A century-long plan, education-oriented. Education is related to the fate of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation and the progress of the society, and the education policy directly reflects the direction of national macro-control and education reform and development. In order to realize the educational development goals of "giving priority to education" and "teaching by learning" put forward by the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee deliberated and adopted the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (20 10-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) on June 2/KLOC-0. If 1985 promulgated the Central Committee's Decision on the Reform of Education System, which started China's education reform, then the Planning Outline formulated a policy system to promote the in-depth development of China's education in the future 10 from the aspects of education quality, teachers and education funds. Education quality policy, education system policy, teacher policy and education fund policy are considered as the main contents of a national education policy system and the basic education policy of a national education reform and development. For a detailed discussion, please refer to Sun Miantao's On Education Policy —— A Study of Education Policy in Socialism with Chinese characteristics (Volume I), Huazhong Normal University Press, 2002, pp. 73-84. The formation of this educational policy system is undoubtedly of great theoretical guidance and practical significance for deepening educational reform, giving priority to the development of education and improving the level of educational modernization. There is no doubt that it is of course necessary to carry out and implement the specific objectives and contents of the adopted planning outline. However, from the standpoint of education, it seems to be the historical mission and social responsibility of every professional worker engaged in educational policy research to put forward some pertinent opinions and suggestions on major policy issues involved in the planning outline from the most fundamental purposes of education, such as "personality perfection" and "human development", and adhering to the will and purpose of perfecting the existing educational policy. The following article puts forward some immature views and suggestions on some problems of major education policies in China at present.
First, some views on the core concept of education reform
As far as the formulation of any education policy is concerned, there are basic positions and ideas behind it, which will also guide the basic goals and directions of future education development to a great extent. As far as the national planning outline is concerned, whether it is "guiding ideology and working principles" or "strategic objectives and strategic themes", "giving priority to developing education" is linked with "building a powerful country with human resources". In other words, the biggest reason for giving priority to the development of education is that it has the function of "moving from a big country with human resources to a strong country with human resources". Undoubtedly, the proposal of this core concept does have the motivation to accelerate the development of education, and it is also reasonable from the standpoint of "enriching the country and strengthening the people". After all, people still remember the history of the country's decline and the people's sorrow caused by backward education.
However, if we stand in the position of educational science and an educator with a sense of social mission, we will inevitably question the correctness and appropriateness of this core concept. As we all know, there should be only one ultimate goal of education, which is related to the perfection of personality and the development of human nature. Any view that regards education as a driving force to promote social progress, economic development and even national prosperity is only advocating the added value of education rather than the real connotation. In this regard, Robert hutchins, the former president of the University of Chicago and the founder of the "learning society", questioned the upsurge of "education investment theory" aimed at promoting economic development in the United States as early as 1960s. He thinks it is a mistake of education to train talents for the purpose of economy. [YuNan Noi: On Learning Society, Japan First Law Publishing House, 1984, p. 10. He believes that the purpose of education is to change people's utilitarian values and learning views, and the ultimate goal of this change is to create a "learning society."
Although hutchins's theory of "learning society" contains some idealistic elements, when people discuss what is the ultimate goal of implementing education, hutchins's thought of learning society will still be mentioned and will become the basis for discussing this issue. In a word, whether it is to promote social progress or economic development, or even the prosperity of the country, it is not the proper meaning of education. The basic goal of education is to cultivate "qualified citizens". In my opinion, the basic definition of a qualified citizen is honesty, distinguishing right from wrong, and kindness and wisdom at the same time. Therefore, linking the goal of developing education with a prosperous country is the bottom line of improving the function of education; Comparing education with promoting economy is a distortion of the essence of education. By the same token, advocating "marching from a populous country to a powerful country in human resources" seems to attach importance to the "educating people" function of education from the outside, but in essence, it seems to only emphasize "talents" and just ignore the most important and vital "people" in education. It is a great misunderstanding and misleading to associate a fair and universal education with the "road to success" that only concerns a few people. Therefore, this is a profound problem that the education circle and even the whole society should reflect on, and it should also become an important topic of education reform.
Second, policy suggestions on further promoting quality education
Since 1993, the Outline of Education Reform and Development in China issued by the Central Committee and the State Council put forward that "primary and secondary education should turn from' exam-oriented education' to the track of comprehensively improving national quality", the concept of quality education has been gradually recognized by people, which has stimulated various positive explorations in theory and practice. 1997 The Opinions on Actively Promoting the Implementation of Quality Education in Primary and Secondary Schools promulgated by the former State Education Commission systematically expounded some related issues of quality education. Since then, a series of policies aimed at promoting the implementation of quality education have been introduced one after another. However, it is deeply puzzling that the implementation of quality education is still difficult. So, what makes quality education impossible? Where should the deep problems existing in the appearance be discovered and excavated? Where should we start to promote the reform of quality education? The raising of such questions forces educational experts to think more deeply.
From the author's immature point of view, there are two reasons for a series of puzzles and problems faced by quality education in China at present: first, the utilitarian educational goal orientation; Second, under the influence of the social atmosphere of "academic supremacy", the evaluation criteria for people are seriously deviated.
1. On the utilitarian tendency of educational purpose and educational pursuit
As mentioned above, the first puzzle and problem in promoting quality education at present is that the school has not implemented the educational goals of "all-round development", "five educations go hand in hand" and "cultivating qualified citizens", and the utilitarian tendency in the process of running a school. This theoretical orientation is related to the fact that education has been severely impacted by the market economy since the reform and opening up, so that it has lost its own position and direction.
There have always been different views on what is the ultimate goal of education. One view is that education has the important purpose of guiding employment and cultivating talents for society. More people think that education plays an important role in promoting political, economic and social development. As for the viewpoint that people are regarded as "capital" and the establishment of the theory of "human capital", it was only after Schultz, an agricultural economist at the University of Chicago in the United States, made the first economic calculation on how much the development of school education depends on economic growth that it was widely circulated. As a result, a whirlwind of "education investment theory" aimed at promoting the economy also blew up immediately. However, the whirlwind of "education investment theory" aimed at cultivating talents for economic growth has been strongly questioned by the society in a short time. The focus of people's questioning is whether the most essential attributes of education-the perfection of personality and the development of human nature-still exist after the purpose of education is linked to utilitarian things such as "products" or "commodities". Do we still need to pay attention to and emphasize the promotion of humanistic spirit and the cultivation of moral quality? Especially since the mid-1960s, when the international community was worried and confused about the situation of "talent surplus" (the training of talents by schools exceeded the needs of social and economic development), hutchins's thought of "learning society" based on the theoretical position of non-educational investment attracted widespread attention. Because "educational institutions have not been closed because of' talent surplus', the reason just proves that the fundamental purpose of education is not just for economic development". [YuNan Noi: On Learning Society, Japan First Law Publishing House, 1984, p. 9. Therefore, hutchins's above viewpoint once again aroused people's attention to the "educational purpose" and caused deep thinking on this issue. [For detailed analysis and discussion, please refer to the author's paper. Wu Zunmin: Research and Thinking on Some Issues of Basic Education Reform in China (paper), Educational Theory and Practice,No. 1, 2004; ]
So, what is the basic connotation of "learning society" advocated by hutchins? To put it simply, he aims at the achievement of learning and the formation of personality, and in order to achieve this goal, all existing systems can play a role, thus eventually forming a society that can ensure that all members of this society can realize their abilities and get the greatest development. In a word, the real meaning of advocating a "learning society" is to pay attention to people, human nature and "the cultivation and realization of the true value of life". From the interpretation of the above-mentioned "learning society" theory on the purpose of education, we can see that the bias of blindly pursuing academic qualifications and paying too much attention to the utilitarian function of education in modern society is actually very harmful. Its direct consequence is that some people regard school as a ladder and means to improve social status and obtain economy and benefits, and this situation is getting more and more serious, so that compulsory education has partially and disguised evolved into an integral part of people's pursuit of academic qualifications. In other words, going to school is no longer just learning, but an added value and mark, that is, entering a good public school means that this person has also squeezed into the path and track of climbing the upper class of society. For detailed analysis and discussion, please refer to the author's paper. Wu Zunmin: Learning Society and Basic Education Reform from the Perspective of Globalization (paper), Educational Theory and Practice,No. 10, 2004; ]
In this regard, the author's suggestions are as follows: first, we should thoroughly criticize and reflect on the educational goals of utilitarianism; Secondly, it is necessary to establish that the short-term goal of education is to cultivate qualified citizens, while its long-term goal should focus on the realization of "real value of life" with people's own "optimism, wisdom and kindness" as the basic content. Because it not only embodies the development trend and direction of an ideal society in the future, but also represents the highest goal and realm that all educational activities should pursue.
2. Education evaluation mechanism and the problem of "education is supreme"
The second puzzle and problem faced by quality education at present is the "academic supremacy" of educational evaluation mechanism. Undoubtedly, what schools teach, what students learn, and what kind of people students are eventually trained should be judged and tested by society. In other words, schools should take it as their responsibility to cultivate qualified talents needed by society, but society should not influence and mislead schools with temporary tendencies (such as utilitarianism, egoism and marketization) in the process of development and transformation. In short, the establishment of educational evaluation standards and mechanisms should be based on the understanding of the essence of education, which should not only include people's comprehensive and correct value judgment of educational objects based on certain educational values and educational goals, but also include people's pursuit and yearning for the ultimate goal of education.
However, the current educational evaluation system in China is undoubtedly utilitarian. To borrow ivan illich's words, our school evaluation system has already fallen into the quagmire of "value institutionalization". Our current evaluation mechanism completely ignores the goal of cultivating humanity and personality, blindly pursues personal interests and social utility, and even goes to a prestigious school and obtains a higher degree, which has gradually become the only criterion for society to judge whether a person is successful or not. Under the influence of such an atmosphere, parents compare with each other, students compete fiercely, schools encourage them blindly, and society adds fuel to the flames. As a result, "a thousand troops crossed the wooden bridge", and the atmosphere of academic qualifications only intensified. Therefore, it is also very necessary and crucial to fundamentally reflect on and rebuild the current educational evaluation system in order to curb the spread of this unhealthy trend. In other words, the social evaluation of a school's education level cannot be measured by the level and quantity of attendance and enrollment rate; The school's evaluation of individual academic performance should not be limited to the level of a lifelong paper. In an era of lifelong education, the form and content of learning we pay attention to should be autonomous, active and optional; We should also hold the view of sustainable development of mankind. Compared with the realization of "the true value of life" with "morality, happiness and goodness" as the basic content, the people we understand are always in a dynamic development and continuous improvement process.
In my opinion, the future society should establish the concept that the process of people's education should be a cyclical and spiraling process. One-off school education is only the foundation, and it is by no means the whole of life education. Only when the new educational evaluation standards and mechanisms are based on lifelong learning and regression education, and the growth and significance of life are considered from the perspective of lifelong development, can our school develop in a virtuous circle and fundamentally solve the puzzles and problems faced by quality education at present. [For detailed analysis and discussion, please refer to the author's paper. Wu Zunmin: Research and Thinking on Some Issues of Basic Education Reform in China (paper), Educational Theory and Practice,No. 1, 2004; ]
Third, some problems and suggestions on the policy of free normal students [detailed analysis and discussion and related investigation and research can be seen in the author's paper. Wu Zunmin: On the Education Policy for Free Normal Students (Paper), Journal of Hangzhou Normal University (Social Science Edition), No.6, 2008; ]
In 2007, in order to strengthen normal education, strengthen the training of first-line outstanding teachers and encourage more outstanding high school graduates to choose to engage in education, the relevant departments of the State Council decided to take the lead in implementing the policy of free normal education in six key normal universities directly under the Ministry of Education. 20 10 "planning outline" further proposes to actively promote free education for normal students, improve relevant policies, and attract more outstanding talents to teach. Undoubtedly, from a positive perspective, the policy of free normal education has attracted the attention of the whole society. The smooth implementation of this policy not only reflects the importance attached by the party and the state to education, but also provides an important material basis for the cultivation of educational talents. However, from the perspective of how to make a policy more effective and reliable, it is necessary to pay full attention to the following issues.
1. Policy objectives need to be further accurately positioned.
As far as the formulation of free normal education policy is concerned, we can see that its main purpose is to strengthen the improvement of the overall quality of front-line and grassroots teachers. In other words, it should be the original intention of this policy to build a team of teachers who can train urgently needed first-class talents for the country. However, the reality is that the education of cultivating the first-class teachers urgently needed by the country is tied up with the educational confusion of helping the poor areas in the west. The expectation may be to achieve the effect of "killing two birds with one stone", but the actual result is that the policy objectives are unclear and it is difficult to effectively implement and implement them.
2. Policy contents need to be further clarified.
The effective implementation of a policy not only depends on the accurate positioning of the goal, but also determines the rationality and scientificity of its content and steps. As far as the education policy of free normal students is concerned, how to accomplish the task that the state attaches importance to basic education and expects to train first-class teachers, that is, to change "multi-ability with one policy" into "special ability with one policy" is an important problem that the education administrative department and the education and scientific research department need to effectively solve.
However, nowadays, this policy of free normal education has multiple purposes and functions, and seems to serve multiple purposes. However, it is likely to distort policy objectives, lose policy direction and lose specific operations.
To sum up, in order to improve and perfect this important new policy, the author puts forward the following suggestions:
1. The implementation goal of the policy of free normal students should be made clear, that is, the candidates with the best performance should be selected, so that they can study for their degrees with peace of mind through financial burden reduction, and finally they will become excellent teachers like "educators" in the basic education front.
2. The policy of free normal students should highlight the training goal of all-round development of morality, intelligence and physique, and implement the year-end assessment system. Those who fail the examination will be disqualified from the free normal education.
3. The key normal universities that accept free normal students should organize the best teachers, focus on cultivating free normal students, form a brand of free normal students in the whole society, and be proud of being admitted to free normal students.
4. In order to support the poverty alleviation problem of the serious shortage of teachers in the western region, it is planned to formulate special preferential policies and make overall plans to solve it. For example, improve the treatment of teachers in poverty-stricken areas in the west, encourage fresh graduates to support primary and secondary education in the west, and establish sister school relations with counterparts. Through these ways, we can share high-quality educational resources and implement the measures of excellent teachers' mobility and exchange.
Four. Suggestions on school selection policy
Among all kinds of education problems with strong social voices, "school choice" seems to be the leader, and people question that China's "school choice system" has become a national issue that affects social fairness and justice. As mentioned above, the fundamental reason for this situation of national concern lies in utilitarian educational goals and misleading social evaluation standards. However, before the reform and opening up, China still implemented a relatively fair system of "choosing schools according to their achievements". However, after the reform and opening up, under the policy that compulsory education does not implement examinations, "choosing schools according to their achievements" evolved into "choosing schools according to their money" and "choosing schools according to their rights", and because it concerns every family and every child, the problem of choosing schools has aroused great concern in society.
As far as the author is concerned, there are three main contradictions in China at present, which have become the main reasons for the repeated prohibition of choosing schools: first, the sharp contradiction between the growing diversity of the public, the demand for personalized education and the shortage of quality education resources; Second, the contradiction between the embodiment of citizens' equal right to education and the uneven development of basic education; The third is the contradiction between insufficient investment in education funds, regional disparities and the fair and balanced development of basic education. After the reform and opening up, the public's educational needs have changed obviously. On the one hand, with the rapid development of social economy, various social strata in China are more and more diversified and complicated. What follows is the diversification of education and the multi-level educational needs of different social classes. On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the public's demand for education is also changing from the demand for basic knowledge to the demand for high-quality, diverse and efficient development. However, for a long time, due to the policy of giving priority to the development of cities and key schools, the allocation of educational resources is increasingly unbalanced. For example, from the perspective of urban and rural areas, high-quality educational resources are relatively concentrated in cities; From an inter-school perspective, high-quality educational resources are mainly concentrated in key schools in urban and rural areas. Excellent conditions for running a school, high-quality teachers, good school culture atmosphere and added value of education all make high-quality schools a bargaining chip for parents. In other words, at present, the characteristics of school choice in China are mainly reflected in the choice of high-quality educational resources, rather than the characteristic choice of each school. Therefore, to solve this problem, we must first solve the problem of balanced allocation of high-quality educational resources and get rid of the erosion of utilitarianism. Therefore, the author puts forward the following policy suggestions to solve the problem of school choice:
1. Rational allocation of educational resources under the concept of educational equity policy
Rawls put forward the principle of equality and freedom and the principle of compensation for differences in A Theory of Justice. To solve the problem of school choice, in the long run, we must follow Rawls' principle of justice, that is, rationally allocate educational resources under the policy concept of educational equity. Specifically, firstly, the policy inclination should be implemented between higher education and basic education, between urban education and rural education, and between key schools and ordinary schools to ensure the support and funding for weak areas and schools and realize the relatively fair and reasonable allocation of educational resources; The second is to vigorously promote the process of school standardization construction in the basic education stage, and accelerate the standardization and unification of basic education resources between regions, urban and rural areas and schools. At present, the urgent task is to issue the School Education Law as soon as possible, that is, to clearly stipulate the benchmark of school software and hardware setting in the basic education stage in the form of law. Third, concrete policies and measures should be taken to improve the overall quality of teachers in various schools, such as the rational flow of teachers, the rotation of principals, and the teaching of teachers. At the same time, by changing the principal's concept of running a school, the characteristics and overall running level of various schools can be promoted.
2. Strengthen the construction of weak schools and promote the connotation development of weak schools.
Strengthening the construction of weak schools, promoting the connotation development of weak schools and expanding the stock of regional quality education resources are the breakthrough points to solve the problem of school selection. With the continuous strengthening of China's economic strength and the increasing government investment in basic education, schools in various regions have greatly improved their school hardware. The weakness of weak schools is mainly reflected in the weakness of soft construction, such as backward school-running concept, low school management level and teachers' quality to be improved. Under the new situation, to strengthen the construction of weak schools, we need to explore new forms and strategies to promote the connotation and characteristics of weak schools. The specific methods are: (1) urban-rural pairing, strong-weak pairing. Pairing between urban and rural areas and the strong and weak can make schools interact and communicate in normal cooperation and mutual assistance, effectively realize the sharing of educational resources between the two schools, and radiate hidden high-quality educational resources such as school-running ideas, school-running methods and campus culture to weak schools. (2) improve the quality of weak schools by private entrusted management. The government can entrust educational intermediary institutions with certain professional qualifications to manage weak schools in the region, so as to promote the transformation of weak schools.
3. Promote the development of private education and meet the diversified educational needs of the public.
At present, an important reason for the increasingly serious problem of school choice in China is that most of the high-quality educational resources in China are concentrated in public schools, and the existing organizational system and scale of public schools cannot meet the multi-level and diversified educational needs of the public. As an important supplement to public education, private education is far from playing its due educational function and role. Therefore, promoting the rapid development of private education, expanding the total amount of high-quality educational resources and giving the public more and more suitable choices can gradually eradicate the problem of school choice. The specific measures are: (1) Promoting the development of private education by purchasing educational services. Government subsidies, contract outsourcing and other forms to buy educational services to support the growth of private education. (2) Take various policies and measures to support private education. That is, support and promote the development of private education through special funds for private education, tax incentives and other policy measures.
To sum up, solving the problem of school choice needs a comprehensive and long-term process. First, deepen the understanding of the problem of school choice, that is, the process of solving the problem of school choice is the process of promoting the fair and balanced development of basic education in China, expanding the high-quality resources of basic education and improving the quality and level of running basic education in China; Second, we should learn from some foreign policies and measures on school choice and take solving the problem of school choice as an opportunity to transform China's education system reform. The third is to help parents treat school choice rationally, that is, to understand that choosing a school is to choose the characteristics of the school rather than the enrollment rate. Therefore, it is necessary for parents to establish a scientific concept of education and success, and reduce the blindness and impulsiveness in choosing schools. At the same time, for school administrators and teachers, under the concept of school-based management, we should find the breakthrough of school connotation development, form the characteristics of running a school, find the orientation and development space of running a school within the region and between schools, and let students really choose schools with characteristics.