
[3] Zhang Yulin. The distribution of educational resources and the gap between urban and rural education under the hierarchical school-running system —— A political economy discussion on the equality of educational opportunities [J]. China Rural Survey, 2003, (1): 10-22.
Investigation and analysis on the gap between urban and rural areas of English education in primary schools in Nanjing and its surrounding areas