Teachers are scattered, parents are stocking, and campuses are dilapidated... These are the dilemmas faced by weak rural schools in many places.
How to make rural schools a dream space for rural children's energy storage aspirations?
Bao Rui, the principal of Wanling School in Qiongzhong County, Hainan Province, who has been teaching for more than 20 years, presented the three-pronged axe of "gathering people with sincerity, managing people with love, and nurturing hearts with love".
In just three years, a weak rural school that was about to be merged has become a prestigious school for many parents.
"Some rural children are very troublesome, play truant, fight fights, smoke and drink. They need to be able to teach and lead them well." Bao Rui once vowed not to go to the city forever. "There are many good principals in the city, and there is no shortage of me."
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Gather people with sincerity, the old team glows with new passion
The campus is overgrown with weeds, undulating hills, dilapidated doors and windows, and flying pigs... Before 2016, Wanling School fell into a vicious circle due to the poor campus environment and poor teaching quality. Many parents secretly hated the school, scolded teachers, and kept their children Transfer to another school to go to school.
Teacher Zhang Bihua, who taught at Wanling School in 1999, is currently the director of the Academic Affairs Office.
She told the reporter of Banyue Tan that before, she was like many teachers in school, and many people became regular visitors to teahouses, pubs, and mahjong halls.
In September 2016, Bao Rui participated in the recruitment of national outstanding principals in Hainan, and came to Qiongzhong, Hainan from Min County, Gansu, as the principal of Wanling School.
The campus needs to be reorganized. Where does he, a foreign principal, start?
Bao Rui urgently needs the support of middle-level cadres.
Through observation, he found that some teachers wanted to work and were able to work, but they lacked a platform and environment, so he talked one by one to stimulate their enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
Faced with Bao Rui’s mobilization, Zhang Bihua initially chose to refuse: “I was worried that he was the same as the previous principal, and that he was a foreign principal who could not read the local classics.” Until she saw that the principal regarded the school as his home. , Day and night, threw himself in the school.
Huang Yao, secretary of the Youth League Committee of the school, believes that Bao Rui’s secret to quickly unite with the middle class lies in the word "sincerity", "not to use power to suppress, but to exchange sincerity for sincerity and to impress with sincerity."
"He said that I have the confidence to revitalize the school, but this requires everyone to work hard together. This is everyone's common cause." Huang Yao recalled that Bao Rui's sincerity has inspired the teacher's education feelings that have accumulated for many years, just like "The dusted light bulb was refurbished."
Especially in the process of campus construction, in order to ensure the quality of construction, Bao Rui took risks and struggled with the construction method, which infected the middle-level team of the school.
Huang Yao recalled that in order to catch up with the construction period, the construction party caused the ground of the square in front of the administrative building to be high on one side and low on the other side, with a difference of 30 cm between the left and right sides. Bao Rui asked for "rework", and "rework" meant a loss of several hundred thousand yuan. The construction party did both soft and hard to Bao Rui and asked him to "open one eye and close one eye." Bao Rui was unmoved, and he strictly refused.
Teamwork and consistent goals. With the support of the local government, the school has carried out drastic reforms, and the campus image is constantly changing.
Bao Rui looks at the unicycle elective class the students are taking. Photo by Zhang Liyun
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To control people, set rules to change character and improve ability
In the eyes of ordinary people, teachers at Wanling School smoke, drink, play mahjong, and walk away with books in between classes are disappointing.
How can we change this status quo in a short time and improve teaching ability?
"If you want the teacher to go up the mountain, you must formulate a system for going up the mountain; if you want the teacher to go down the water, you must formulate a system for going up the water." Bao Rui believes that there is no way to correct order without customizing the degree.
However, almost every reform has been strongly resisted.
The school reformed the performance distribution method to encourage "more work, more rewards, better performance and better pay", breaking the basic average distribution policy that has been implemented for many years, and opening the gap between teachers’ performance wages by more than 7,000 yuan in the first semester .
A teacher called Bao Rui because he received less than 3,000 yuan, and said that he was standing on the balcony on the third floor. If the matter was not resolved, he would jump off.
"Do you think your life is only worth 3,000 yuan?" Bao Rui persuaded the teacher at the time, but he still has lingering fears: "I criticized him and comforted him by saying that. The principal is really not an ordinary person can be."
In order to unify teachers’ thinking, the school carried out extensive reading and exchange activities, through reading and sharing classics of education, to help teachers understand and love education more; in order to improve teachers’ professional quality and solve the problem of not knowing or not teaching, the school promoted " The four-step high-efficiency teaching method" requires teachers to prepare and talk collectively, and bid farewell to the past "however you want" work state.
In order to regulate teachers’ words and deeds, the school stipulates that teachers are strictly prohibited from smoking, drinking, playing mahjong, smoking on campus, and a fine of 30 yuan is found; in order to strengthen family-school communication, the school holds 9 parent meetings a year to cultivate parents’ awareness of family education and Ability, on the other hand, ask parents to help the school to supervise the teacher. Once they find that the teacher goes to the tea house or mahjong house during work hours, they report it, and the report is rewarded.
It was in the fierce "struggle" that Bao Rui's firm ideals and convictions illuminated the original intention of teachers in the mountainous area.
Only one year after the implementation of the reform, the average score of the high school entrance examination of Wanling School increased by 70 points.
The number of students who had been exodus returned. Up to now, the number of students in the junior high school of Wanling School has increased from 81 to nearly 400; the number of students in the primary school has increased from more than 500 to more than 750.
Parents are constantly looking for them and want to transfer their children back to study.
Above: In the student dormitory of Wanling School, taken in 2017, Bao Rui was chatting with the students; Below: On June 18, 2020, Bao Rui checked his bed in the dormitory. Photo by Zhang Liyun
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To nurture the heart with love, the country school must build a dream field
Walking into the current Wanling School, every building, every staircase, every corner, you can see the shadow of love everywhere.
What is written on the wall of the canteen is not the canteen, but "the strands, the material resources are difficult"; beside the track and field is the clever "Run at your speed, race out of your excitement"; the stairs are also used, and write "action, It is the loudest language"; in the staircase of the administrative building, dozens of educational ideas and classic maxims of famous Chinese and foreign educators are hung.
Thanks to the effective restraint and incentive system, the teachers carefully prepared lessons and taught carefully. The teaching ability has improved, the students love to listen, and the classroom learning state is positive. The meeting with the villagers said that the children's grades have improved, and the breakfast shop is rushing Pay for the teacher.
Students also regain the joy of reading.
Lin Zilong, a third-year student, has been studying at Wanling School since the fourth grade of elementary school. He told Banyue Tan reporter: "The campus is now beautiful. The teachers are not in a hurry after class. Students can find them at any time. The teachers often Care about us, take the initiative to talk to us, feel that the school has become a big family."
Every time Bao Rui passes by the class, the children will greet the principal hello, and he will also give a thumbs up in response to Zhang Liyun.
In order to solve the problem that some rural students are tired of studying and unable to sit still, the school tries every means to offer some special courses.
For example, inviting elderly migratory birds from Bailu Lake Resort near the school to the school to carry out community activities.
Nowadays, there are many kinds of activities in school, such as blowing, playing, singing, calligraphy and sports.
The school also encourages students to set up various clubs to inspire students to find their own dreams.
The reporter of Banyue Tan saw during an interview at the school that the teacher’s office was still brightly lit at around 9pm. Five or six second-year girls gathered around the class teacher to discuss something. They walked in and learned that the students wanted to set up a "milk tea club."
After understanding the situation, Bao Rui immediately said that this idea is good and it is a good opportunity to learn business.
He instructed the students to list the raw materials, calculate the production cost, and set a reasonable price.
"Can the money earned be used for school club activities." With the principal's approval, the students grinned happily.
In Bao Rui's view, rural schools are dream-building fields for rural students, and thousands of dream-builders are needed to take root in the countryside to educate, inspire, and inspire them to dream and realize their dreams.
Produced by: Ye Jundong
Planning: Sun Aidong to Wang Xinya
Producer: Xu Zhongke, Xu Xiaodan, Bixia
Text reporter: Zhao Yeping
Video reporter: Wang Junfeng and Zhang Liyun
Photographer: Wang Junfeng and Zhang Liyun
Dubbing editing: Zhang Chu