1 The development of secondary vocational education faces great opportunities.
1) The number of students has decreased. In recent years, influenced by the adjustment of economic structure and the expansion of colleges and universities, the number of junior high school graduates applying for secondary vocational schools has decreased significantly. At the same time, the number of junior high school graduates has also decreased year by year in recent years. Junior high schools in many areas have merged, and even there is only one middle school in a township, which makes the number of students enrolled and the quality of students in secondary vocational schools decline.
2) Multi-head management with serious overlapping functions. Vocational education management departments are generally divided into education administrative departments, labor and social security departments, industry departments and enterprises. All departments in charge of vocational education implement multi-head management and cross-functional management. Each department holds the "human, financial and power" of the school-running unit and is responsible for making career development plans, as well as the appointment and removal of school leaders, personnel transfer and other major issues. The administrative department in charge of education holds the power of education and teaching management, graduation certificate handling and enrollment plan examination and approval. "Different opinions" on school development and "different views" on school management often make school-running units at a loss, let alone "school autonomy".
3) The labor access system and vocational qualification system have not been well implemented. The Vocational Education Law stipulates: "The implementation of vocational education should be based on the actual needs, adapt to the occupational classification and occupational grade standards formulated by the state, and implement a system of academic certificates, training certificates and vocational qualification certificates." "The state implements a system in which workers receive necessary vocational education before employment or before taking up their posts." However, due to insufficient law enforcement and other reasons, the labor access system has not been well implemented. Some employers, especially private enterprises, continue to recruit low-quality labor without vocational education and training, which not only squeezes the employment opportunities of graduates from vocational schools and training institutions, but also brings great hidden dangers to safety production.
In the implementation of the vocational qualification system, the types of national vocational qualifications are relatively single, mainly applicable to operational posts, with fine division and narrow positioning, and the national vocational qualification system needs to be improved. The integration of vocational qualification standards and academic education requirements is not enough, so it is difficult for vocational school students to obtain corresponding vocational qualification certificates.
4) The teaching quality of secondary vocational schools needs to be improved. At present, the relationship between secondary vocational schools and the job market is not close enough; The specialty setting and layout of the school are unreasonable, and the school-running mode lacks flexibility; The content of course teaching materials can not be updated in time, and the production technology can not be updated; The number of professional teachers is insufficient, and many teachers, especially young teachers, are not strong in professional skills and practical ability; The low quality of students brings great difficulties to the arrangement of teaching work and the realization of training objectives. As a result, the quality of vocational education is not high, and it lacks characteristics and attractiveness.
5) The investment in vocational education is insufficient, and the conditions for running schools need to be improved. For many years, insufficient funds have been an important factor restricting the development of vocational education in China. The proportion of vocational education funds in the financial budget to the total financial budget has been declining, from 65438+ 1 1.5% in 1996 to 8.4% in 2000. Most provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have not set the per capita funding standard for vocational schools as required; There is little money for developing vocational education in the surcharge for education; The mechanism for enterprises of various ownership to undertake vocational education funds has not been generally established, and the proportion of vocational education funds in enterprises has dropped from165438+1.3% in 1996 to 7.5% in 1999. Among the poverty alleviation funds for enterprise technological transformation, project introduction and agricultural development, few funds are used for vocational education and training; The enthusiasm of social organizations and individual citizens to run vocational education has not been fully mobilized, and the funds for running vocational education by social forces account for1.57% of the total funds for vocational education in 1999; Most parts of the country have not implemented the policy of using bank loans to set up vocational schools, and have not set up special funds or used student loans to subsidize vocational school students. In recent years, local finance has implemented two lines of revenue and expenditure. In some places, the tuition and fees of vocational schools are regarded as extra-budgetary income, and 15-20% of tuition and fees should be used as a whole for other financial expenditures, making it more difficult for vocational schools with insufficient funds.
The serious shortage of funds has affected the healthy development of vocational education. Most vocational schools are slow to improve their running conditions, many experimental bases and equipment can't meet the needs of education, and some schools can't guarantee the necessary teaching links.
6) The social recognition of secondary vocational education is not high. Influenced by traditional ideas, vocational education has not been fully understood by society. There are still phenomena in society that despise production workers and discriminate against vocational education. Many parents and students regard vocational education as a "miscellaneous army" and a "part-time school", and think that children can't learn vocational education until they are exhausted. Some parents even regard secondary vocational schools as "trusteeship classes", and some parents send their children to secondary vocational schools in order to let their children enter colleges and universities through counterpart learning. At the same time, most secondary vocational schools are called "double-poor students", and their academic performance and personal accomplishment are quite low, which has a certain impact on the educational achievements of vocational education. In addition, the mainstream media's insufficient publicity on vocational education has directly affected the whole society's attention to vocational education. Of course, in addition to the above external difficulties, secondary vocational schools themselves also have many disadvantages.
2 the disadvantages of secondary vocational schools themselves
1) implements paid enrollment. 70% of secondary vocational schools are private schools, and the funds for their survival and development come from students. Due to the sharp drop of students, some secondary vocational schools have adopted the policy of paid enrollment in order to attract students, which has disturbed the enrollment market to some extent and made parents and students dislike secondary vocational education. At the same time, many local authorities linked the enrollment index of the school to the achievements of the school leaders. The primary task of most vocational schools has shifted from education orientation to enrollment. In most schools, every teacher has a quota, and the enrollment reward and punishment policy is implemented. Although this "national enrollment" has increased the number of students in a single school to a certain extent, it has also invisibly involved teachers' energy, dampened their enthusiasm for work and reduced the quality of teaching.
2) In the relationship between theory and practice teaching, theory is emphasized while practice is ignored. Most teachers have a serious problem, that is, they only know the teaching rules but not the technology. They don't know enough about the management, labor organization and technology of the front line of production and service, and their professional skills and practical teaching ability are not strong. In the teaching process, theory is emphasized but practice is ignored, and it is divorced from production practice, so that vocational education students cannot master practical skills.
3) The proportion of teaching plan in school and practice plan outside school is unbalanced. Judging from the situation in various places, the per-student funding of vocational schools is generally implemented according to the standards of ordinary middle schools, and in many places it is even lower than the standards of ordinary middle schools. However, vocational education needs more investment than general education in order to establish training bases and train students' skills. Without the strong support of the government, private schools are lacking in economic benefits and teaching quality. Many schools make a fuss about the need for students in secondary vocational schools to have off-campus internships, push students who have not completed their teaching plans to the society in advance, tell parents to let their children work with pay in advance, and at the same time reduce the consumption of raw materials needed for students' on-campus internships, which also makes secondary vocational school graduates uncompetitive in the market and difficult to find jobs.
4) Lack of employment follow-up services. Nowadays, many parents send their children to vocational education just to let them have a relatively stable job and have a skill. If a vocational school can't guarantee students' employment, it will inevitably affect the enrollment next year, thus forming a vicious circle. Employment and enrollment are the entrance and exit of the school. Only when the access guarantee is smooth can the school operate in an orderly manner. It should be said that employment is more important than enrollment.
In short, China's vocational education is welcoming the best development period in history. We should seize this opportunity, actively take effective countermeasures, strive to improve students' comprehensive quality, cultivate more and better compound talents for the society, let the development of secondary vocational education enter a virtuous circle of sustainable development, and truly realize its due value.