Journalists investigate summer subject training
Summer "Study Class" Tutoring
Big demand and many hidden dangers
● I don’t know when it started, the summer vacation has become the peak period for subject tuition and training.
Parents who are looking for a child to become a dragon have sent their children to cram schools, hoping that their children can be one step ahead and win at the starting line.
● The reporter found in field investigations and questionnaires that small classes and spelling classes are becoming more and more popular among parents, and they are gradually becoming the mainstream form of subject training
● The emergence of small classes and grouping classes meets the market demand but does not meet the education policy and regulations, and there are many hidden dangers in class building, such as teachers’ ethics, child management, fire safety, personal safety, etc., as well as Excessive charges and tax avoidance issues
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Intern Yang Huijia
Liaoning Shenyang Huanggu Business Building is a commercial and residential apartment.
An institution called Shenyang Peiying Family Education Center is located on the 10th floor of the building. On the same floor, there is also a script-killing game room, a corporate office and a family tenant.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law" recently walked into the Peiying Family Education Center in the name of the parents of the students, stepping on the somewhat dilapidated floor, and walking sideways through the narrow corridor between the two classrooms, in a classroom that can only accommodate three or four people. , Communicate with the reception staff to register for classes for the child.
"Recently, the relevant departments have made strict investigations. If you have to find people to work in the cultural class, we will find a suitable teacher to attend the class. Two to four people are fine, but there are too many people to dare to attend." The staff member told reporters.
It's summer vacation now.
I don't know when it started, the summer vacation has become the peak period for subject tuition and training.
Parents who are looking for a child to become a dragon have sent their children to cram schools, hoping that their children can be one step ahead and win at the starting line.
Will this year's summer vacation be different? The Ministry of Education clearly regards deepening the governance of off-campus training institutions as one of its key tasks in 2021.
In the context of reducing the burden on students and parents, on the eve of the summer vacation this year, Chaohu in Anhui, Funing in Yunnan, and Yulin in Shaanxi all issued regulations to clarify that all training institutions for cultural courses in the compulsory education phase should be closed, or training institutions outside the school should not be allowed. Subject training is carried out for elementary and middle school students on rest days and winter and summer vacations.
So, what is the situation of summer subject training in various places?
This reporter launched an in-depth investigation.
Market demand is still strong
A wide variety of counseling agencies
The reporter recently visited Jizhou in Tianjin, Cangzhou in Hebei and Huanggu, Heping, and Tiexi districts in Shenyang, Liaoning, and found that there are many types of tutoring organizations, and most of them are clustered around schools.
Especially in the vicinity of key primary and secondary schools, large and small tutoring agencies gather together, and colorful signs are hung up high, which is magnificent, and the "Study Street" has been formed.
According to observations, tutoring agencies can be roughly divided into tutoring agencies for cultural courses and tutoring agencies with artistic expertise such as art. The types of business can be divided into large-scale chain education institutions, small and medium-sized private tutoring institutions, and small tutoring classes run by individuals.
Confucianism Education is a well-known cultural course tuition institution in Shenyang.
The reporter visited a branch school located in an office building on Chongshan West Road in Huanggu District.
The school mainly organizes cultural tuition in small classes. The junior and senior high schools are basically one-to-one tuition. Each class lasts one and a half hours and costs about 370 yuan. 20 lessons are a cycle and a one-time fee.
Mr. Song, who received reporters, said that many parents come to register for cultural tuition during the summer, “because our teachers have at least 16 years of teaching experience, most of them have decades of teaching experience, the teaching quality is high, and the reputation is good. Many of them are parents, The students introduced each other."
In Cangzhou, Hebei, the reporter visited a number of summer extracurricular tutoring classes. Judging from the situation of the trial class, a large number of students participated in the tutoring.
There is a private tutoring class in Dongfeng Community. The reporter walked in and found that the tutoring class was in an ordinary residential building. The living room and room were classrooms, and it was full of old tables, chairs and benches.
According to the person in charge of the tutoring class, there are 5 teachers in the summer tutoring class who teach courses from elementary school to high school.
The five teachers are all fresh graduates of the local elite class of high school. They just took the college entrance examination and got good grades. The cost is 3,000 yuan for 20 class hours.
The reporter listened to a lesson as the parents of the students, and the space of more than ten square meters packed 15 students and a teacher.
Young teachers may not have adapted to the change from student to teacher, and blindly explain the answers, making the classroom atmosphere a little awkward.
Why is the enthusiasm for subject training still unabated in the context of reducing the burden on students and parents?
How do parents choose?
The reporter conducted a questionnaire survey and sent out questionnaires to more than 100 parents from elementary school to high school in more than ten provinces and cities including Beijing, Hebei, and Shandong, and recovered more than 80 valid questionnaires.
Survey data shows that 78% of parents will apply for summer training courses for their children, of which 61% apply for subject training courses, and the rest are for art training such as fine arts and musical instruments.
There are two reasons for parents who choose summer subject training. Either they feel that their children's grades are not ideal and need to make up for it; or the children have good grades and are ready to improve.
According to the survey, 68% of those who have participated in the training courses are in office buildings or training institutions, and the remaining 32% are in residential buildings, teachers’ homes or their own homes for tutoring.
In the selection of teachers, 67% of parents focus on choosing experienced school teachers or teachers from training institutions, and some parents can accept college students in school.
At the same time, most parents don't pay much attention to whether the instructor has a professional qualification certificate, "it is the consensus of everyone to teach well."
In terms of costs, due to different regions, the cost of a lesson basically ranges from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan.
Changes in form under remediation
Small classes are favored
Reporters found in field investigations and questionnaires that small classes and group classes are becoming more and more popular among parents, and they are gradually becoming the mainstream form of subject training.
Walking into multiple communities in Jizhou, Hebei, Cangzhou, Liaoning, and Shenyang, Liaoning, the reporter noticed that most of the training advertisements posted in the communities were related to art and music, and rarely saw advertisements for training cultural courses.
However, residents told reporters that, in fact, there are many subject tuition classes hidden in the residential buildings, basically in the form of small classes and group classes. Some small advertisements are posted in the corridors, and more are passed on through word of mouth between parents. .
In the Tongyuan Community of Jizhou, an owner surnamed Li told reporters that his children are in small classes in the community, and the teacher teaches the children at home for about 100 yuan per lesson.
"I think it's pretty good. There are four or five children in a class. The teacher is also targeted for supplementary lessons, and it is convenient to pick up and drop off at home."
In Cangzhou Dongfeng Community, the parent of a high school student told reporters that her child and two classmates had a class together and invited a famous local “gold teacher” to teach. The teaching location was in the teacher’s home. Classes are 250 yuan.
The reporter asked if he could go to the site for a trial lesson?
The parent immediately shook his hand and said: “The school teacher violates the regulations to give students make-up lessons in the summer. If reported, we will be punished. We have repeatedly promised that we will ask her to make up lessons for a few people around us and will never let outsiders participate.
In the survey questionnaire, as for tutoring cultural classes, 72% of parents said they would choose small classes with less than 10 people or group classes, 15% of parents said they would choose one-on-one private tutoring, and only 13% of parents chose large classes with more than 10 people. .
A teacher with small classes at home in Jizhou told reporters that she is a retired teacher. She used to counsel relatives’ children during winter and summer vacations, and her children’s academic performance improved significantly. Later, relatives recommended her to some parents. I brought a few children together, "I don't charge a lot, just to make my life more fulfilling."
In the view of Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, the emergence of the phenomenon of group spelling is a result of the continuous efforts of the education sector to rectify training institutions.
During the remediation process, the business volume of some training institutions has been drastically reduced, and some have even been unable to start courses, or the cost of starting courses has increased significantly, leading to changes in the form of subject training and the emergence of a "crazy for classes".
This also shows that the demand for subject training in society has not changed substantially.
The parents of a student named Liu in Qingdao, Shandong agree with the above statement.
He believes that hard work and small classes are the development trend. "Now that social competition is becoming more and more fierce, parents naturally hope that their children can get ahead in their grades and find a good job in the future. Moreover, if you do not participate in summer training, children from other families will also Will you not participate? Since some training institutions do not offer courses, the more hidden class and small classes just fill this gap."
Many interviewees also pointed out: "Working in classes is actually quite influential. Don't talk about people coming in and out. Some children are young and naughty, chasing and playing in the room or even the corridor, making a lot of noise." Among them, from Ms. Wang from Huanggu of Shenyang said that she lived on the third floor of the old community, and on the fourth floor there was a teacher who worked hard to teach, "days have not been clean."
Difficulty in supervision and high risk
Comprehensive measures to treat both symptoms and root causes
"At present, school education cannot meet the real needs of the society, and off-campus training is limited, so the phenomenon of class spelling naturally appears." Cheng Fangping, a professor at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, said bluntly. Large, high security risk.
According to Cheng Pingyuan, a professor of sociology at Nanjing Normal University, small classes and grouping can be regarded as "underground operations." Their emergence meets market demand but does not comply with education policy regulations, and there are many hidden dangers in grouping, such as the teacher's ethics. , As well as child management, fire safety, personal safety and other issues, as well as overcharges and tax avoidance issues.
In the context of reducing the burden on students and parents, how can we solve the problem of class spelling, and even the problem of summer subject training?
Cheng Fangping believes that the phenomenon of shifting classes should be resolved by policies, and policies require multi-department participation in research and formulation, and they must be implementable.
At the same time, some mature experiences that have been formed are useful for reference, such as the colorful summer camps held by local government departments, the use of children’s palaces to carry out a series of activities, schools appropriately hold interest classes, and enterprises and institutions organize employee children’s outings. Solving problems requires all sectors of society. Form a joint force.
Chu Zhaohui believes that if the symptoms are not the root cause and the problem of shifting is solved, other problems will arise.
Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to systematically consider the governance of training institutions, improve the education evaluation mechanism, improve the effectiveness of schools, and achieve a balance between schools. Only when these are in place and there is no need for classmates, can the problem be truly solved.
How to reduce demand?
He put forward three suggestions: education evaluation reform, as far as possible to change the standard too single evaluation; efficiency improvement, improve the effectiveness of public schools; strive to achieve a balance between schools, so that there is no obvious gap between schools.
Regarding the issue of a small number of in-service teachers carrying out off-campus training, experts agreed that severe punishment should not be given.
The "Code of Professional Ethics for Primary and Secondary School Teachers" clearly states that teachers should consciously resist paid tutoring and do not use their positions for personal gain.
The Ministry of Education’s "Provisions on Prohibition of Paid Supplementary Lessons for Primary and Secondary School Teachers and on-the-job Primary and Secondary School Teachers" also pointed out that in-service primary and secondary school teachers who violate the regulations will be given criticism and education, admonition talks, inspections, and notifications until corresponding administrative sanctions, depending on the severity of the circumstances.
"Why are there many school teachers, even very good teachers, come out to training institutions or run classes on their own? Is it because the teachers' salaries are low, some schools have poor team building, or some people have problems with their ethics and ethics? I hope that the local government and relevant departments will be more considerate of the engineers of the human soul, and don't let teachers worry about things other than teaching, and don't let parents worry about extracurricular training." A parent in Shanghai said.