Labor education becomes a compulsory course: return to the era of "study engineering and agriculture"?

China News Weekly reporter / Xu Tian

A few days ago, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Labor Education in Colleges, Universities, and Primary Schools in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), and labor education has also become a hot topic in the field of education.

According to the "Opinions", a labor education system will be built in the future, and all compulsory courses will be established in primary and secondary schools, families, schools, and society will play a role in labor education. Qualified teachers colleges will open relevant majors, and labor Accomplishment will also become an important reference or basis for admission to the first and highest schools.

The Ministry of Education proposed that they will focus on labor education as a key task for a period to come. In the future, this "Opinion" will be further refined.

Several interviewed experts told China News Weekly that the "Opinions" aimed to cultivate students' labor values. However, for some basic cognitions, including what is labor education, how to carry out labor education, and how to evaluate labor education, it is necessary to reach further consensus in the industry.

Construction of labor education system

Labor education is not a new term. The "labor education" of De Zhi Zhi Mei Lao has been discussed several times in academia.

Zeng Tianshan, deputy director of the Institute of Vocational and Technical Education Center of the Ministry of Education, pointed out that as early as the founding of New China, Mao Zedong had repeatedly proposed the combination of labor and education. In the 1950s, the combination of education and productive labor was written into the party ’s educational policy and incorporated into the Constitution. Studying engineering and agriculture, opening schools, etc. are all products of that era.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping's speech at the National Conference on Educational Work further stated, "The rapid development of modern economy and technology requires the rapid improvement of educational quality and educational efficiency, and requires us to continue to have the content and methods of combining education with production and labor. New development ". The academic community has launched a large discussion on the educational policy and research on the combination of labor and education in the new period, and has made a certain degree of rectification of the school's labor education. The development of labor technology classes began in that period.

For decades, labor education has not been a new term. However, the “Opinions” released this time proposed for the first time that a labor education system reflecting the characteristics of the times should be built.

Curriculum setting, class content, etc. all directly affect the curriculum arrangement of students and teachers, so it is one of its most concerned aspects. According to the "Opinions", compulsory labor education courses must be set up in both primary and secondary schools. Among them, the labor education class in primary and secondary schools is no less than one hour per week, and the school also has to stipulate the daily extra-curricular work hours of the students. The school must set up a labor week. And ordinary colleges and universities should clarify that labor education mainly relies on courses, and the undergraduate level is not less than 32 hours, and colleges and universities can arrange labor months. In addition, vocational colleges should carry out labor education with practical training courses as the main carrier, and the special education courses on labor spirit, etc. should not be less than 16 hours.

In terms of content, according to different educational goals, there are corresponding arrangements. At the lower grades of elementary school, we focus on the enlightenment of labor education. At the upper grades, we focus on hygiene and work habits. Junior high schools should increase their labor skills and knowledge and participate in productive labor appropriately. The feelings of others and serving the society; colleges and universities should focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, so that students learn to solve problems creatively, establish a correct view of career selection, and understand the truth of misrepresentation and hard work.

Whether it is the curriculum or the content of the class, it actually reflects a more core understanding, how to understand labor education?

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, told China News Weekly that elementary and middle schools in some cities have been exploring labor education in recent years, and the form is basically to study engineering and agriculture, and some schools go to fields and factories. Some schools have set up labor education practice bases.

However, Tan Chuanbao, director of the Citizen and Moral Education Research Center of Beijing Normal University, told China News Weekly that the form of labor has changed with the development of the times. Compared with the 1950s, the current tertiary industry accounts for more than half of GDP If it emphasizes the study of engineering and agriculture, and distinguishes labor education from knowledge education, it seems a bit inappropriate.

Tan Chuanbao believes that compound labor has become the most important form of labor. For example, traditional planting industry is no longer the concept of the last century. Greenhouse planting, dropper technology, improved varieties, etc. have made this industry a compound labor industry that combines mental and physical labor. Although it is necessary for students to undergo physical labor exercises, overemphasizing this point is out of touch with the times. "Labor education is not equal to manual labor education, the former includes the latter."

So, on the basis of this cognition, how to set up courses? Chu Zhaohui believes that all localities should master a degree, not biased or extreme. Tan Chuanbao pointed out that schools in different regions, such as rural areas, urban-rural junctions, and schools within cities, should be adapted to local conditions according to actual conditions.

Some scholars believe that in order to change the society ’s recognition of labor education, it is necessary to set up separate labor education courses, but for some urban schools, there are no agricultural land and factories around. If the school still wants to arrange students to learn "Working as a farmer" requires renting a venue in the suburbs for the course experience. The time is not long, the students' cognitive experience is not profound, and the teaching cost is increased. Therefore, the labor education curriculum should consider local reality.

The "Opinions" also mentioned that rural areas can arrange corresponding land, forests, pastures, etc. as practice bases for learning agriculture, and urban areas can identify a number of enterprises, institutions and social institutions as practice places for students to participate in productive labor and service labor.

In addition, Tan Chuanbao proposed that labor education should also penetrate in all courses. He said, for example, the history class will tell the working people to create history, and the music class will learn the labor code, which are all methods of penetration.

How to establish evaluation standards

This Opinion also contains a more interesting statement: "The results of labor literacy evaluation are used as an important content to measure the overall development of students, as an important reference and graduation basis for evaluation and evaluation, and are accepted by high-level schools. Important reference or basis. "

As a reference or basis for further studies, it also involves the question of how to standardize the evaluation of labor literacy. The core question is, through labor education, what do you want students to master?

The "Opinions" pointed out that in the past, labor education was diluted and weakened, and some young people did not cherish labor achievements, did not want to work, and would not work.

Chu Zhaohui pointed out that at present, international students are usually evaluated comprehensively. In addition to their academic performance, the other two levels of evaluation are both related to China's labor literacy evaluation. On the one hand, it is social activity, judging whether students have creativity, leadership, cooperation, etc .; on the other hand, it is a sense of mission, that is, the internal driving force that hopes to change society.

Tan Chuanbao recalled to China News Weekly that as early as March 2018, the relevant state departments had invited him to discuss research on labor education. He proposed that the most essential problem of labor education was not to learn to grow vegetables, process parts or cut paper, etc. Skills, but the establishment of labor values. The younger generation does not like labor, is unwilling to labor, does not respect the fruits of labor, and does not respect the working people. This is the problem.

Wang Jian, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Education of Shanghai Normal University, also expressed a similar view to China News Weekly. Now some teenagers are keen on virtual life, the reality is weak, they will not express feelings or read other people ’s emotions, society The ability to communicate decreases. And labor education can give them personal experience in these areas.

This is also the difference between the current labor education courses and the labor skills classes of primary and middle schools in the past. The labor skills class, as the name implies, is to learn the principles of general technology, and it is not valued in the teaching of various subjects in the school. The class teacher is usually served by the science teacher who retires from the second line of the school. Sometimes, the class teacher takes everyone to clean the hygiene class. Labor education involves values.

How to evaluate labor literacy is indeed the difficulty for the refinement of the "Opinions".

On the one hand, where does this value lead? Wang Jian pointed out that in the past few years, some youth science and technology innovation contests have alienated clues, and the scientific principles are very deep. Usually, the more their parents are, the more complicated the more they can win. They once suggested to Shanghai that a guide should be established to solve real problems in life with less complex scientific principles. "In short, it is to make life better through labor."

On the other hand, how to standardize the evaluation of such labor literacy? In fact, in recent years, the Ministry of Education has proposed to enter the evaluation system for further education, including moral education and art education, which are different from the quantifiable disciplines and difficult to evaluate. If we quantify moral education and do a good thing plus one point, Tan Chuanbao bluntly said, for children, whether the guidance is to guide him to do good deeds or guide him to score?

Therefore, several interviewed experts pointed out that these contents, including labor literacy evaluation, can be included in the comprehensive quality assessment, and scores are not quantified, but replaced with comments. However, this also leads to another problem. Once it is not a quantitative evaluation, parents and students under the baton of the college entrance examination may not pay attention to labor education. At the moment, this seems to be an unsolvable problem.

However, Wang Jian also said that what the "Opinions" can do now is to first promote the development of labor education in all primary and secondary schools so that all students have a complete labor education experience, rather than rushing to establish standards.

Professional teachers in labor education are also difficult. The "Opinions" put forward, "Higher schools should strengthen the cultivation of labor education teachers, and qualified teachers' colleges and universities should set up labor education related majors."

Wang Jian believes that local teachers colleges often provide first-line teachers for the localities. Such colleges and universities should take the first step and set up such disciplines. He suggested that labor education can be nurtured on the basis of disciplines such as information technology and mechatronic engineering.

Tan Chuanbao pointed out that at present, the extension and connotation of labor education still need to be further defined, and it is too early to open related majors. "There are no textbooks and no researchers. How do you start a class?" He believes that when there is still a disagreement in the education circle on what is labor education, basic research in this field still needs to be strengthened. Another reason is that, even if a major is opened, who is willing to come to school, and whether there is a counterpart job after graduation?

In addition, although the Ministry of Education has proposed that each school should set up special labor education courses, does it need to set up a special teacher post for the courses? Neither the establishment nor the finance is the final decision of the education department, which requires the coordination of other relevant departments, and there is currently no supporting system.

In Tan Chuanbao's view, to some extent, this is also one of the reasons why the "Opinions" were issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

China News Weekly, Issue 12, 2020

Disclaimer: Publication of "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing