Since the reform and opening up, China has achieved the historic task of "two basics" (basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy among young people) under the conditions of large population and low level of productivity development, which should be said to be a great achievement. However, compulsory education, especially in rural areas, still faces many difficulties. The burden of compulsory education for farmers is heavy, and the gap between urban and rural education is still widening. The ability of education to serve rural economic and social development needs to be enhanced. In order to understand the situation of rural compulsory education in our province, recently, with the assistance of Yuhang District Agricultural Transfer Team, Jinhua Agricultural Transfer Team and Longquan Agricultural Transfer Team, we conducted an investigation on rural compulsory education and existing problems in our province. The survey results show that rural compulsory education in our province has made great progress in standardizing fees, but there is still a long way to go to eliminate illegal fees. Farmers, especially those in underdeveloped areas, have a heavy burden of compulsory education; The treatment of rural primary and secondary school teachers is still relatively low; There are still many difficulties in rural compulsory education in quite a few areas.
I. Basic information of the investigation
This survey selected Yuhang District, Wucheng District, Jindong District (hereinafter referred to as Jinhua City) and Longquan City of Jinhua City as the representatives of developed, moderately developed and underdeveloped areas in our province. In the form of questionnaire survey, we investigated 100 rural students' parents and 10 township primary and secondary school principals from all over the country, and investigated 300 rural students' parents and 30 township primary and secondary school principals in the whole province. Among them, the parents of middle school students and primary school students are equally divided into middle school principals and primary school principals. The parents of Yuhang and Longquan are in five townships, the parents of Jinhua are in 10 township in two districts, and the principals of primary and secondary schools are in more than five townships.
The "countryside" defined in this survey refers to all towns and villages outside the county, which is different from the "countryside" in rural primary and secondary schools in Zhejiang Price Fee (2003) No.21issued by Zhejiang Price Bureau and other departments. That is to say, in this survey, the countryside refers to all towns and villages outside the urban areas where the municipal governments or district governments of the three places are located. The time range of the survey is the spring of 2003.
The average number of students in 15 middle schools in this survey is 727, which is 2 1.7% less than the provincial average of 928. There are 677 full-time teachers (including substitute teachers 18), with an average of 44 in each school, and the teacher-student ratio is 1: 16.7. Among the 15 primary schools surveyed, Jinhua has 13 primary schools in villages and towns, and 2 are small villages, with an average of 465 students, 2 1. 1% more than the average of 384 in the whole province. There are 452 full-time teachers (including 2 substitute teachers), with an average of 30 in each primary school.
Second, the status quo of rural compulsory education fees
(a) rural primary and secondary school fees shall be stipulated by the relevant provincial departments.
At the beginning of this year, the Provincial Price Bureau, the Education Department and the Finance Department jointly issued the document Zhejiang Jiafei (2003)2 1, which stipulated the charging standard of compulsory education in our province: starting from the spring of 2003, the standard of miscellaneous fees for primary and secondary schools in urban areas (including township junior high schools and township central primary schools) is: no more than 80 yuan per student in primary schools and no more than16544 per student in junior high schools. Rural primary and secondary schools (referring to village primary schools, complete primary schools, central primary schools and secondary schools in key poverty-stricken towns in the whole province 100) have the standard of miscellaneous fees: 20-45 yuan for primary schools and 40-70 yuan for junior high schools. Escrow fees (textbook fees and operation fees for rural primary and secondary schools, audio-visual materials fees, lecture fees and class meeting fees for urban primary and secondary schools) are subject to quota control, and the specific standards are determined by the relevant departments of cities and counties (cities, districts) before the start of each semester. Tuition is 300 for primary school and 600 for junior high school.
(2) Rural junior high school students actually pay 657.9 yuan per semester.
According to the survey in the three places, the per capita contribution of rural junior middle school students is 657.9 yuan (excluding meals, the same below), accounting for 15.5% of the per capita net income of the surveyed families, and Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 806.8 yuan, 659.0 yuan and 5 12.0 yuan respectively. In which 1 13.5 yuan (including some school information technology courses) accounts for 17.3%, and Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 99.3 yuan, 128.0 yuan and 13. 1 yuan respectively. The custody fee is 247.6 yuan, accounting for 37.6%, and Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 227.2 yuan, 259.0 yuan and 256.5 yuan respectively; The average borrowing fee for students (9 in total) is 954.4 yuan, and that for Yuhang and Longquan is115 yuan and 633.3 yuan respectively. Jinhua didn't borrow students. The average accommodation fee for students (64 students in total) is 158.7 yuan, and that for Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan is 266.0 yuan, 165, 438+08.0 yuan and 92. 1 yuan respectively. In Yuhang District, some school dormitories are managed as apartments. With the approval of the relevant departments of the district, the accommodation fee may appropriately exceed the district standard.
(3) Rural primary school students actually pay 339.0 yuan per semester.
A survey of 150 parents of primary school students shows that the average fee paid by each student in rural primary schools is 339.0 yuan, which is about half that of junior middle school students, accounting for 8.2% of the per capita net income of the families surveyed, and Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 379.65438 yuan +0 yuan, 336.65438 yuan +0 yuan and 299.0 yuan respectively. Among them, the incidental expenses are 62.9 yuan (including some school information technology courses), accounting for 18.6%, and Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 50.6 yuan, 69. 1 yuan and 69.0 yuan respectively; Custody fee 158.6 yuan, accounting for 46.8%, Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan were 150.4 yuan, 127.5 yuan and 197.9 yuan respectively; There is one student in each of the three places. The borrowing fees for Yuhang, Jinhua and Longquan are 400 yuan, 300 yuan and 60 yuan respectively, with an average of 253.3 yuan; Student accommodation fee (2 persons in total, Longquan) is 60 yuan per person.
(four) the basic evaluation of the status quo of fees.
From the above survey results, the payment standards of rural primary and secondary schools in the three places have not exceeded the provincial standards except the high borrowing fee of Yuhang Primary School (see the table below), and all schools can strictly abide by the local charging standards. In the field survey, there is basically no school exceeding the standard, and most parents of students also affirmed the charging work. According to the survey, 52% of parents think that the fees of primary and secondary schools in rural areas are more standardized than one or two years ago, and only 1.3% hold a negative opinion; 2 1% and 43% parents think that the cost burden of primary and secondary school students has been "obviously reduced" and "somewhat reduced (but not obviously)" after the rural tax and fee reform. This shows that after rectification, the rural compulsory education fees in our province are standardized and healthy, and the mainstream is good.
Standard charging unit for junior middle schools and primary schools in townships of the three places: RMB.
Yuhang Jinhua Longquan
Small tuition and fees in rural areas 45 45 45
Custody fee 120 100 176
Borrowing cost 400 200
Accommodation 100 80 60
The firewood fee is 80
Urban miscellaneous fees 80 80 70
Escrow fee is 200 1-2 1203-6 150 2 10.
Borrowing cost 400 300
Accommodation 100 100 60
The firewood fee is 60, and the town level 4-6 is 80.
Rural junior high school fees 1 10 70 100 Longnan Township 70
Escrow fee 250 180 260 Longnan Township 226
Borrowing cost 800 600 Longnan Township 400
stay
Chai huo Fei Zhen 80 Fei Zhen 60
Urban miscellaneous fees11011010
Escrow fee 250 260 260
Borrowing cost 800 600
Accommodation 200 120 Township 75
Chai huo Fei Zhen 80 Fei Zhen 60
Note: Longnan Township is one of the key poverty alleviation towns in the whole province 100. Township middle schools and township central primary schools belong to the scope of urban fees.
Third, teachers' salaries and benefits.
At present, the salaries of teachers in our province are paid by the county (city, district) finance on a monthly basis. According to the survey of 30 rural primary and secondary schools, all teachers can get their salaries on time without default. However, the content of county-level unified wages varies greatly due to the different levels of economic development in different places. Some are only national wages, while others include assessment rewards, post allowances and post subsidies. For example, teachers' meals, food subsidies, post subsidies, price subsidies, medical insurance and provident fund in Yuhang District are all borne by the district finance. Longquan city also solved the expenses of teachers' medical insurance and provident fund last year, but Jinhua rural teachers' attendance award, year-end award, medical insurance and provident fund have not been solved. In the second half of this year, the provident fund finance will subsidize 800 yuan for every teacher every year, and the pension and unemployment insurance for contract teachers have not been arranged. In order to improve the welfare treatment of teachers, some schools raise some funds by themselves, and give teachers allowances ranging from tens of yuan to one or two hundred yuan every month in the name of assessment rewards and attendance rewards.
According to the survey data, the average annual income (all salary and welfare income) of teachers in the three places is 17528 yuan, of which junior high school teachers are180,31yuan, and primary school teachers are 17025 yuan, with little difference. Comparing the three places, Yuhang teachers have the highest salary, with an average of 2 1.455 yuan, which is 22.4% higher than the average, including 22,294 yuan in junior high school and 206 1.6 yuan in primary school. Jinhua followed closely, with an average of 16980 yuan, slightly lower than the average level of the three places, of which junior high school and primary school were 17400 yuan and 16560 yuan respectively; Longquan is the lowest, with an average of 14 150 yuan, which is 19.3% lower than the average of the three places and 34.0% lower than Yuhang, of which junior high school and primary school are14,400 yuan and13,900 yuan respectively. According to analysis, the income gap between different regions is mainly caused by various subsidies, allowances and bonuses other than national wages. According to the principals' own estimates, the income of teachers is about 30% lower than that of local civil servants.
In some underdeveloped areas, the life of teachers is still relatively poor. During the investigation in Longquan, we learned that a couple had been teaching for more than 20 years. After working for more than 20 years, they have accumulated more than 40,000 yuan in savings. Their daughter was admitted to the university this year, and she had to take out a loan after studying in the university for four years. In some underdeveloped areas, in addition to the salaries paid by the government, all kinds of bonuses and benefits for the whole year add up to several hundred yuan. Some young teachers who don't work long earn only about 10,000 yuan a year, but when they get a college diploma by correspondence, all kinds of expenses cost15,000 yuan, with an average of 5,000 yuan a year, which is almost half of the annual income. If you want to get another undergraduate diploma, it will take another three years, 15000 yuan. Some local education bureaus can give some subsidies to teachers after they get their diplomas, some are school subsidies, and some are teachers who bear it themselves because of financial difficulties.
Four, the main problems existing in the current rural primary and secondary education
Judging from this survey, there are still many problems to be solved in rural primary and secondary education, mainly including:
(A) the cost of education is still a heavy burden on farmers.
In the survey, farmers generally reported that in recent years, through radio, television, newspapers and other news media, they felt the concern of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, party committees and governments at all levels and attached importance to rural compulsory education. However, due to various reasons, in recent years, their expenditure on children's education is still increasing, and their burden is getting heavier and heavier. According to the survey, the average cost of a primary school student is around 500 yuan (including the lunch fee paid by some students), and that of junior high school students is nearly 1000 yuan, even higher if they live on campus. It is a heavy burden for farmers in general economic areas and farmers in underdeveloped areas, especially for two-child families (two-child families in underdeveloped areas are often higher than those in developed areas). Therefore, in our survey, 44% of families feel that their children's school fees are very heavy or heavy, and 7.4% of parents report that they can't pay tuition and fees in full and on time. Among them, Jinhua and Longquan failed to pay the fees on time, reaching 10% and 1 1% respectively. In order to raise tuition and miscellaneous fees, these families have to borrow money from relatives and friends. Some schools agree to postpone payment or pay in installments, but teachers should personally guarantee it. By the end of the semester, if the parents can't pay in full, the teacher will bear the responsibility. Some parents really can't afford the money, so they use eggs, grain, vegetables and other agricultural and sideline products to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees to the teachers. According to the survey, there was a student suicide in a place we investigated last year. From the survey data of 2700 farmers in our province, it also shows that the educational burden of farmers is not light and the growth is too fast. In 200 1 year, the per capita expenditure on tuition and miscellaneous fees of rural residents in our province was 269.95438+0 yuan, an increase of 14. 1% over the previous year, and increased to 337.42 yuan in 2002, an increase of 25% over the previous year.
There are many reasons why farmers' educational burden is still heavy, among which the following two problems are very prominent.
1, there are more charges outside the charging range in the province. The survey results show that, except for miscellaneous fees, custody fees, borrowing fees and accommodation fees, primary school students have to pay11.6 yuan per semester on average, accounting for 32.9% of the total expenses; Junior high school students pay other expenses 175.4 yuan per semester on average, accounting for 26.7% of the total expenses. In addition to these four expenses, insurance, school uniforms and holiday training fees (weekend and summer training classes) account for the vast majority. In some places, with the consent of the price, education, finance and other departments, 60-80 yuan firewood fee is charged to students who live on campus. In addition, some schools also charge various fees, such as drinking water fee, make-up fee for excellent students, make-up fee for poor students, examination paper fee, information fee, audio-visual education fee, evening self-study fee (or evening self-study teacher sitting fee), parking fee, computer training fee, sponsorship fee for the establishment of the school on June 1, and so on. Individual schools also print their own school newsletters, asking students to buy them on the grounds of promoting the school and expanding their influence.
From the "legality" of school uniforms and insurance fees, from the province to the county (city, district), the principle of voluntariness is emphasized. However, considering the school's capacity, easy management and students' ability to rescue in unexpected situations, in practice, many schools mobilize students to buy, giving parents a sense of compulsion. As a result, one-third of parents felt helpless or embarrassed not to buy it. It should be said that holiday training does not conform to the spirit of the provincial documents, but in the three places we investigated, it is more common in two of them. The cost of weekend training varies from 50 yuan to 200 yuan due to the number of courses. Training courses also include music, physical education and art, but most of them are Chinese, mathematics, foreign languages and nature. Two-week training in summer vacation is available in three places, and some places are more common. These holiday trainings have been recognized by relevant local departments. In order not to conflict with the spirit of the provincial documents, some social education institutions come forward or entrust them to organize and charge fees, and some have special holiday training centers, but in fact it is their own teachers who teach students. Some students don't want to attend, but they are afraid that the teacher will teach them something they don't talk about in class during the holiday training, so there are not a few students who don't want to attend.
In addition to the above school uniforms, insurance, holiday training and other expenses, other expenses are obviously arbitrary charges. Among them, the cost of drinking water has been included in the miscellaneous fees, even if the school provides bottled water, it can not be charged separately, but it is common for individual cities (districts) to charge drinking water.
2. The charging standard set by the local government is out of step with the local economic development level. Considering that there is a big gap in the level of economic development among counties (including county-level cities and districts) in our province, the departments of price, education, finance and so on in the province have only stipulated the maximum amount or range of some fees, and delegated the right to formulate fees to the county (county-level cities and districts) level, and all localities will determine fees according to their own economic development and people's income level. But in fact, all localities have not implemented this requirement well, and basically adopted the highest standard fees stipulated by the province, especially the miscellaneous fees and escrow fees that everyone has to pay, which does not reflect the gradient corresponding to the level of economic development (see the above table).
Taking Yuhang District and Longquan City as examples, according to the survey of farmers, the per capita net income of Longquan farmers in 2002 was only 47% of Yuhang; The parents surveyed estimated that the annual per capita net income of farmers in Yuhang was 69 14.5 yuan, while that in Longquan was 2,558.8 yuan, which was only 37% of that in Yuhang. However, the rural small tuition and fees and escrow fees (hereinafter referred to as "two fees") total 22 1 yuan, Yuhang is 165 yuan, and Longquan is 33.9% higher than Yuhang. The borrowing fees and accommodation fees in Yuhang are higher than those in Longquan, but because the proportion of borrowing students in boarders is not high (especially borrowing students), it has little impact on the masses. Therefore, the cost burden of primary school students in Longquan accounts for 1 1.8% of the per capita annual income of farmers, and junior high school students account for 19.9%. Although the absolute expenses of students in Yuhang primary school and junior high school are higher than those in Longquan by 80 yuan and 295 yuan respectively, they only account for 5.6% and 1 1.6% of the per capita annual income of farmers, which is significantly lower than the burden level of Longquan. This shows that if the local economic development level is not considered, farmers will still feel a heavy burden even if they charge according to the standard in some places.
In addition, some schools have not done well enough in collecting firewood fees and reducing tuition and miscellaneous fees. For example, most parents think that the highest cost of firewood for a semester is around 30 yuan, but the standards charged by schools are mostly around 60 yuan. For another example, it is difficult to reduce the tuition and miscellaneous fees of poor students. According to the parents' own declaration, only 2.3% of the students have enjoyed the relief, which is far lower than the requirement of 10% stipulated in the provincial "one bureau, two halls" document.
Faced with the heavy educational burden, farmers (especially in underdeveloped areas) want to reduce the educational burden of their children, especially compulsory education, which should be worthy of the name. Families with financial difficulties should voluntarily buy school uniforms and insurance, and schools should not require them to wear school uniforms in group activities such as flag-raising ceremonies, otherwise it will be a blow to the self-esteem of children from poor families who can't afford school newspapers.
(B) the shortage of school funds, running schools in debt is common.
At present, rural primary and secondary schools, especially those in underdeveloped areas, are seriously short of funds. Even in many developed areas, funds are not plentiful. The operation of rural compulsory education schools mainly depends on miscellaneous fees. Although some local education bureaus or town governments allocate a small amount of public funds per student to schools as a supplement (generally between 20-50 yuan per student per year), it cannot fundamentally solve the contradiction of the shortage of education funds. So now many principals of rural primary and secondary schools focus on asking for money, looking for education authorities and township leaders. There is really no way to charge students. For the unreasonable charges of education, all walks of life often attribute it to the school and blame it on the principal. In fact, to a certain extent, the headmaster is "sharing worries for the government and suffering for the government".
Due to the shortage of school funds, many schools are still in debt to varying degrees. Among the 15 middle schools surveyed, 1 1 schools are in debt, with total liabilities exceeding 8.22 million yuan, with an average of nearly 750,000 yuan per school. Among them, there are 2 Yuhangs, with an average debt of 6.5438+0.9 million yuan each; 5 Jinhua, each with an average debt of 820,000 yuan; Longquan 4, each with an average debt of 930,000. Among the 15 primary schools surveyed, 6 are in debt, with a total debt of 1.43 million yuan, with an average of nearly 240,000 yuan per school. Among them, Yuhang 1 Liabilities 1.8 million yuan; Jinhua 3, each with an average debt of 3 1 10,000 yuan; Longquan 2, each with an average debt of 6.5438+0.5 million yuan. Part of the debt is due to the construction of teaching buildings, comprehensive buildings, canteens, dormitories, playgrounds and so on. Some are in arrears with the fees for books and materials such as Xinhua Bookstore, printing house and reference room of Education Bureau; Some owe money by decorating the campus, buying equipment and books because they want to create green schools and strengthen towns through education; Some people are in debt for providing information technology courses, buying computers and building campus networks; There are also arrears of office expenses and teachers' bonuses. Jinhua No.1 Middle School even owed 600,000 personal loans.
Or because of the shortage of funds, the educational facilities of many schools have not been improved, and the school buildings have not been repaired and increased in time. In the survey, 5 1% parents think that the educational facilities and equipment of the school are very general or not very good; Only 8 out of 30 schools have all standard playgrounds. Although great achievements have been made in the renovation of dilapidated buildings in primary and secondary schools in recent years, there is still a lack of teaching and living rooms in many rural areas. Longquan City Education Bureau said that compared with the standard (minimum standard) for the construction of three types of schools in our province, the city still lacks 1 1 10,000 square meters of school land and 86,000 square meters of school buildings. In Jinhua, a teacher joked that the accommodation conditions of his students were not as good as cattle. Some principals know that their teachers' dormitory is dangerous but dare not report it, otherwise they will seal it up and let the teachers have no place to live.
(3) There is a great loss of excellent teachers, and the quality of teachers needs to be improved.
According to reports from all over the country, the phenomenon of the loss of outstanding teachers in rural primary and secondary schools is more common at present. According to the statistics of 30 primary and secondary schools surveyed, in the past three years, a total of 2 1 teachers (including junior high school 19 and primary school 2) left the teaching staff to engage in other jobs because of low pay, and 45 teachers went to the city (town) schools with better pay. At present, some private schools often go to township primary and secondary schools to dig talents, and the annual salary can often rise by about 1 time, and the workload is still relatively small. For example, in Yuhang Tangqi No.1 Middle School, four teachers left this year, and the annual salary given by private schools is 50,000 yuan (at present, their teachers' annual salary is only 25,000-30,000 yuan). In their school, an English teacher teaches three classes, while in private schools, only one class is taught. Some local private schools don't even need files, so they can re-file the recruited teachers; Some places also stipulate that teachers' files going to private schools can be placed in the Education Bureau. In some places, the education authorities should evaluate teachers every year, and transfer some excellent teachers to urban schools or other schools close to cities with good education quality and high pay. Most of these teachers are county (city, district) level backbone teachers or teaching rookies, and they are the pillars of the school teaching staff. Schools often spend a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to train them. Their departure not only caused a certain degree of confusion in the school education plan, but also affected the quality of education to a certain extent, which was a blow to the school's confidence in training teachers. Some principals said that teachers should be trained as "semi-finished products" in the future, that is, they should not be reported as "backbone teachers" or "teaching rookies" after training to avoid being poached, but this will dampen the enthusiasm of teachers.
The loss of backbone teachers leads to the decline of rural education quality and the loss of rural students. In some places, the problem of student drain in rural areas has become more serious, and some excellent students or students with richer families have flowed to better schools in urban areas. For example, Xialing Town Central Primary School in Jindong District of Jinhua City has 142 graduates this year, of which only 75 have entered the local junior high school. There are 54 people in a class, and only 9 people are promoted to the local junior high school; More than 90 students from Yuhang Tangqi No.3 Middle School went to other schools last year, and more than 50 students went abroad this year. More than 70 students went out to study in Yuhang Chaoshan Central Primary School, accounting for 10% of the students.
At the same time of the loss of excellent teachers, it is difficult to attract highly educated and high-level teachers to work in rural primary and secondary schools because of relatively poor conditions and hard life, and the problem of low quality of teachers is also prominent. According to the feedback from parents, 45% of parents think that the conditions of teachers in the school are average or not very satisfactory, and some parents think that teachers are not responsible and professional enough. The problems reflected are: some teachers' educational time has shrunk, which often makes students learn by themselves; Some teachers don't approve students' homework, and some don't even approve test papers. They only give points according to their usual impressions. Some teachers punish students easily. From the perspective of teachers' education, the proportion of junior middle school teachers with bachelor degree or above in Jinhua and Longquan is 13.9% and 22.5%, respectively, which is lower than the provincial average of 30.3%, 16.4 percentage points and 1.9 percentage points respectively. The proportion of primary school teachers with college education in the two places is 23. 1% and 28.4%, respectively, which is lower than the provincial average of 34.4% 1 1.3 percentage points and 6 percentage points respectively.
Subscribing to newspapers and periodicals is a heavy task.
In our survey, rural primary and secondary school principals generally have great opinions on newspaper subscriptions. We investigated the newspaper subscriptions of 9 middle schools and 9 primary schools in 2003. The average newspaper expenditure of each middle school reached 13459 yuan, accounting for 14. 1% of the total miscellaneous income, of which 7273 yuan was involuntary subscription, accounting for 54.0% of the newspaper expenditure; The average expenditure of each primary school newspaper is 6099 yuan, accounting for 19.4% of miscellaneous income, of which 1974 yuan is involuntary subscription, accounting for 32.4%. Involuntary subscriptions are mostly due to the tasks of superiors or the greetings of leaders of relevant departments. Subscribe to the central, provincial, municipal and county party newspapers (the more party newspapers, the lower the number), evening newspapers at all levels, Qiushi, Staff, Qianjiang Lian Chao, Bimonthly, Pioneer of the Times, Zhejiang Propaganda and so on. In the course of our investigation, an insider who once served as the principal of a middle school also reported that in order to complete the task of subscribing to newspapers and periodicals, a local propaganda department leader personally came to the school and asked him to subscribe to newspapers and periodicals. A little reluctant to meet him. He said that you always treat me when I come to dinner. If you didn't subscribe, wouldn't it be better for you to treat me more times? The implication is that it is better to take the initiative to subscribe.
(e) Inadequate implementation of the education charge card system.
In order to effectively reduce the educational burden on farmers and prevent arbitrary charges in education, in recent years, the education department has introduced an education charge publicity system and a charge card system, that is, education charges should not only be publicized, but every parent must also have a charge card. But in fact, the implementation of this system is not ideal. Among the 300 parents in primary and secondary schools surveyed, 66.8% reported that the school did not implement the charge card system. Some schools think that there is no need to engage in charge cards after the implementation of charge publicity; Others, on the grounds that students' custody rights are easy to be lost, the school "takes care of them" after the parents sign. There is no charge card, which is not conducive to parents to supervise the charge in the middle of the semester. The province has strict regulations on the expenses of escrow fees, but many schools also charge utilities and newspaper fees in escrow fees. It is impossible for these schools to give parents a "list of fees" at the end of the term, and it will lose its practical significance if the escrow fee is refunded more or less.
Five, some suggestions on the development of rural compulsory education
The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. 80% of the population in China is in rural areas, and the key to achieve this goal lies in rural areas, with emphasis on rural areas and difficulties. Rural education plays a fundamental, leading and overall role in building a well-off society in an all-round way. Rural compulsory education is the main body of rural education. Developing rural compulsory education, so that the majority of rural school-age children can enjoy the opportunity to receive a good education, is an important aspect of achieving educational equity and social justice, and is also the essential requirement of socialist education, and it is also an important guarantee for improving farmers' quality and realizing a well-off society in an all-round way. It should be said that since the implementation of compulsory education in 1985, the compulsory education in our province has made remarkable achievements. At present, the enrollment rate of six-year primary schools in the province has reached 99.8%, the enrollment rate of primary schools has reached 99.99%, the enrollment rate of primary school graduates has reached 99.98%, and the enrollment rate and consolidation rate of junior high schools have reached 98.36% and 99.79% respectively. As an economically developed province, rural compulsory education has always been in the forefront of the country, but the education level of farmers is still lower than the national average. According to the data of the fifth population census, in 2000, the average length of education of rural population aged 6 and above in our province was 6.62 years, which was lower than the national average of 6.78 years, which was not commensurate with the economic status of our province. The key to realize a well-off society in an all-round way in advance in our province is to improve the quality of farmers. High-quality rural labor resources will greatly promote the modernization of our province, and a large number of rural labor forces that do not meet the requirements of modernization will surely become the burden of building a well-off society in an all-round way. Rural compulsory education is the basic work to improve farmers' quality. At present, the situation of compulsory education in rural areas (such as primary school enrollment rate, primary school graduates enrollment rate, junior high school enrollment rate, consolidation rate, etc.) is gratifying. ), but there are still many difficulties and problems in improving the quality of education, and there is still a lot of work to be done. To this end, we put forward the following suggestions:
(1) Reform the assessment methods of officials and truly attach importance to and develop education.
Because education investment is not as fast as tangible investment, the importance of education is not recognized by everyone, but economic development, social progress and national strength all reflect the importance of education. There are also many international experiences and lessons in this regard. Britain is the birthplace of modern industry and was once an old economic power. Around 1850, a large number of British workers moved from rural areas to cities to work in new factories. But the British government did not build schools for the children of these workers. By the end of19th century, due to the lack of well-educated labor force, Britain's mastery of technologies such as electricity, metallurgy and chemistry was far behind that of Germany, which attached importance to education investment. Therefore, in the 20th century, Britain did not maintain its original great advantages in technology and productivity. On the contrary, Ireland is another example. Ireland is a small European country with an area of 70,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 3.8 million. 1973 When it joined the European Community (the predecessor of the European Union), it was still an agricultural country and the poorest country in Europe. After joining the European Community, the Irish government attached great importance to education and greatly increased its education expenditure. The proportion of education expenditure to GDP is among the best in western countries, which leads to the rapid development of science and technology. In less than 20 years, the poorest country in Europe has become the richest country, which is rare in the world. At present, Ireland has the highest enrollment rate among the population aged 15 to 29 in the world, and it is also one of the countries with the highest per capita education level in the world. Software development has surpassed the traditional United States and India, becoming the world's number one, with an annual export value of 654.38+0.2 billion US dollars. These two examples illustrate the importance of education from both positive and negative aspects.
At present, in China, the importance of education has been recognized by the vast majority of parents, including illiterate people. They scrimped and saved and invested a large part of their family income in their children's education. We know from the survey that some parents in poor mountainous areas set up very simple sheds on the edge of cities (towns) in order to let their children receive a good education, and use the money earned from working or even scavenging for children to go to school in towns. Because they know that education is the best way to solve the gap between the rich and the poor, and it is also an effective way to change the fate of children. However, many of our cadres don't know enough about the importance of education, or they just attach importance to education in words and deeds and do little in action. The United Nations official in charge of education said that China's investment in education accounts for about 2.2% of GDP, which is less than half of the 6% recommended by the United Nations. The government budget only accounts for 53% of education expenditure, and the remaining 47% is paid by families or the private sector. Insufficient government budget is also the main reason for the repeated prohibition of arbitrary charges in education in 10. According to relevant data of the United Nations, China's tangible investment is about 15 times that of education, which is significantly higher than that of other developing countries. Many local governments have money for development and no money for education, which is the deviation of the government's guiding ideology. In fact, many government officials, as parents, also attach great importance to the education of their children. The reason why they pay less attention to culture, education and health than GDP in practical work lies in the assessment system of superiors to subordinates. At present, the assessment of superiors to subordinates often refers to economic growth. ...