Thoughts on promoting balanced and high-quality development of regional education

Promoting the balanced and high-quality development of regional education and realizing the overall modernization of regional education have become the focus of attention of educational administrative departments, teaching and research institutions and schools at all levels, which is not only the need of realizing comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of regional economy and society, but also the inherent requirement of education itself. Based on the practice of educational reform and development in Qingpu District, Shanghai, this paper briefly analyzes the basic practices and ideas of realizing balanced and high-quality development of education in relatively developed areas.

First, where is the foundation?

The balanced and high-quality development of regional education is neither an unattainable ideal nor a fruit that can be picked at will. There should be a solid accumulation of reality, including at least four indispensable aspects: that is, the regional distribution of basic education hardware basically achieves or can guarantee equality, the inter-school distribution of high-quality teacher resources basically achieves or can guarantee equality, and the education of each school segment basically achieves or can guarantee convergence. Most schools have spiritual motivation to run quality education well. According to the reality of Qingpu District in Shanghai (compared with the county-level administrative units in China, it can be regarded as a relatively developed area), which has the basic conditions for achieving balanced and high-quality development of education.

1. It has a relatively advanced development plan. For example, in 2002, the district put forward the goal of realizing the regional and overall educational modernization of Qingpu by 20 10, and carried out the research on the educational modernization action plan, which formed the Qingpu District Educational Modernization Action Plan, and carried out 36 educational modernization items such as "decision-making and management" and "curriculum and teaching" by means of "goal-oriented, task-driven, project promotion and rolling implementation". In 2004, the Opinions of Qingpu District Party Committee and Qingpu District People's Government on Promoting the Balanced and High-quality Development of Education and Accelerating the Modernization of Qingpu Education was issued, which clearly stated the goal of "obviously narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas, obviously improving the quality of education and realizing the balanced and high-quality development of education". The 11th Five-Year Development Plan of Qingpu District Education issued in 2006 takes "comprehensively promoting the balanced and high-quality development of education, and striving to run Qingpu education with people's satisfaction" as the fundamental guiding ideology.

2. Conditions for running a school relatively equal. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the financial education funds in Qingpu District increased at an average annual rate of 13.3%. Since 2003, the proportion of regional financial compulsory education funds in fiscal expenditure has exceeded 10%. In 2006, the financial education funds in the whole region reached 498.644 million yuan, an increase of 65.438+065.438+0.99% compared with 2005, of which: the district-level financial allocation for education funds reached 253 million yuan, an increase of 65.438+03.96%; The financial allocation for town-level education funds was 245,643,800 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10. 15%. In 2006, the public funds of rural junior high schools and primary school students were higher than those of cities in 20 yuan and 40 yuan respectively (rural junior high schools in 880 yuan and primary schools in 760 yuan). In 2007, the financial allocation of public funds per student in compulsory education was rural junior high school in 980 yuan (960 yuan) and rural primary school in 930 yuan/year (890 yuan). Since 200 1, Qingpu District has successively completed infrastructure construction such as "Standardization Construction Project for Primary and Secondary Schools" and "Strengthening Construction Project for Junior Middle Schools", and has successively built two modern township education parks. Nearly 70% of the task of "standardization construction of preschool education" has been completed, and the balanced allocation of school hardware resources has basically been realized.

3. Have a relatively balanced team of teachers. Since 200 1, Qingpu District has spent more than 20 million yuan to recruit more than 800 young teachers1,mainly graduates from "2 1 1" universities and provincial normal colleges, among which more than 1000 people teach in rural schools, effectively alleviating teachers. Qingpu District Education Bureau adheres to the concept of "staying, teaching well and taking risks", making young teachers a development group with high academic qualifications, strong vitality and sufficient stamina. Qingpu District has also successively implemented the "Excellent Teacher Training Project" which inclines to the number of teachers in rural schools. A total of 255 famous teachers, super teachers, teaching demonstration teachers, teaching experts and teaching rookies have become the backbone of the school. In addition, since 2005, Qingpu District has implemented the "Rural School Teachers Stabilization Project", with an annual allocation of120,000 yuan, which has effectively stabilized the rural school teachers, especially the backbone teachers. Since 2003, not only has the number of rural school teachers requesting to work in cities decreased significantly, but there has also been a phenomenon of "return". By the end of 2006, the proportion of senior high school and junior high school teachers with bachelor degree or above was 99.7% and 9 1% respectively, and the proportion of primary school and kindergarten teachers with college degree or above was 83. 1% and 94% respectively. Old (over 45 years old), middle (3 1-45 years old) and young (under 30 years old) teachers account for 1 1.8%, 43.8% and 44.8% respectively, so it is difficult to have a "fault".

4. Have a relative academic degree. In the school year of 2006, there were 6 senior high schools, 22 middle schools, 26 technical secondary schools, 35 technical secondary schools, 2 special education schools (including private schools, which have been divided into junior high schools and primary schools with nine years) in Qingpu District, with 8255 students (including classes in Xinjiang) and 17926 students respectively. In the 2007 school year, there will be five high schools, junior high schools, primary schools, kindergartens, secondary vocational schools and special education schools, with 7,836 students, 1.830 students and 65,438 students respectively. In addition, there are 27 schools for children of migrant workers in Qingpu, with about 1.5 million students. According to the future population development trend, the existing educational resources can basically provide enough degrees, and some public junior high schools and primary schools can also accept a small number of children of migrant workers.

5. Have a positive working atmosphere. Qingpu District Education Bureau put forward that "a department is a window, and a person is a banner", and implemented administrative systems such as the first inquiry responsibility system. Qi Xin, the leading group, made concerted efforts and all departments took active actions. All towns and villages spare no expense to reward excellent teachers. The enthusiasm of the school to improve the level of running a school and build a characteristic school is unprecedented. Teachers' pursuit of noble morality is also sufficient to improve the level of professional development. In the summer of 2006, the Education Bureau of Qingpu District put forward a new development direction of "building Qingpu education culture", with the humanistic spirit of "people-oriented", the scientific spirit of "seeking truth and being pragmatic", the team spirit of "harmonious cooperation", the innovative spirit of "being the first" and the open spirit of "not sticking to one pattern" as the basic contents.

Second, where are the difficulties?

Shanghai Qingpu, a relatively developed area, has a good foundation, but it is still difficult to achieve balanced and high-quality development of education, especially high-level development. It can be summarized as "the contradiction between educational efficiency and educational fairness" in one sentence, which can be simply seen from the contradiction at three levels.

1. School level: the contradiction between balanced allocation of resources and school-running characteristics. Due to the gradual convergence of various educational resources in the same period, schools may often follow the old path of some pioneers in pursuing new ideas for running schools, with similar or similar measures; Parents, students and even the society excessively pursue traditional famous schools, and the phenomenon of "choosing schools" is still serious in a certain range; The single or simplified evaluation methods and indicators of the existing school-running quality also make the school pursue a single goal, which is difficult to meet the requirements of the great educational reform; The universal acquisition of titles and honors such as model and standardized schools also makes the internal motivation of schools insufficient, and the new evaluation name may aggravate the vicious competition of schools.

2. Teacher level: the contradiction between the fixation of work rules and the stylization of teaching. Teachers enter normal teaching work after obtaining basic teacher qualification certificate and professional technical qualification certificate. In recent years, routine teaching day after day is likely to make teachers feel tired, which is also in line with the law of diminishing marginal utility in economics. No amount of income, no amount of teachers' ethics talk and no amount of all-staff training may really trigger teachers' "impulsiveness". In reality, the randomness and time limit of classroom evaluation, the pressure of teaching and scientific research and even students' further studies all make teachers feel powerless. The society, including schools, not only emphasizes the enrollment rate and competition for posts, but also establishes a typical teaching model and emphasizes the characteristic style, so the contradiction between teachers' multi-faceted response and their pursuit of self-satisfaction is inevitable.

3. Student level: the contradiction between the existing evaluation model and comprehensive personalization. The pressure of entering a higher school, especially a key high school or university, is accompanied by children's life after entering junior high school. Although the academic evaluation and enrollment system is being reformed, the reform is still slow and insufficient. A considerable number of students, especially middle school students, have become "ideal" in the face of repeated exams. We still lack the evaluation mechanism of students' free development under the premise of effective moral education. Limited places make most students spend a lot of money (time, space, materials, etc. ) to strive for a professional exam that does not necessarily belong to your own interests and specialties, the exam itself has a lot of uncertainty.

Third, where is the way out?

These contradictions often have profound social background and cultural roots, and they need quite a lot of complicated ideological and policy arguments to be solved. The author can only briefly talk about some ideas within the scope of contact, hoping that colleagues will criticize and correct them and pay attention to the development of education together. The author thinks that a basic way to solve the contradiction is to correctly grasp the relationship between "balance" and "development", and realize that only development can have a higher level of balance, and only balance can promote better and faster development. In relatively developed areas, it is necessary to realize that balanced development is basic and has stages; We should also realize that balanced development is relative and hierarchical, that is, to narrow the development gap between regions and schools as much as possible by stages and steps, to help low-level education regions and schools as much as possible, and to make high-quality resources develop rapidly as much as possible; Through system innovation, we can realize the diversified development of high-quality educational resources.

1. Strengthen the research on the external laws of education development. The author believes that the development of education has internal laws (the relationship between educational elements) and external laws (the relationship between education and external institutional elements). We should study the present situation and direction of education from two aspects, and with the strengthening of government and social intervention, the role of external laws is gradually increasing. In the past, schools and teaching and research institutions often focused on the study of the inherent laws of educational development, focusing on the campus, focusing on the classroom, focusing on teachers, focusing on students and so on. , which produced a number of theories about the internal factors of educational development. However, the research on the influence of various external factors such as population change, household registration system, regional policy, tax mechanism, social security, mass voice and even media on education development is not systematic enough, and most of them still stay in a few words or perceptual knowledge of classical education theory. The author believes that "education in education" and "education behind closed doors" will only lead education astray. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the research on the external laws of educational development.

2. Establish the goal of "making permanent residents get high-quality degrees". "One river flows south" is a reflection of the imbalance of economic development, a natural mechanism to adjust this imbalance and a social trend. With the increasing number of migrants in relatively developed areas, the corresponding education problems are becoming more and more prominent, and the education development policies should be adjusted accordingly. According to statistics, by the end of 2006, the ratio of foreign resident population to registered population (456,000) in Qingpu District of Shanghai had exceeded 3: 5, and there were 2 1 10,000 overseas primary and secondary school students in the city. In addition, with the change of household registration system, the education of migrant workers and their children has to become an important issue for local governments. The education of "new XX people (geographical names) and their children" will be included in the key work of balanced development. The foreign permanent population can adopt biased policies in terms of enrollment, economy and culture, and the education of their children will be basically guaranteed according to the educational rights enjoyed by the registered population, including the quasi-legal person management of the schools for the children of floating population. It is necessary to attach importance to the educational indicators of both the registered population and the permanent population, so as to provide every educated person with equal educational opportunities and rights and let all educated people share the fruits of educational reform and development. In the second half of this year, all primary and secondary schools in Shanghai will open their doors to foreign students, and it should be an important research topic to promote the internationalization of education with the focus on the education and teaching management of foreign students.

2. Establish the concept of diversified "quality education resources". We should fully realize that the differences based on the internal mechanism of the school's own development are the driving force for the overall development of education. Only when some schools make breakthroughs can they lead the overall development of similar school groups. When evaluating a school's running, we should introduce multiple evaluation and supervision methods as much as possible, so that the school can realize the basic teaching objectives, and at the same time, it can rest assured and let go of the reform and stimulate the internal motivation of the school's development. When all our schools have their own unique advantages, parents, including society, can position themselves in different schools according to the characteristics of students, which is conducive to fundamentally solving the problem of "choosing schools".

3. Implement the development strategy of "diversified education". On the one hand, the development of schools needs the support of economic costs. It is necessary to establish and improve the public finance system to ensure the balanced development of compulsory education, and establish support for education in relatively backward areas within its jurisdiction through transfer payments and special appropriations. Some relatively difficult towns and villages can jointly set up "education groups" with the overall financial support of the region. On the other hand, schools also need to win various resources, including funds, by providing quality services. While continuously improving the overall running level of compulsory education schools, so that most residents are more satisfied with schools in residential areas, we should also sincerely encourage the development of private education, form a number of private schools with quality and characteristics, and meet the selection requirements of some families (including children from other places) who have the ability to pay for running schools.

4. Improve the assistance system for learning difficulties. This is to solve the problem of "difficulty in entering school" caused by the income gap of entering school. It is necessary to implement various policies to effectively ensure that students from disadvantaged groups receive compulsory education and even secondary vocational education. We will increase funding for poor students in rural areas and children of migrant workers, and improve and perfect the funding mechanism for poor students led by the government, linked by schools and participated by society.

5. Establish an index system for the balanced development of basic education. Some educators have suggested that the human factor, that is, the teacher-student ratio accounts for 30%; Among the material factors, the average book collection accounts for 10%, the average floor space accounts for 5%, the average building area accounts for 5%, the average experimental equipment cost accounts for 15%, and the average IT equipment cost accounts for 5%. Financial factors: per capita education expenditure accounts for 15%, and per capita financial allocation accounts for 15% (total score). The author thinks that this can comprehensively reflect the balanced level of educational hardware. As long as the basic hardware indicators and basic teaching requirements are basically met, we can freely carry out school reform and create characteristics.

6. Promote education reform by "facing all students". Teachers should learn teaching strategies for all students: educational content should be suitable for students' real life and attractive; The teaching process should be interesting and vivid, which can stimulate students' creativity. Improve all students' chances of academic success and increase their chances of success and development. No one can fall behind, no one can fall behind. It should be noted that effective education for students is also a "long March". Because of relative fairness, the examination system will become the standard for measuring academic level for a long time, but the examination forms can be diversified, different examination topics can be designed to suit the characteristics of different students, and diversified enrollment methods can be adopted to prevent "one exam will be fixed for life".

7. Pay attention to the formation of teachers' characteristic teaching style. After the basic material conditions are met, what teachers often want is a sense of professional accomplishment, which is widely recognized by the society, that is, the realm of "self-realization". On the journey to "self-realization", Qian Qian has many ways and means, but the author thinks that the core is to form his own distinctive style, such as distinctive disciplines, distinctive classes and distinctive discourse system. Let them become experts in the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases in the hospital, and have a "business card" that truly belongs to them, so that parents and students can choose teachers like their own doctors; Teachers will not make some ineffective responses because they are worried that they don't have "fist products". It is necessary to appropriately reduce the financial, class affairs, general evaluation and psychological burden of teachers and make them more "professional".

8. Other aspects. For example, monitoring, supervising and evaluating the balanced development of basic education, promoting the improvement and balanced development of education quality with the help of modern educational technology, and exploring the mechanism of overall management and balanced allocation of teachers in the region are not detailed here.

In a word, the development policy of combining rigidity with flexibility, running schools with characteristics, unique teachers' teaching style and multi-channel student evaluation can promote the balanced and high-quality development of education to a certain extent. (The article was published in Research on Educational Development in July-8b, 2007, and entered China Renmin University's Primary and Secondary Education inNo. 10, 2007, to share with you and listen to your opinions. )