-"the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform"
A few days ago, "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on Several Major Issues in Comprehensively Deepening Reform" was officially released, which opened a new chapter in comprehensively deepening reform. Under the overall goal of "improving and developing the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system, promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity" and the specific deployment of accelerating the transformation of government functions, the "Decision" puts forward "further promoting the separation of management and office" in the deployment of deepening the comprehensive reform in the education field. What is the profound connotation and significance behind it? Why is the reform of education management system repeatedly prohibited? Where is the difficulty? How to establish a new relationship among government, school and society? Around these issues, the reporter recently interviewed Qu Zhenyuan, president of China Higher Education Society, Ceng Tianshan, vice president of China Academy of Educational Sciences, Yang Yinfu, deputy director of National Education Development Research Center, and Li Xigui, president of the 11th Affiliated High School of Beijing Normal University.
What does the transition from "management" to "governance" mean?
In the past, we also recognized the problem of insufficient management ability. Today, we should recognize the problem of insufficient management ability and lack of modernization, that is, not only the top-down management ability, but also the pluralistic, equal and coordinated governance ability.
Q: "Perfecting and developing the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system, and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity" is the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform. How to understand the deepening of comprehensive reform in the field of education under this general goal? How to understand the profound connotation of the word "governance"?
Qu Zhenyuan: The current reform of the education management system should be understood in the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform put forward by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The "Decision" proposes that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform is to "improve and develop the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity". This general goal is not only the theory of state governance, but also the goal of our reform. We have been talking about "management" for a long time. This time, the "Decision" highlights the word "governance" and also emphasizes that the governance system and governance capacity should be modernized. I think this is a very advanced concept, which can be said to be the biggest highlight of the Decision.
We should deeply understand the profound connotation of the transition from management to governance. Management is top-down, one-dimensional and one-way. Governance refers to the process of coordination and interaction among multiple stakeholders around the common goal under the condition that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation under the socialist market economy system. It can be said that with the diversification of actors and stakeholders in the market economy, the relationship between the government and the people, society, enterprises and schools should also be equal, two-way, interactive and cooperative.
Under the background of changing from management to governance and promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity, it is an urgent and realistic task to realize the modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity. Not only from the perspective of higher education, but also from the perspective of basic education, vocational and technical education and lifelong education system construction.
Yang Yinfu: Under the overall goal of deepening reform in an all-round way, the comprehensive reform in the field of education should also strive to lead the innovation of education development mode with the innovation of education management mode and education governance mode. The core requirement of innovative education management mode is to change from micro-management to macro-management, from direct management to indirect management, from running education to managing education, and from management to service. However, educational governance goes beyond the vision of administrative management, and its core is to correctly handle the relationship between government, schools and society and establish a complete governance structure.
Q: Can we analyze the necessity and practical significance of the transformation from "management" to "governance" in the light of the actual situation of education in China?
Qu Zhenyuan: From the perspective of higher education, both the development of higher education itself and the change of the external environment of higher education have realistic needs and possibilities for the modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity.
Within higher education, at present, China's higher education has entered the stage of popularization and is at a medium level. 1998, there were 1022 colleges and universities in China with more than 5.9 million students. At present, there are 2,442 colleges and universities in China with more than 30 million students. In the past, the average size of the school was about 5,000 students, but now it is more than 1 1,000 students. These can be understood not only as the expansion of the scale of higher education, but also as the complexity of higher education organization, the diversification of structure, the differentiation of levels, the diversification of rights and interests and the increasing demand for democracy.
In addition to the complex changes in higher education itself, the external environment of higher education has also undergone tremendous changes. First of all, after the expansion of the scale of higher education, the stakeholders of higher education have greatly increased. In the past, there were few students in colleges and universities, and many people didn't understand higher education, which was very mysterious. Nowadays, going to college is a very common thing, and the number of stakeholders has increased significantly. More people can feel higher education and see problems more easily, which is one reason why the whole society can comment on higher education. Secondly, the market economy system also requires the education system to adapt to it. At present, many colleges and universities have diversified sources of funds, and the number of fund-raising is increasing. Some schools receive less than 1/5 from the state. The channel for the educated to go to society, that is, the employment channel, has also changed further, and the market plays a decisive role in employment. The breadth and depth of international exchange and cooperation in education are unprecedented, and so on. All these indicate that the external environment of higher education has changed greatly.
The development of higher education itself and the change of the external environment of higher education tell us that the development of education is obviously incompatible with the past "management" concept.
The reality requires higher education management to be governance transition to higher education, and to promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of modern higher education with China characteristics. It emphasizes the transformation from micro-management to macro-management, from direct management to indirect management, from running a school to management education, and from management to service.
In the past, we also recognized the problem of insufficient management ability. Today, we should recognize the problem of insufficient management ability and lack of modernization, that is, not only the top-down management ability, but also the pluralistic, equal and coordinated governance ability.
Another point, from the perspective of the governance system of higher education, a more accurate understanding of the separation of management scores should be separation of management scores, division of labor and cooperation, and interaction and coordination. According to the theory of system theory, everything is interrelated, and management and evaluation cannot be completely separated.
Q: In order to achieve the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform, the Decision has made specific arrangements for accelerating the transformation of government functions, such as deepening the reform of the administrative system, innovating administrative management methods, further simplifying administration and decentralizing power, especially accelerating the classification reform of public institutions, and promoting the smooth relationship between public institutions and competent departments and de-administration. What do these measures mean for deepening the reform of education management system?
Yang Yinfu: The Decision has made special arrangements for accelerating the transformation of government functions. In fact, an important requirement of "modernization of national governance system and governance capacity" is to simplify administration and decentralize power and promote the transformation of government functions in order to create a good development environment, provide quality public services and safeguard social fairness and justice. Since the establishment of the new government, the transformation of functions has been regarded as the first major event, and 334 administrative examination and approval items have been cancelled so far. This is the transformation of administrative management. In education, we should also strive to lead the innovation of educational development model with the innovation of educational management model and educational governance model.
Ceng Tianshan: This means creating a good institutional environment for deepening the reform of the education system, which is a rare historical opportunity. Macro environment determines micro environment, and macro climate affects micro climate. In the past, some of the educational system reforms were fruitless, and some became "four unlike" because the macro environment did not support and the small environment did not match, so local reforms were difficult to promote and last. This time, accelerating the transformation of government functions from the perspective of comprehensive reform, focusing on changing the concept that the government is an all-powerful government, and focusing on changing the situation that the government is idle is a thorough reform of the government itself.
I understand that the transformation of government management functions has three meanings. First, we should simplify administration and decentralize power, and straighten out the relationship between the government and schools, between government affairs and between the government and society. What the government should manage must be well managed, focusing on direction and strategic management. Second, simplify administration and decentralize power. The government should be willing to simplify administration and decentralize power, delegate micro-matters that should not be managed and poorly managed to schools, to intermediaries and to society, speed up the construction of modern school system, speed up the classification reform of operating and public welfare institutions, become real social professional intermediary organizations, and improve the social participation mechanism. The third is the supervision force, which is good at using comprehensive policy tools (such as law, planning, funds, standards, monitoring, evaluation and supervision) to guide and accountability. If these three relationships are properly handled, we can break the vicious circle of "once released, we will be chaotic, once chaotic, we will be closed, and once closed, we will die" and enter a virtuous circle of "doing our own duties, taking their own responsibilities and supporting each other".
What are the difficulties in the reform of educational management system?
For a long time, the government has struggled between decentralization and power collection, but the powers and responsibilities are not matched and unified, and schools and society are unwilling to take over, giving people the impression that education development is more than reform and decentralization is more than empty talk. Therefore, the biggest difficulty facing reform is not to change others, but to reform ourselves and unload the burden of interests, so as to move forward lightly.
Q:1After the promulgation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on Education System Reform in May 1985, the reform of China's education management system continued to deepen. What is the current situation of education management system in China since the reform? What are the disadvantages? What is the significance of "deepening the separation of management and operation"?
Ceng Tianshan: The education administration system is an important part of the government administration system. With the reform of economic system and scientific and technological system, the reform of education system has been continuously promoted since 1985, and great progress has indeed been made, especially the powers and responsibilities of the central and local governments have been clarified, but the situation of administrative monopoly has not been completely changed. The running of public schools is basically managed by the government, and most educational supervision institutions at all levels are subordinate to the education administrative department. Most of the evaluation activities are carried out by the government itself or entrusted by directly affiliated institutions. In this way, the government is not only the main body of running schools, but also the main body of management and evaluation. The integration of decision-making, execution and supervision is equivalent to being a referee, an athlete and a commentator. The result of this situation must be self-talk, lack of credibility, lack of persuasion, lack of mutual supervision and mutual restraint. No matter which link goes wrong, it is difficult to be accountable and improved in time. In the long run, it will fall into the quagmire of rigidity and solidification, and the development of education will lose its motivation and vitality. Therefore, promoting the separation of management and administration is the inevitable choice of modern education management system and the institutional guarantee for building a modern education power.
Li Xigui: Since 1985, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have held three national conferences on education, and they have been trying to break through the planned economy of education and restore its true colors. However, the results we see are still excessive management, insufficient school vitality, low social participation, and basically no innovative talent training mechanism has been formed. 20 10 educational planning outline has made great efforts again, and also put forward "promoting the separation of management and office" Almost three years, it should be said that there is no substantial progress. The main body of the market is the enterprise, the main body of education is the school, and running a school is the school's business. However, for a long time, teachers needed by schools should be recruited by the personnel department, teachers' salaries should be paid by the financial department, and the evaluation and appointment of teachers' titles should be managed by the competent department. The school became an outsider. What's more, the learning progress of some areas and even schools should be carried out in accordance with the unified requirements of the competent authorities. For a long time, the unified management system has made it impossible for principals to display their ambitions. The school is a thousand schools, and students have no choice, so personalized training is impossible. This is also the fundamental crux of education that has been criticized for a long time.
This decision has given us great confidence. Only when the government, schools and society take their positions, do their duty according to law, and the decision-making, implementation and supervision are relatively separated, can this "triangle" system form a relatively independent and respectful relationship and ensure the healthy development of education.
Yang Yinfu: Deepening the comprehensive reform in the field of education can be understood from different levels. Among them, the most comprehensive reform is the separation of management and operation, because it involves all aspects of education. It is required to change the functional model of all-round government, form a modern public service-oriented government education management system with separation of political affairs, clear rights and responsibilities, overall coordination and standardization, and build a new pattern of education development of "government-run education, school-run education and social evaluation education". This reform is bound to liberate and develop educational productive forces and to liberate and enhance educational vitality.
Q: Some people say that the reform of education management system is the most difficult and necessary problem in education reform. How to understand it? Why 1985 proposed decentralization, but I feel that there are very few real decentralization. What are the difficulties in the reform of educational management system?
Ceng Tianshan: The reform of education management system is the core and difficulty of education reform. Why do you say that? I understand that, firstly, because of China's vast territory, large population and complicated education, it is difficult for a non-strong government to maintain its operation and sustainable development; Second, because most schools in our country are government-run, the history of private schools is short, and the internal governance structure of public and private schools is imperfect; Third, due to the immaturity of social organizations, independent intermediary organizations started late and lacked credibility; Fourth, reformers are hard to make up their minds and are ruthless. When cutting their own interests, they put more power, less personnel property rights, more virtual power and less real power. This situation has led to the embarrassing situation of "no decentralization, no decentralization" in government management. For a long time, it has been entangled between decentralization and power collection, but the rights and responsibilities do not match, and schools and society are unwilling to bear it. It gives people the impression that there are many reforms in education development, more calls for decentralization and less actions. Therefore, the biggest difficulty facing reform is not to change others, but to reform ourselves and unload the burden of interests, so as to move forward lightly.
Li Xigui: To put it bluntly, the so-called reform has entered the deep water area and is in a critical period. In fact, it is time for reform to get rid of the "interests" of some departments. It has become a habit for them to master these powers. Even without these powers, some departments are not necessary to exist, and some posts are not reasonable to exist. Therefore, we must fully estimate the difficulty of reform. It can be said that without the strong promotion of the government, reform will not happen automatically.
However, I want to emphasize in particular that the present situation is completely different from that before 1990. At that time, decentralization meant that the education administrative department delegated power to schools. Now, among the powers that many schools should have, not only schools have no right to decide, but even the education administrative department has almost no right to speak, and most of them have been taken away by personnel, finance, development and reform departments. Therefore, in many aspects, the education department has no right to let go. It needs to be carefully checked and sorted out from the government level, and the power that should really be returned to the school should be handed over to the school.
The disadvantages of the education system are well known. Developed countries in foreign education have relatively mature systems to learn from, and there are also successful practices in China. In 2004, I served as the director of Weifang Education Bureau. Teachers and principals in Weifang have long been trapped by the disadvantages brought by administrative levels. With the strong support of Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, Weifang cancelled the administrative levels of all primary and secondary schools in the city at one time, and established a new management mechanism of the principal rank system, involving more than 930 principals and vice principals with levels. Their files are all transferred from the organization and personnel department to the education department. The key to educational reform is the realm and courage of the main leaders of the party Committee. Although it is said that "it is often more difficult for reform to touch the interests than the soul", the headmaster of Weifang has tasted the sweetness of reform through practice. The principals of primary and secondary schools in Weifang don't need to attend unimportant meetings and activities, but can settle down and study running schools wholeheartedly, and win more respect than before by relying on excellent school performance. Whether the reform is difficult or not depends on who will promote it.
For another example, the decentralization of power to schools cannot rely solely on documents, meetings and understanding. The key is to have implementation measures. If the mechanism does not change, even if people change, it can only be managed for a while. Going deep is the system. To implement the reform, we must start with the system reform.
How to define the rights and responsibilities of the new relationship
If the government wants to change its functions, it must first change its thinking of "managing" schools and establish a working mechanism oriented to the development needs of schools. Running a school independently means that the school undertakes the responsibility of educating people independently, and finally realizes the independent management of teachers according to law, the independent implementation of courses and the running of schools according to the articles of association. The society realizes the supervision of schools' participation in running schools.
Q: Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education, pointed out that the general direction of deepening comprehensive reform in the field of education is to build a new relationship among the government, schools and society. What should this new relationship look like? How should the specific powers and responsibilities be clarified?
Ceng Tianshan: To build a new relationship among government, school and society, I think it can no longer be "old wine in new bottles", but real reform and real progress. The connotation of the separation of management and operation in the field of education is that the government manages education, the school runs education and the society evaluates education.
The government must administer according to law, change functions, improve management methods, strengthen macro management, change micro management into macro management, and change direct management into indirect management. Resolutely implement decentralization, implement the autonomy of schools, such as enrollment, personnel, finance, teaching, academics, foreign cooperation and other rights. At the same time, pay attention to the role of social organizations in education evaluation and monitoring, further mobilize the enthusiasm of social organizations such as trade associations, professional societies and foundations to participate in public governance of education, encourage specialized agencies and social intermediary institutions to evaluate and monitor the educational effect, and timely incorporate social organizations into government procurement services as an important operation mode to improve the evaluation and monitoring system.
Yang Yinfu: In terms of management education, the government should change the single mode of directly managing schools, and comprehensively use legislation, funds, planning, standards, rules, information services, policy guidance and necessary administrative means to reduce unnecessary administrative intervention. The school is the main body of running a school, and the autonomy of running a school is guaranteed according to law. At the same time, the school should also bear corresponding responsibilities. Adapting to China's national conditions and the requirements of the times, it is the core requirement of "how to run education" to build a modern school system with running schools according to law, independent management, democratic supervision and social participation. In education evaluation, we should promote professional evaluation, encourage specialized agencies and social intermediaries to carry out evaluation, and form a diversified education quality evaluation system with the participation of the government, schools, parents and all sectors of society.
In the comprehensive reform of management evaluation, the reform and innovation of management are the upstream, basic and the first aspect that needs reform. It is important because decentralization will provide space for the innovation of running schools and evaluation, which will affect the whole body. The reform and innovation of running a school is the core. As far as people's satisfaction with education is concerned, the education administrative department does not directly provide education, but the education administrative department provides education policies and schools directly provide education. The quality of running a school directly determines the quality of education, and the importance of school innovation is self-evident. School is the cell of education. Only when the educational reform is finally implemented at the school level and embodied in teachers and students can we really see the actual effect. The reform and innovation of evaluation are also very important. Evaluation is often a baton, and downstream evaluation can in turn drive upstream management and middle running. For example, this year, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions on Promoting the Reform of Comprehensive Evaluation of Primary and Secondary Education Quality, which set 20 indicators in five aspects: moral development level, academic development level, physical and mental development level, interest specialty training and academic burden. This can be seen as the establishment of evaluation indicators and evaluation rules by the Ministry of Education in education management. The specific evaluation can be entrusted to professional institutions for evaluation according to the rules, which in turn will directly guide schools to run schools better, change the one-sided tendency to take exams, and fully implement quality.
Li Xigui: In recent years, I have repeatedly called on different occasions to speed up the process of formulating the School Law and clarify the relationship among the government, schools and society in legal form. I think this new relationship should be expressed as: macro-management by the government, independent running of schools, and social participation in supervision. If the government wants to change its functions, it must first change its thinking of "managing" schools and establish a working mechanism oriented to the development needs of schools. There is a simple reason. If there is no school, there is no need for the Education Bureau to exist. The duty of the Education Bureau is to serve the development of the school wholeheartedly. Running a school independently means that the school undertakes the responsibility of educating people independently, and finally realizes the independent management of teachers according to law, the independent implementation of courses and the running of schools according to the articles of association. The society undertakes the functions of government management in the past and realizes the supervision of schools' participation in running schools. These three are no longer simply the relationship between "managing" and "being managed", and should perform their respective duties. Otherwise, education will develop abnormally.
The implementation of the measures proposed in the Decision will bring profound changes to China's education and make education truly return to the law of teaching and the law of human growth. The government provides the necessary guarantee conditions in accordance with the law, and no longer applies administrative thinking to schools and principals. Instead, it really returns the power of running schools to schools, so that schools can bear their due responsibilities in accordance with the law. These reforms are bound to release the great vitality of the school. Taking this crucial step, education in China will take on a new look.