New Cultural Observation丨Understanding the Educational Logic Behind "Double Reduction"
Looking back on 2021, the "double reduction" is undoubtedly one of the most popular and most influential education reform measures.
In May, the Central Deep Reform Commission deliberated and approved the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Work Burden of Students in Compulsory Education and the Burden of Off-campus Training."
In July, this document was issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council.
Since then, a series of supporting policies and measures have been introduced, from inside school to outside school, from parents and students to principals and teachers, all adjustments and changes have been made more or less along with the implementation of the policy.
Looking back: Is the "double reduction" really reduced?
The effect of "double reduction" is beyond doubt.
Subject-related off-campus training institutions have been transformed and shut down one after another. It is difficult to find off-campus training advertisements in subways and televisions. After-school services cover a wider range of options, and the total amount of homework for children is reduced.
According to the monitoring results announced by the Ministry of Education's press conference on December 21, since the implementation of the policy, the governance of off-campus training institutions, homework management, after-school services, and classroom teaching have been significantly improved.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, subject-based off-campus training institutions have been significantly reduced. At present, offline off-campus training institutions have been reduced by 83.8%, and online off-campus training institutions have been reduced by 84.1%.
Some of the remaining training institutions will be turned into non-profit institutions, and government-guided prices will be implemented; those that are not suitable for "turning from business to non-business" will be further written off.
The proportion of students who completed written assignments within the specified time has increased from 46% before the “double reduction” to more than 90% at present.
99.6% of the parents of students reported that the teachers did not assign homework to their parents or ask them to correct the homework this semester.
The proportion of students participating in after-school services has increased from 49.1% in the last semester to 91.9% at present, which has effectively promoted students' learning back to campus.
The survey showed that 73% of parents said that the time for their children to complete written homework was significantly less than before the "double reduction", and 85.4% of parents expressed satisfaction with the school's after-school services.
In the anonymous survey questionnaire received by the School Direct Reporting Platform of the Ministry of Education, the vast majority of parents expressed satisfaction with the school’s burden reduction and quality improvement work.
Thinking: What is the direction of education reform behind the policy?
"Double reduction" is by no means an isolated policy. It is an important step in the educational development and reform chessboard.
Starting from this step, what must be leveraged is the overall reform of basic education and the construction of a new education ecosystem centered on educating people.
“One of the most prominent problems of compulsory education is that the burden of primary and secondary school students is too heavy, and the short-sightedness and utilitarian problems have not been fundamentally resolved.” The 19th meeting of the Central Deep Reform Commission pointed out that compulsory education is the top priority of national education. Fully implement the party's education policy, implement the fundamental task of Lide to cultivate people, give full play to the main function of the school to teach and educate people, and strengthen the standardized management of online and offline off-campus training institutions.
It is not difficult to see from this passage that the goal of advancing "double reduction" is to further correct the direction of education development, return to the original intention of educating people for the party and the country, fully implementing the party's educational policy, developing quality education, and cultivating morality, intelligence, and physical beauty. A socialist builder and successor who develops in an all-round way.
Specifically, it is necessary to use "double reduction" as the starting point to promote profound changes in education concepts, education systems, education methods, education evaluation, and home-school-community collaboration.
If you understand this logic, you can better understand the series of reform measures introduced by the central and local governments.
To solve short-sightedness and utilitarianism, it is necessary to change "only scores" and "only advance higher education", and truly pay equal attention to morality, intelligence, physical education, beauty and labor.
The total amount of homework in the school is reduced, the pressure of examinations is reduced, and the management and training institutions outside the school are regulated. Unrestricted use of "volumes" to incite education anxiety is prohibited, and education evaluation methods are reformed.
Nine departments including the Ministry of Education issued the "County Middle School Promotion Plan", emphasizing the promotion of enrollment models based on the results of junior high school level examinations combined with comprehensive quality evaluation examinations; a large proportion of places promoted exchanges between cadres and teachers; Ningxia, Beijing and other places have greatly increased the high school entrance examination Sports scores; labor education into courses and teaching materials... A series of measures have shown that the field of basic education is taking "double reduction" as an opportunity to further clarify the education system, purify the social education ecology, and build a new pattern of education development.
Exploring: Where shall we go in the era of "double reduction"?
By combing the policy logic, it can be clear that the “double reduction” will surely be pushed forward with great strength.
At a press conference on the 21st, the Ministry of Education stated that in 2022, the “double reduction” supervision will continue to be regarded as the “No. 1 Project” of education supervision and will increase supervision, notification, interviews and accountability.
Under unprecedented intensity and continuous high pressure, it is better to adjust the direction and follow the trend if you continue to wait and see.
For students and parents, it is necessary to see the general direction of education reform and development, and not only focus on "scores", but to make up for shortcomings and weaknesses in accordance with the requirements of the comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, physical education, art and labor, and truly achieve comprehensive developing.
As far as schools and teachers are concerned, it is necessary to further give full play to the role of the main position of school education.
Take teaching as the core work, improve the level of classroom teaching, and pay more attention to "adjusting structure and improving quality" when assigning homework.
At the same time, enrich after-school service items and improve after-school service quality.
For local education departments, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a high-quality and balanced basic public education service system, focus on making up for shortcomings, promote fairness, comprehensively guarantee the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, and accelerate the reduction of regional, urban and rural, inter-school, and group education gaps.
For off-campus training institutions, abandon the idea of "scratching the ball" or "waiting for the limelight", make a decisive transformation, get rid of path dependence, uphold the original intention of education, and maintain a "beneficial supplement" position.