Preschool education has accelerated into a new era of "having a law to follow"
Parents and kindergarten teachers look forward to returning kindergarten time to their children
"It is gratifying that the draft preschool education law once again clarifies the identity of preschool education in the entire school education system." When she saw the report that "the "Preschool Education Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft") was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation", Yan Hong, deputy director of the kindergarten affiliated to Tsinghua University, finally fell to the ground, and she described how she felt at that time, "It was like running a marathon, finally reaching the end".
Engaged in preschool education for more than 20 years, Yan Hong has witnessed the rapid development of preschool education and has always paid attention to the legislative process of preschool education.
"Almost every year, we can see the proposal for preschool education legislation, and we often pay attention to and discuss preschool education together." Yan Hong believes that this reflects the great importance that the whole society attaches to preschool education, and it is also a "milestone" for the improvement of national education literacy.
Preschool education is accelerating into a new era of "having a law to follow". What are the expectations of parents, kindergarten teachers, principals and preschool experts?
Preschool teachers' incomes have increased, and they have more enthusiasm for education
"The biggest obstacle to preschool education is money." Gao Bingcheng is the director and associate researcher of the Preschool Education Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, and the deputy secretary-general of the China Preschool Education Research Association.
"The low salary of kindergarten teachers makes it difficult to attract excellent talents to teach." Through research, Gao Bingcheng found that in kindergartens, there is a big difference in salaries between non-regular teachers and teachers on staff, and the phenomenon of unequal pay for equal work is serious.
Article 25 of the Teachers Law stipulates that the average salary level of teachers shall not be lower than or higher than the average salary level of State civil servants, and shall be gradually increased. This should include kindergarten teachers.
Nowadays, the maximum fee standard for inclusive private parks has been clearly stipulated in all places, but most areas have not scientifically calculated the average cost of inclusive private parks, and the subsidy standards for inclusive private parks are too low, the subsidy is weak, the incentive effect is not obvious, and parents have to bear more school costs.
To this end, he hopes that after the legislation of preschool education, the funding and cost-sharing mechanism can be improved to ensure the priority development of preschool education. Ensure that the level of financial investment in preschool education continues to increase, and form a more sound financial input and cost-sharing mechanism for preschool education.
Talking about the issue of funding security, Yan Hong hopes that preschool education can achieve the rule of law in terms of funding security like compulsory education and higher education.
She learned that most of the funds related to pre-school education are now managed by local finances, and if local finances are good, more will be invested in pre-school education, and vice versa. As a result, the financial investment in preschool education fluctuates greatly.
Yan Hong said that at present, the funding guarantee for preschool education is flexible, and some places adopt a project system, and the funds are more or less affected by the project authorities. She looks forward to passing preschool education legislation to become more rigid in terms of funding security.
"I hope that education funding should be institutionalized and guaranteed, and the proportion and attention to preschool education should be increased." She said.
Huang Qi, who works in Hainan, is a mother of two, and she has dealt with many teachers during her child's kindergarten years. She learned that the income of kindergarten teachers is generally not high, and their work enthusiasm needs to be improved. She hopes to increase the income level of kindergarten teachers, "so that kindergarten teachers can have more enthusiasm for preschool education."
It is gratifying that the draft clearly proposes to improve the input mechanism and strengthen the guarantee of funds.
Ensure that the knowledge acquired by preschool teachers is scientific and up-to-date
Xu Yuanfeng, a teacher at Dingxin Kindergarten in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, has been engaged in preschool education since graduating in 2016. Although her university major is preschool education, over the years, with the development of preschool education and the acceleration of knowledge update iteration, she has found that the concepts and methods she has learned before have been difficult to meet the needs of her work.
In her teaching work, she found that individual children have behavioral problems, and she does not have enough educational and psychological knowledge as theoretical support, and cannot scientifically and objectively analyze the causes of children's behavior, resulting in a bottleneck in the education of these children.
Xu Yuanfeng once encountered that some children walked into the kindergarten without speaking, but walked out of the kindergarten gate but could speak naturally, and this behavior lasted for almost the entire kindergarten stage. At that time, she checked the relevant literature and thought that this may be "selective mutism", which may be caused by more serious separation anxiety, "but as a front-line teacher, I tried encouragement, guidance and other ways, but still had no effect, which made me feel that my knowledge and methods still need to be improved."
She told the reporter of China Youth Daily that as a front-line teacher, she needs to continuously improve her professional quality, see the individual differences of different children in practical activities, and at the same time master the scientific physical and mental laws and age characteristics, match different education methods, and teach according to aptitude.
"I look forward to allowing more teachers to receive continuing education and learn more scientific and advanced educational knowledge." What made Xu Yuanfeng happy was that she saw what she was looking forward to in the draft. The draft stipulates that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the teaching staff and improve the quality of teachers. Kindergartens shall scientifically carry out care and education activities on the basis of the laws of physical and mental development and age characteristics of preschool children, and must not teach curriculum content at the primary school level or adopt primary education methods.
Huang Qi was very happy to see that the draft stipulates that "kindergartens should scientifically implement care and education activities according to the laws of physical and mental development and age characteristics of preschool children", because her children have encountered similar problems.
Her eldest son, who has graduated from kindergarten and attended two private kindergartens, encounters teachers of varying quality. Individual teachers do not understand the laws of physical and mental development of preschool children, do not teach according to aptitude, and only stay at the goal of ensuring children's personal safety, and cannot carefully guide children's physical and mental health development.
She recalled that when her eldest son entered the new kindergarten as a transfer student, he had separation anxiety and had difficulty adjusting to the new group. Once, after Huang Qi left the kindergarten, the child hid under the table and sobbed softly, but the teacher ignored it and did not give any comfort, "It was only when other parents saw it when they sent their children into the kindergarten, and I was very disappointed." ”
In the news report, Huang Qi saw that many kindergartens, especially private kindergartens, in order to meet the psychological needs of some parents, the middle class began to practice writing and learn addition and subtraction. "This is obviously not in line with the laws of children's physical and mental development. Children only mature their finger muscles after kindergarten and can hold pens proficiently. ”
Zou Lina, director of the Kindergarten Mental Health Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a doctor of student development and education, found in teaching and scientific research that in the underlying ideas of education implementation, teachers' mastery of children's psychological laws is the basis for the implementation of all education, but in reality, many teachers have not reached the level of attention they should have. "I find that many kindergartens are running ineffective curricula and activities that do not cater to the individual needs of young children."
She found that the existing kindergarten teachers took the children to do crafts, drawings, and scientific experiments, but because they were not based on understanding the children's growth level, they only followed the steps and simply repeated, and did not encourage children to think deeply and explore, "Such activity design itself is not to promote children's effective learning, but simple imitation and mechanical operation." ”
She expects kindergartens to pay more attention to the individual development needs of young children and provide appropriate education for young children from the perspective of child psychological science development, "Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the training and guidance of preschool educators to ensure that the knowledge mastered is scientific and up-to-date." ”
Create a good atmosphere in which the whole society cares about and supports the reform and development of preschool education
Zou Lina believes that when the draft enters the deliberation stage for the first time, it is necessary to solicit more opinions from the public, gather the expectations and requirements of all parties, and benefit the people's livelihood and public opinion more. She suggested that parents, education administrators, preschool education practitioners, legal professionals and child psychologists should combine their respective experiences and experiences to give more opinions and suggestions, form a consensus, and make the law more abundant and perfect.
Gao Bingcheng said that in the process of deliberating the law, the education department, together with the propaganda department and the news media, should make full use of TV channels, newspapers and magazines, online media and other channels to publicize to kindergarten staff, parents and the public through feature films, brochures, series of articles and other forms, so that more people can understand the legislative process and care about preschool education.
He suggested that kindergartens, families and even the whole society should be guided to establish the concept of scientific education, and vigorously create a good atmosphere for the whole society to care about and support the reform and development of preschool education.
"When it comes to preschool education now, it's generally considered to be a kindergarten thing." Yan Hong said that at present, there are misunderstandings in the concept and positioning of preschool education in the whole society, and most of the people who take the initiative to understand preschool education are kindergarten teachers, and parents do not know enough.
She believes that since the preschool education legislation has entered the preliminary review process, it is necessary to carry out publicity and solicit more opinions and feedback.
Ding Ling, who works in Beijing, is attending kindergarten with her son. Knowing that the draft is in the deliberation stage, she said that as a parent, you should also understand the legislative process and make more suggestions, "looking forward to solving more practical problems through legislation."
Ding Ling believes that parents who understand the relevant processes of preschool education legislation and learn the specific content in the draft can improve their legal literacy, have a more standardized and clear understanding of kindergarten management, and have a better understanding of children's physical and mental development. In addition, from the national level, it is necessary to better protect the educational environment of children, which will play a good role in alleviating parents' educational anxiety.
China Youth Daily / China Youth Net reporter Li Huaxi Source: China Youth Daily