How to alleviate the anxiety of "chicken baby" parents
Part of elementary and middle school enrollment is linked to competition results, leading to chaos in various social competitions and training
● One of the main reasons why parents choose to let their children become "chicken babies" is that in the enrollment of some prestigious primary and secondary schools, whether the students have won any social competition awards as an important basis for admission
● In the context of elementary and middle school enrollment and social competitions, letting children participate in these competitions may not only go against the children's wishes and be detrimental to their own healthy growth, but also violate the good original intention of setting up social competitions.
At the same time, some social competitions have their own violations, which are not conducive to the development and growth of students.
● It is necessary to thoroughly implement the regulations on nearby admissions for compulsory education exemptions and the policy of “citizens' recruitment”, and it is strictly forbidden to link the admissions of primary and secondary schools with any form of social competition, and resolutely cut off this interest chain
□ The reporter's trainee reporter Zhang Shoukun
□ reporter Wang Yang
Recently, the term "chicken baby" once again swept the screen of the circle of friends.
The so-called "chicken baby" refers to the educational behavior of parents beating their children with blood, constantly arranging cram schools and interest classes for their children, and constantly letting the children work hard.
It is understood that one of the main reasons why parents choose to let their children become "chicken babies" is that in the enrollment of some prestigious primary and secondary schools, whether the students have won any social competition awards as an important basis for admission.
Experts interviewed by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that in the context of primary and secondary school enrollment and social competitions, letting children participate in these competitions may not only go against the children’s wishes, is not conducive to their own healthy growth, but also violates the establishment of social competitions. Good original intention.
At the same time, some social competitions have their own violations, which are not conducive to the development and growth of students.
Chicken baby phenomenon intensified
The enthusiasm for off-campus training continues
Recently, Zhang Na, a parent in Haidian District, Beijing, has learned a lot of new vocabulary.
She told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that in addition to the "chicken baby", there are still many "black words" in the parent circle.
For example, "Niuwa" refers to children who are particularly good in some aspects. The good ones in Mathematical Olympiad are called "Ao Niu", and the good ones in English are called "Bing Niu"; "Qingwa" is also called Puwa, which refers to ordinary children; "Refers to the training direction of quality education skills, such as music, physical beauty and other talents; "Grass School" refers to ordinary schools corresponding to prestigious schools, and "Six Xiaoqiang" refers to the High School Affiliated to Renmin University, Tsinghua High School, Peking University High School, and Eleventh High School in Haidian, Beijing. , No. 101 Middle School, Six Middle Schools Affiliated to Shou Normal University.
Zhang Na said that her child is just a "green baby" who does not stand out at all-neither "Ao Niu" nor "British Cow", let alone a "Vegetarian Chicken", currently attending a "Grass School". It is impossible to step into the "six strong".
Judging from the admission situation in previous years, if a child can enter the "Six Strong", the probability of going to Tsinghua University will be greatly increased, but the difficulty of enrollment can also be imagined.
However, there are still many parents who are working hard for this, and Zhang Na once joined a "chicken baby" group.
"Mathematics Olympiad must participate and be awarded. If you want to enter the experimental class, you need to take the TOEFL. In addition, you also need to look at the children's scores in various social competitions, such as musical instrument competitions, science and technology competitions, etc. If you don't force your children to participate in various off-campus training classes In the future, it is almost more difficult to enter these schools than to climb to the sky." Zhang Na said.
Li Hong, a parent from Fengtai District, Beijing, also faces the same anxiety.
She said that as the 22nd High School and the Second Affiliated High School of Normal University successively released the enrollment guidelines for special students for the high school entrance examination, the admissions work for special students for the Beijing high school entrance examination this year also kicked off. Some schools announced more specific enrollment conditions, while others were more general.
Zhang Na said that the surrounding parents have enrolled their children in various training classes, participated in various grade examinations and competitions, and their peers have been "chicken babies" since they were young.
She originally wanted to raise her children in the "Buddhist Department", but seeing this situation, she decisively arranged various courses for her children, such as painting, Go, English, tennis, etc., as long as she had time to learn.
"If a child does not study, he will be left behind by other peers. Let the child learn so many courses, even if the policy or trend changes in the future, there will always be one subject that can be crushed."
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that the main reason why parents are obsessed with letting their children participate in various competitions is that these competitions still play an important role in the enrollment of some elementary and middle schools.
"It's not that you will be admitted to which awards or certificates you have, but as a reference, when two children are interested in entering a school, the school will use this to make a decision."
In stark contrast to the hot "chicken baby" phenomenon and off-campus training classes, some social competitions have false behaviors and there are chaos in off-campus training institutions.
It is understood that some parents said recently that some teachers in some institutions claimed that they would be guaranteed to win the first prize of Beijing-level competitions by spending 12,000 to 15,000 yuan, which would be helpful in the resume of Xiaoshengchu.
The competition is the "Ye Shengtao Cup" Chinese Youth Composition Competition, organized by a company called "Beijing Shengtao Wenrun Education and Culture Co., Ltd.".
It is worth noting that the "Ye Shengtao Cup" was not approved by the Ministry of Education. The authoritative competition named after Mr. Ye Shengtao-the "Ye Shengtao Cup" National Middle School Students New Composition Competition.
Competition performance affects further studies
Training institutions take advantage of the opportunity to profit
Liu Lei, an Anhui parent, has also encountered similar things.
"My child learns mathematics at an off-school tutoring organization, and this organization holds a math competition every year. The teachers of this organization told me that you can get a better place in this competition with money, and they compete with a local school If there is cooperation, if the ranking is high, the probability of being admitted to this school will be greater.” Liu Lei said that he discovered that there were many shady scenes in social competitions such as manipulation of the competition results.
Chu Zhaohui believes that various competitions in society are not problematic in themselves, but when the result of the competition is combined with a certain utilitarian goal, it exceeds or distorts its own function.
Chu Zhaohui said that everyone’s personality or advantages are multifaceted, and these competitions themselves actually reflect a child’s hobbies, but when their scores are linked to higher education, the seemingly diversified competitions are actually left. A single evaluation standard has been created, which has caused various problems such as fraud and shady.
Cheng Pingyuan, a professor at the School of Social Development of Nanjing Normal University, told a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that some education and training institutions are currently over-promoting and selling anxiety. The purpose is to allow parents and children to participate in more social competitions, or even illegal and copycat social competitions. , In order to make a profit.
“Whether children like it or not, whether they have this talent or not, they are forced to participate by their parents. This not only creates additional learning pressure for students, but the generally high training costs are also not a small economic expense for ordinary families. Participating in the competition in this way, Not only does it violate the laws of education itself, it has a huge impact on children's sleep, physical and mental health, etc., but also intensifies vicious competition among peers." Cheng Pingyuan said.
In fact, since many years ago, the local education authorities and the Ministry of Education have noticed the link between the enrollment of primary and secondary schools and social competitions, and have issued relevant policies to regulate them.
For example, as early as 2004, the Jiangsu provincial and municipal education departments stated that subject competitions at the elementary level are not allowed to be held, and the results of any competitions shall not be linked to the promotion of elementary school to junior high school and the high school entrance examination.
In 2018, in the face of countless elementary and middle school student competitions, the Ministry of Education issued the "Administrative Measures for National Competitions for Elementary and Secondary School Students (Trial)", which stipulates that only formal institutions registered with the Central Committee and the Ministry of Civil Affairs can organize There is a national competition for elementary and middle school students, and the competition implements a list management system, which is applied, reviewed and adjusted once a year, and it is reiterated that the results of the competition shall not be used as the basis for enrollment in elementary and middle schools.
In 2020, the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Further Strengthening the Management of National Competitions for Primary and Middle School Students" once again clarified that any competition awards will not be used as a basis for enrolling students in the basic education stage.
On March 31, 2021, the Director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, Lu Yugang, stated at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that the existing 5 Olympiads are only for students in the high school stage and not for students in the compulsory education stage. He clearly stated that it is strictly forbidden to enroll in primary and secondary schools. Enrollment is linked to any form of social competition.
Although various policies have been introduced, it seems that there is still a certain distance from its real landing, and it is still very difficult to completely decouple social competition from the enrollment of primary and secondary schools.
Cheng Pingyuan believes that the current education is still under the baton of the college entrance examination, and the assessment of teachers and schools is still based on the rate of enrollment. Children who get ranked through social competitions tend to have better results in schools, which has also led to some schools. For related inspections and requirements, they just walk through the scene, and what they value is the student's competition results.
"Even if there is no competition, various forms of ability'tests' will be extended, which is inevitable under the abnormal competition of education." Cheng Pingyuan said.
According to Cheng Fangping, a professor at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, the root of the link between social competition and enrollment lies in the large gap between public schools, which allows education and training institutions to take advantage of the gap.
"In some places, schools have insufficient teachers to recruit students; some schools are desperately expanding, even going abroad to recruit students. As a result, parents' anxiety is transferred to students. This is the result of the uneven distribution of resources in public schools. ."
Promote admission to nearby places without exams
Cut off the chain of illegal interests
How can the enrollment of primary and secondary schools be truly decoupled from social competition?
In July 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Compulsory Education", which clarified that "students shall not be selected in the name of interviews, evaluations, etc." and that the number of applicants exceeds the enrollment plan. Admission", to promote the full coverage of the nearest enrollment in compulsory education schools without examination.
Lu Yugang also stated at the press conference on March 31 that the admissions policy must be strictly implemented.
"Last year, the compulsory education stage fully implemented the'citizen recruiting' policy and achieved good results. This system must be implemented unswervingly without any change"; "It is necessary to thoroughly implement the compulsory education exemption and nearby enrollment regulations and The "Citizens Recruitment" policy strictly prohibits linking the enrollment of primary and secondary schools with any form of social competition, resolutely cutting off this chain of interests."
In addition, the Ministry of Education stated that in the next step, it will further increase its work. In terms of strengthening competition project management, strictly follow the competition project management specifications and the commitment of the organizer, strengthen the entire process management of the competition project, and ensure that the competition project is in accordance with the law. Regarding the serious investigation and punishment of illegal competitions, we will increase the investigation and punishment of competitions that have not been approved. It is found that they are investigated and dealt with together. Elementary and secondary schools and social training institutions are strictly prohibited from organizing primary and secondary school students to participate in illegal competitions.
Chu Zhaohui said that in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Education, contests that are whitelisted (considered as compliant by the Ministry of Education) must not be for profit and must be "zero fees."
However, some professional institutions cannot operate normally if they don't charge, and some are playing tricks and charging instead.
"At present, my country mainly manages these competitions through administrative means. As a result, some places have not achieved the expected goals. Not only may it cause excessive expansion of the power of the administrative department, but at the same time, as an administrative department, it may not be clear whether the competition is professional or not. Therefore, after experiencing the last round of management, some competitions that have done professional standards for decades have been interrupted; some institutions that have entered the whitelist may also have problems such as fraud."
Chu Zhaohui believes that for the management of competition projects and institutions, the most important thing is to establish a relatively independent professional evaluation system.
Before the establishment of the evaluation system, what people said about violations was mainly relative to the government's policy documents, and they were not evaluated from a professional perspective.
This professional evaluation system is not composed of the government or the school, but professional people do professional things.
After the evaluation system is established, people will evaluate in accordance with the law on the basis of the rule of law, instead of simply using administrative requirements or orders to say that this is legal, that is illegal, that this is whitelisted, and that is not whitelisted.
The final evaluation needs to enter the track of the rule of law to solve these problems.
Cheng Pingyuan also believes that simply using administrative means to decouple the enrollment of primary and secondary schools from social competition will cause perfunctory responsibilities and fraud.
"You can't use administrative methods across the board. You need to go back to education itself, especially education evaluation itself. The diversified evaluation of children depends on not only the performance but also the ability, not only the high score but also the high ability. Many problems will naturally be solved."
Cheng Fangping said that due to the lack of a specialized school law and the lack of evaluation standards in many aspects of education, there are huge differences in public schools, and many families are overwhelmed by school district housing and education and training costs.
But once the school education is balanced, the school in front of the house is a good school, and everyone is satisfied with the school in front of the house, and the linkage problem will naturally cease to exist.
If the problem is to solve the problem, and the root matter is not solved, other problems will arise if the symptoms are not solved.
Therefore, a specialized school law should now be on the agenda.