* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At the recent Central Poverty Alleviation and Development Work Conference, it was emphasized that "the poverty should be treated first, the stupidity should be treated first, and the wisdom should be helped first. The state education funds will continue to be tilted towards poor areas, basic education and vocational education to help poor areas improve school conditions".
High school education is an important part of basic education. Although China has basically popularized high school education, from a nationwide perspective, problems such as unbalanced development of high school education and insufficient resources and funds still exist, especially in poor areas. The 13th Five-Year Plan proposes to "improve the quality of education, promote the balanced development of compulsory education and popularize high school education". To achieve this goal, it is urgent to increase support for poor areas, and the key and difficult points are also in poor areas. Only by making up the shortcomings of high school education in poor areas can we finally achieve the goal of popularizing high school education.
The gross enrollment rate of high school education is an important index to measure the level of popularization. According to statistics, the gross enrollment rate of high school education in China has reached 86.5%, which has achieved the basic popularization goal, but there is a big gap between regions. Among them, most provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) exceed the national average, and the gross enrollment rate of senior high school education in nearly 2 1 province (autonomous regions and municipalities) exceeds 90%. However, the gross enrollment rate of high school education in some central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) is lower than the national average, and the lowest is only about 70%. Even in some central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) that have exceeded the national average, the gap between the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the gross enrollment rate of high school education is still obvious.
Take Sichuan Province as an example, the gross enrollment rate of senior high school education in this province has reached 88.0 1%, exceeding the national average. The gross enrollment rates of Ganzi, Liangshan and Aba are relatively low, only 32.06%, 38.54% and 45.89% respectively. In the process of popularizing high school education, some central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), especially the poor areas within these provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), need to pay special attention to how to improve the popularization level.
Popularizing high school education, in addition to further improving the gross enrollment rate of high school education, how to achieve high-quality popularization is also worthy of attention. Therefore, according to the requirements of the poverty alleviation work conference, "helping poor areas improve school conditions" is particularly important. To achieve high-quality popularization, the conditions of running schools, teachers and funds must keep up, which is a huge challenge for poor areas. Taking the funds and classes of ordinary senior high schools as an example, the average budget expenditure of public funds for the education of ordinary senior high school students in China is 9024.96 yuan, while some central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) only have more than 6000 yuan, and the lowest is less than 6000 yuan. The average public budget expenditure of senior high school students in China is 2699.59 yuan, while that of some central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) is only 1600 and 1700 yuan. Although the proportion of large classes (56 students and above) in ordinary senior high schools in China has decreased year by year in recent years, the proportion of large classes in nearly 10 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the central and western regions has reached more than 50%. In the central and western regions, especially the poverty-stricken areas in the central and western regions, the shortage of high school education resources, teachers and funds is very prominent.
The historical experience of popularizing nine-year compulsory education in an all-round way tells us that to improve the level of education popularization in poor areas, we must increase support. Without a series of preferential policies to popularize nine-year compulsory education in poor areas, it is hard to imagine that compulsory education can achieve such achievements today. The same is true of the popularization of high school education.
In the next five years, we should continue to increase support for popularizing high school education in poverty-stricken areas, base on the basic strategy of coordinated development of ordinary high school and secondary vocational education, and make overall consideration of ordinary high school and secondary vocational education. In some poverty-stricken areas where ordinary high school education resources are obviously insufficient, it is urgent to expand high school education resources and build, rebuild and expand a number of high school schools. At the same time, improve the level of high school facilities and equipment, so that a number of schools with substandard school conditions can meet the standards as soon as possible, strengthen the construction of high school teachers, and supplement a number of teachers in short supply.
It should also be noted that popularizing secondary vocational education is also of special significance to poverty alleviation and development. At present, the development of secondary vocational education is an obvious shortcoming. Improving the quality of secondary vocational education and enhancing its attractiveness is very important to achieve the goal of popularizing high school education. To increase support for secondary vocational education in poverty-stricken areas, we should closely focus on improving the quality of secondary vocational education, optimizing school layout, adjusting professional settings, enriching full-time teachers, increasing funding, and actively playing an important role in popularizing high school education. (The author Wang Ming is the director and researcher of the Basic Education Research Office of the Education Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education.)