There is nothing wrong with building a beautiful school. Why is this "luxury middle school" confusing?
Xinhua News Agency, Xi'an, August 13 - Title: School built this beautiful spot no wrong, why it the "luxury school" confusing?
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Chen Chen, Shao Rui, Sun Zhenghao
The "Carp Jumping into the Dragon Gate" waterscape of the four-story fountain, cut off the rockery and waterfalls built by the real mountains... This is not a star hotel in a metropolis, but a newly built middle school in Zhen'an County, Shangluo City, a deeply impoverished county in Shaanxi not long after its hat was taken off. And behind this "luxury middle school" is even more questionable.
In general, schools that are more beautiful or even gorgeous are generally not questioned too much. After all, "no matter how poor you are, you cannot have poor education." However, a reporter from "Xinhua Viewpoint" found that the local fiscal revenue of Zhen'an County in 2019 was less than 200 million yuan, and the total investment of this middle school was as high as 710 million yuan, which led to high debts, making people not only whether its "luxury" appearance is " There are confusions about the "Image Project" variant, and there are even more suspicions that the office space of some school leaders has exceeded the standard.
"Luxury" campus in impoverished counties: spending more than 2 million yuan to cut mountains to create fake mountain waterfalls and waterscapes, and the area of several leadership offices is suspected to exceed the standard
In order to solve the problem of insufficient academic degrees in urban areas, Zhen'an County has begun to build the Xinzhen'an Middle School project in 2015. The new school site is located in Taiping Village, Yongle Street, Zhen'an County, about 14 kilometers away from the county seat. It has been recently delivered. According to the school, the school covers an area of 272 mu, with a total construction area of 129,000 square meters, and plans to accommodate 6,000 students.
The reporter visited on the spot a few days ago and found that the new site of Zhen'an Middle School has 24 main buildings such as teaching building, dormitory building, catering building, gymnasium, and teachers' apartment. 120 teaching classes are set up, which greatly improves the educational conditions in the mountainous area.
However, what is more conspicuous on the campus are some facilities that are not related to teaching: entering the campus from the magnificent antique archway gate, the 4-story fountain waterscape is leveled up along the trail, and 16 stone carp carps are distributed on both sides, one side is about 8 meters long and 1.5 meters The high school motto marble monument is located at the end of the fountain. According to school staff, the waterscape takes the meaning of "carp jumping over the dragon gate", and the school motto stele from Xi'an cost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.
Passing through the huge square arch of the school administration building, a library with triple eaves and spires, modeled after the Temple of Heaven and Prayer Hall, is built on a high platform. There are some reading rooms in the building, but the space utilization rate is low, and only a sand table is placed in the large raised atrium.
On the campus, except for the stone railings that can be seen everywhere, every building has a roof that resembles a Tang-style building. In the southwest corner, there is a pavilion on a multi-level waterfall with a length of about 50 meters and a drop of about 15 meters, surrounded by rockery, waterwheel, plank road, water feature, stone arch bridge, etc.
According to the relevant person in charge of the preparation office of Zhen'an Middle School, the rockery waterfall waterscape cost more than 2 million yuan, and for this, part of the mountain was flattened and the anti-skid slope retaining wall was built. The green belt and pipe network of the school’s affiliated projects totaled more than 80 million yuan.
The internal facilities of the administrative office building are also quite eye-catching. The visual area of the office with the "Deputy Secretary" sign is more than 30 square meters, and the visual area of the other office with the sign of "Director of Section Management Office" is about 30 square meters.
According to the "Standards for the Construction of Office Buildings for Party and Government Organs", the area of county-level deputy offices in county-level organs shall not exceed 24 square meters. As a deputy county-level unit, Zhen'an Middle School has offices such as the “Deputy Secretary” and “Director of the Department of Curriculum Management” which obviously exceed the standard.
In addition, in the school restaurant with a total area of 14,000 square meters, there are multiple private rooms on the 4th floor, with mahogany flooring, chairs and flowers, and elegant tableware.
A cadre of the Zhen'an County Party Committee introduced that the reason for the construction of the campus to imitate the Tang-style architectural style is because the local area wants to create Tang culture to "promote the integration of culture and tourism."
Last year, the local fiscal revenue was only 178 million yuan, and more than 50 million yuan of loans need to be repaid every year for 12 consecutive years
As early as February 2013, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Diligence and Thrift Education and Construction of a Resource-saving Campus", proposing to construct school buildings in accordance with the principles of simplicity, practicality, application and resource conservation, and strictly control the cost standards of school building construction projects , Do not engage in luxurious decoration, and resolutely put an end to "luxury school gate", "luxury office building (room)" and so on.
The "Opinions on Further Adjusting and Optimizing the Structure and Improving the Use of Educational Funds" issued by the General Office of the State Council in August 2018 clearly stated that education should be implemented strictly and frugally, image projects and performance projects are strictly prohibited, and the construction of luxury schools beyond standards is strictly prohibited. Funding must be used in key areas. We must do our best, do what we can, and do not engage in the project of "graining forever".
According to the reporter's investigation, the total investment of Zhen'an Middle School project reached 710 million yuan, and Zhen'an County needs to repay at least 50 million yuan in loans every year for 12 consecutive years.
According to the relevant person in charge of the School Preparation Office, the Zhen'an Middle School project was launched in 2015, and the initial costs of land demolition, three links and one leveling, planning and design cost 90.8 million yuan. Subsequently, the Zhen'an County State Investment Corporation and the contractor jointly invested more than 100 million yuan to establish a project management company, and raised 320 million yuan from the bank to collect the estimated total investment of 510 million yuan.
"Now that several years have passed, the cost of the final accounts has changed again, and the investment has reached 710 million yuan." The person in charge said that in addition to repaying 53.37 million yuan to the bank every year according to the estimated budget, there is about 200 million yuan. Arrears. "In the future, the county will pay back part of the money, and then find a way to get the higher-level funds to solve part of it."
As a deeply impoverished county that was decapitated in May 2019, Zhen'an County completed local fiscal revenue of 178 million yuan in 2019, and public budget expenditures mainly rely on fiscal transfer payments. Zhen'an County's "Report on the Implementation of the 2019 Fiscal Budget and the 2020 Fiscal Budget Draft" shows that in 2019, "the task of preventing and resolving government debt risks is arduous, and the pressure on debt repayment is increasing." From January to May 2020, the county's local tax revenue was 60.81 million yuan, a decrease of 7.2% from the same period last year. According to the report, in 2020, "government debt service will increase sharply and the contradiction between revenue and expenditure will become more acute."
Be wary of the spread of luxury to people's livelihood projects
During the interview, some local cadres believed that building schools with high standards embodies the concept of "no matter how poor they are, they cannot be poor." Even if they are built ahead of schedule, it is understandable. However, some experts said that borrowing to run a school sounds like a good thing, but in fact, a lot of funds are not really used to improve teaching, resulting in a waste of funds, which is also formalism and a distorted view of political achievements.
Some teachers of Zhen'an Middle School reported that while the hardware has been improved, the school's teaching staff and other software have not been significantly improved. Moreover, some plans are unreasonable, causing a waste of resources.
School information shows that the school has 4 teacher apartment buildings, of which 104 are two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom, and 334 are one bedroom and one bathroom. All apartments are "Simmons, wardrobes, bookcases, sofas, tables and chairs, dining tables, stoves, Sanitary bathing and TV broadband are all available, and you can check in directly with your bag."
However, many teachers report that most of the teachers’ homes are in the county and will not move in, which may cause the apartment buildings to become idle. Moreover, the new school is 14 kilometers away from the county seat, and monthly commuting expenses will be more than 1,000 yuan, which increases the burden on teachers.
Quartz, vice president of the Chinese Sociological Association and head of the people's livelihood group of the Shaanxi Provincial Decision-making Advisory Committee, said that the school’s advanced level is understandable, but the school is not a scenic spot. It is not necessary to build antique buildings and rockery waterfalls beyond its practical value.
Some experts said that the original intention of the poverty-stricken areas to attach importance to education is worthy of affirmation, but we must do what we can. Especially after building buildings and halls where the wind stops, it is necessary to prevent the wind of luxury from spreading to people's livelihood projects. While improving the educational hardware, the government should also invest funds in the construction of teaching staff and personnel training.