Recently, the Ministry of Education issued two consecutive notices on primary and secondary school competitions: one illegal competition was investigated and punished, and the qualifications for another competition were revoked.
In September 2022, the Ministry of Education announced the list of national competitions for primary and secondary school students in the 2022-2025 school year, known as the "white list competition", with a total of 44 competitions on the list.
How has the “whitelist competition” been going over the past year? Why are “black competitions” that are not on the “white list” repeatedly banned? What are the attitudes of parents, children and teachers towards these two competitions?
"Whitelist competition" must be regularly reviewed and approved
Since 2018, the Ministry of Education has announced the list of approved competitions three times, established a competition "whitelist" system, strictly controlled the number of competitions, improved the quality of competitions, and ensured the public welfare nature of competitions.
In 2022, in order to further improve the management system for competition activities for primary and secondary school students and reduce the excessive burden on students caused by competition, the Ministry of Education and other departments jointly issued the "Management Measures for National Competition Activities for Primary and Secondary School Students" (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Measures" 》).
The "Administration Measures" emphasize that any school, student and parent must adhere to the principle of voluntariness to participate in competition activities. At the same time, it is clearly required that the organization and organization of competition activities must adhere to the public welfare and must not be for profit; the various tasks of the competition must not be entrusted or authorized.
In September 2022, the Ministry of Education issued a notice requiring the shortlisted batch of "whitelist competitions" to be held in principle from September 2022 to August 2025. During this period, it shall not be held more than once per school year, and the cumulative number shall not exceed 3 times.
Competitions and the results of competitions are not used as a basis for enrollment in primary and secondary schools or as a bonus point project for college entrance examinations.
The "Salute to Heroes" National Youth Cultural and Art Creation Theme Education Competition, which was recently revoked by the Ministry of Education, was originally an activity on the "white list". However, the competition had private sub-events, layers of subcontracting, illegal fees, and management. Prominent problems such as chaos have had a bad impact on society.
After repeated interviews and reminders, the organizer still failed to make proper rectifications, which seriously violated the relevant provisions of the "Management Measures" and was severely punished.
As of now, there are only 43 items left in the “whitelist competition”.
"This is not only a need to further implement the 'double reduction' policy, but also to better warn relevant institutions to run competitions in compliance, and truly make competitions a useful supplement to school education, rather than turning them into commercial operations, and we cannot take chances." Dong Shengzu, a member of the National Expert Committee on Off-campus Training Supervision and Director of the Private Education Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences, said.
Xue Haiping, a member of the National Expert Committee for the Supervision of Off-Campus Training and Director of the Off-Campus Education Research Institute for Primary and Secondary School Students at Capital Normal University, believes that some competitions may exaggerate their awards in publicity to attract participation from students and parents, but the actual recognition of the awards is not high; Or the competition organization process lacks transparency and the judging criteria are unclear, leading to unfair results.
Xue Haiping suggested that "whitelist competitions" that have passed the review should also be regularly inspected and approved for their competition behavior.
Under the premise of ensuring the behavioral norms of the competition, students with spare academic ability can be encouraged to participate in the "white list competition" to cultivate students' innovative spirit and ability and lay the foundation for the country's cultivation of scientific and technological innovation talents.
Why “Black Competition” Is Prohibited Again and Again
The reporter noticed that in addition to the “whitelist competition”, there are also a large number of “blacklist competitions”.
On the way to participate in the painting competition, Liu Yan and her son had been thinking about how to draw the theme of this competition-"My Dream".
In order to attract Liu Yan to take her children to participate, the teacher of the painting tutoring class told her that "everyone who participates will receive a prize."
Her child is about to go to elementary school, and Liu Yan’s plan is, “If I win an award, it will look better on my resume.”
When we arrived at the competition site, the situation was not at all what we expected.
The teacher asked the child what he liked, and the child said he liked boats.
So, the teacher downloaded a photo of a boat from the Internet and asked the children to copy it.
Liu Yan said frankly: "This has nothing to do with the theme of the competition, and it does not give children any space to use their imagination, inspiration and talent." She saw from the TV monitor outside the classroom that there were some difficult places in the painting, " The teacher actually started to do it directly."
This kind of competition tutoring course cost Liu Yan 6 classes, and each class cost a lot of money.
What Liu Yan encountered was a "black competition" purely for profit.
A teacher from a tutoring institution said frankly: "The purpose of organizing competitions is to sell courses. Having competitions and winning prizes will be more attractive to parents and children. Otherwise, how can parents consume the lesson packs they buy?"
Why are “black competitions” targeting primary and secondary school students so often banned in the market?
Dong Shengzu analyzed that some institutions or individuals are motivated by profit-seeking, evading administrative supervision, running competitions in violation of regulations, and fabricating various "good news" to confuse students and parents in order to achieve the purpose of "taking the bait".
"Affected by old concepts and habitual thinking, some parents of students still mistakenly believe that as long as they win prizes in competitions, it will help their children to advance to higher schools or be recommended for excellence. They want to 'optimize their resumes' for their children, and there is a herd mentality. There are also some parents They want to know their children’s learning status, but they cannot meet their requirements by relying only on school exams, so they choose to participate in competitions.” Dong Shengzu said that these psychology of parents are exploited by commercial organizations or individuals, resulting in the repeated prohibition of “black competitions”.
In addition, some experts pointed out that a few schools have not eradicated the tendency to "look high" on competition results when recruiting students, which has also intensified the pursuit of competition by parents and students.
Due to the diversity and flexibility of competition activities, it is difficult for relevant departments to implement comprehensive, timely and dynamic supervision, which also gives opportunities for "black competitions" to take advantage of.
The China Private Education Association recently reminded that some institutions and individuals hold "China Cup" competitions in Handan, Hebei, Tai'an, Shandong and other places in the name of study tours.
After verification with the relevant local government departments, the competition was an illegal competition, the test papers have been confiscated, and the relevant responsible persons are under investigation by the relevant departments.
Xue Haiping said that study tours are an emerging education model and consumption format in recent years, involving multiple management departments such as education, cultural tourism, and marketing. They can also easily provide soil for "black competition" and require strict supervision.
Cultivate interest and improve quality, allowing competition to return to its original meaning
Parent Li Xin has always been keen on letting her children participate in various competitions.
Whenever there is a competition notice in the parent group, "I will look at it carefully for fear of missing the opportunity."
Even though Li Xin knew about the existence of the "whitelist competition", she still felt that "the more entries, the better" and did not really care about the gold content of the competition.
Once, when her son participated in an online Mathematical Olympiad competition, Li Xin found that the invigilator was not strict at all.
"In order to get a good ranking, I just entered the competition myself. Anyway, as long as you submit the answer, you will get a prize."
On Li Xin's child's admission resume, the first prize of the "Math Olympiad Competition" was also included.
She firmly said, "Don't look at these Mathematical Olympiad competitions and the like for nothing, but they are definitely one of the important criteria for schools to select children."
"For a long time, competition award certificates have been regarded by parents as a bargaining chip for primary school students to compete for high-quality educational resources. Although policies have been introduced many times to regulate them, the popularity of many competitions has not diminished. Therefore, great efforts are needed to guide parents and students to truly break the opposition. The superstition of competition." Dong Shengzu said that the role of competition should be viewed rationally. For some students with subject expertise and interests and ability to learn, participating in competitions can broaden their horizons, stimulate their potential, and achieve the purpose of educating people through competition.
But not all students are suited to compete.
"You must not participate in various meaningless competitions out of utilitarianism, and you must consciously resist all kinds of 'black competitions', otherwise it will increase students' extracurricular burden and affect their physical and mental health."
The Ministry of Education clearly stipulates that even "whitelist competitions" will not be used as a basis for enrollment in primary and secondary schools.
Xue Haiping believes that the purpose of this move is to purify and optimize the competition environment, return the competition to its original meaning of interest cultivation and quality improvement, and truly become a powerful starting point for promoting students' all-round development and healthy growth.
Xue Haiping also suggested that the enrollment behavior of primary and secondary schools should be strictly monitored.
Education departments in various regions should pay close attention to important time points such as the enrollment season, deploy special inspections, and seriously investigate and deal with the secret linking of competition results and enrollment. For schools that violate regulations, relevant personnel should be held accountable in accordance with laws and regulations.
(Our reporter Chen Peng)