Beijing News (Reporter Feng Qi) In recent years, the “dilemma of the county” has frequently received attention. What is the root cause of the county’s “collapse”? How to solve the dilemma of "revitalizing the county"? On February 25, a symposium on "Difficulties and Paths to Revitalize the County" was held in Beijing. Many experts discussed the difficulties and development paths faced by the county.
The development of county high schools faces five major difficulties, including student resources and teachers.
County high schools are the main body of ordinary high schools in the county. In recent years, due to the influence of various factors such as the level of economic development, urbanization process, and public education policies, many local counties have lost outstanding teachers and students in ordinary high schools, forming a "county development dilemma" represented by a vicious cycle of loss of high-quality educational resources and decline in education quality. Some people liken it to a "collapse" in the county.
At the meeting, Sa Zhongmin, a national special education supervisor, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region government inspector, and former director of the Liuzhou Municipal Education Bureau, pointed out that in recent years, except for a few counties, most counties in my country have generally faced five long-standing dilemmas: "student difficulties, teacher difficulties, hardware difficulties, security difficulties, and quality difficulties."
"In recent years, the quality of education and teaching in some counties has been on a downward trend. Whether it is eugenics training or undergraduate enrollment rates, there are signs of decline, and some have declined significantly." Wang Xuan, deputy director of the Yantai Municipal Education Bureau, introduced at the meeting the current status of the development of ordinary high schools in Yantai counties. In addition, he mentioned that high school education in some counties lacks pragmatic measures in terms of running characteristic schools and expanding students' pathways to further education, and the quality of education needs to be improved.
Talking about the current living conditions of county middle school teachers, Meng Xiangsheng, principal of the No. 2 Middle School in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, said that county middle school teachers receive low remuneration, high pressure, and difficulty in professional title evaluation, which leaves a considerable number of teachers with no hope. The above reasons add up, and the county not only cannot retain excellent teachers, but also cannot recruit high-quality talents.
Experts believe that to get out of the predicament, the county should first stabilize the source of students
What is the way out to "revitalize the county"? Many counties across the country are also exploring. At the
symposium, experts and scholars attending the meeting said that in order for the county to get out of the development dilemma, it must first stabilize the source of students. If this phenomenon continues, the educational gap between urban and rural areas will become wider and wider. To solve the "county dilemma", we must also reform the high school entrance examination enrollment methods, balance regional education resources, and support schools to innovate the high school entrance examination enrollment methods.
Principal of Hai’an Middle School in Jiangsu Province Lu Jian shared that “ Nantong none of the seven cities, counties and districts has ‘collapsed’ because Nantong has always strictly prohibited cross-county (district) enrollment and will not There is now a situation where one famous school is ‘sweeping out the eugenics’ and other schools are ‘obliterating everyone’.”
Regarding the problem of teacher loss, Meng Xiangsheng believes that in order to get out of the “county dilemma”, the fundamental task is to improve and improve the treatment and conditions of teachers in the county. "Only when teachers' salaries and conditions improve can outstanding teachers be retained, high-end talents will be introduced, and the teacher problem can be solved."
The reporter learned that 95% of the teachers and students at Luzhai Middle School in Luzhai County, Liuzhou, Guangxi, are from rural areas. Like many ordinary high schools in counties, the gap with urban schools is getting wider and wider. Lan Shumin, the principal of the school, said at the meeting that in the face of various difficulties and challenges, the school has improved its cultural confidence, stimulated school vitality, and revitalized classroom teaching from aspects such as campus culture construction, efficient classroom construction, and education.
reporters noticed that the 2021 National " Two Sessions " proposed to revitalize county high school education, and nine departments including the Ministry of Education issued the "Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of County High Schools during the 14th Five-Year Plan". The plan requires that schools in developed areas and urban areas be strictly prohibited from poaching excellent principals and teachers from weak areas and counties, strengthen the construction of ordinary high schools in counties, and promote the high-quality development of basic education.
Concentrating one high school in one county is not conducive to the educational ecology
“The problems in the county, on the surface, are caused by the decline in education quality caused by the continuous flow of high-quality students and excellent teachers in the county to large and medium-sized cities. In fact, they are caused by the expanding gap between urban and rural economic and social development levels, the accelerating urbanization process of productivity layout, and the “market preference” of public education policies." Zhang Zhiyong, executive director of the China Education Policy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University and a member of the China Education Thirty Forum , suggested that a series of public policy tools be comprehensively used to improve the public service supply pattern of county and secondary education and conduct systematic management of county and secondary education.
Zhang Zhiyong spoke at the symposium on "Difficulties and Paths to Revitalize County and Secondary Schools." Photo provided by the organizer
Du Xiaoli, director of the Institute of Intellectual Development of the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences, said at the meeting that to solve the "county problem" it is necessary to clearly consider "strengthening government responsibility" as one of the basic working principles. Local governments must strengthen coordination and form synergy to revitalize the county.
Zhang Zhiyong believes that to revitalize county high school education, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the conditions for running schools in the county; on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen top-level institutional arrangements, optimize the education pattern of the county, and balance the allocation of teaching. Educational resources, narrowing the differences in resource allocation and school running levels between schools, allowing all high school schools in the jurisdiction to compete fairly, develop staggered development, run schools with characteristics, and form a healthy competitive ecology.
Li Jingbo, Director of the High School Division of the Basic Education Department of the Ministry of Education, said in his concluding speech that to promote high-quality education development, without the development of county high schools, which account for more than half of the country, there will be no overall development of ordinary high schools. Therefore, the county must develop and improve. Development is to make up for shortcomings and promote equity. Improvement is to achieve overall high-quality development. Concentrating on building one large-scale and high-quality high school in one county is not conducive to the educational ecology of the entire county. The establishment of more high schools in counties should not focus on further education, but should transform from hierarchical development to classified development. Diversification and specialization should be considered, so that county high schools can form a benign ecosystem for running schools.
“The current problems in county high schools are problems in the development of education, and everyone needs to be confident in the development of the county. "Li Jingbo said.
It is reported that this symposium was jointly sponsored by the China Education Thirty People Forum, Beijing Normal University China Education Policy Research Institute and Boao Education Forum, and co-organized by the Voice of Primary and Secondary Education.
Beijing News reporter Feng Qi editor Miao Chenxia proofread Liu Baoqing
