Chen Chunhe was a little surprised by the "double reduction". She has been teaching English at a teaching and training institution in Nanjing, Jiangsu since the beginning of this year.
On July 24, the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Compulsory Education Students' Homework and Off-campus Training" (hereinafter referred to as the "double reduction" policy) was issued in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou , Changzhi City, Weihai City and Nantong City are the pilot areas nationwide.
In the above policy, off-campus training institutions are strictly prohibited from occupying statutory holidays, rest days, winter and summer vacations to organize subject training.
In response to the "sudden brake" of "double reduction", Chen Chunhe chose to "make a sharp turn", and the process seemed "dramatic": she temporarily decided to take the test as a substitute teacher in a public school. Quickly switch the runway inside, ready to start the Chinese class trial.
Changes in education and training
On July 27, during the organization's video conference, Chen Chunhe learned that Nantong, as a "double reduction" pilot city, could no longer take tuition on weekends.
At that time, colleagues in Nanjing were still half "brain holes" and half joking about the countermeasures. Some people said that the tuition institution became a bookstore, the tuition teacher became a waiter, and the bookstore owner asked parents to fill up monthly cards, quarter cards, and Year card.
Others say that students and their parents can learn together when they go to cafes for tuition.
It was not until after the meeting that Chen Chunhe watched the news broadcast by CCTV News that he realized the seriousness of the matter.
Although the school district leaders of the training institutions asked teachers not to think too much, to maintain the group, and to stay sticky with their parents, Chen Chunhe's thoughts have drifted away-how to test the program and become a teacher in a school within the system.
Chen Chunhe paid attention to the teacher recruitment official accounts of various districts and logged in several times a day. On the morning of August 11, he checked the district's recruitment information. As a result, she did not recruit an English teacher. She called and asked, and the other party suggested that she try to apply for a Chinese teacher.
Although it feels absurd, on the afternoon of August 12, Chen Chunhe still registered for the Chinese teacher's exam, and has been reading the third-grade Chinese textbook ever since.
Based on her experience in English class, she developed a framework for Chinese class.
Because of anxiety, her head was dizzy, and suddenly she doubted herself, "Why do I have to take the Chinese test when I am obviously an English teacher?"
Chen Chunhe's plan to apply for a teaching post in a public school has long been planned.
After working in education and training institutions for nearly three years, she often feels disrespectful, "He (parent) feels that you are a teacher in a sense, but he still regards himself as a'God'."
At the same time, the pressure of continuation hung over her.
Usually, although she can be serious about teaching and research, but in the renewal week, she becomes worried again, "It seems that the final orientation is to keep students in your class."
On August 14, the campus of her institution held an offline meeting. There were ten teachers on the team. The person in charge "opened up" and talked to everyone about their future plans. If anyone wants to take a public school or civil servant exam, he will also encourage him. He also told everyone that he would not quit because of the policy, and that he would give half a year to make a transition. After that, it would not work, and he might also choose to leave.
Chen Chunhe's other colleagues were suddenly nervous: "You left by yourself, what shall we do?" The person in charge promised that if he wants to leave, he will speak one month in advance.
She felt that everyone at the meeting had their own ideas, and her heart was not here long ago, thinking that the teacher's establishment would be tested the next day.
Xiao Ma, the Chinese teacher sitting next to her, has also been reading books, turning over notes, and preparing for the exam.
Under the "earthquake" of education and training, the exams and editors became hot, and news of layoffs, salary cuts, and thunderstorms spread frequently.
Li Ming is a course sales for the Kunming branch of an online education platform.
On July 31, his department had 500 employees, and 300 people were laid off, mainly employees with poor performance.
As a newcomer who just joined the university, Li Ming is the only one left. "Because I have done so well, the company has no reason to lay off me."
By August 5, the company greatly increased its indicators, requiring each employee to make a minimum of 8 orders a month.
For the teaching and training market, the summer course registration for students has ended in July, and August is the off-season, and the new indicators are difficult to complete.
Li Ming is still confident to complete. In the morning he was still working hard to call and sell the class. When the meeting was held in the afternoon, the supervisor suddenly announced, "The company is gone, and the Kunming company has been laid off." Li Ming heard sobbing at the scene.
On the second day, Li Ming was going to handle the resignation, but the director made it clear to them, "There is no compensation." At the same time, he asked to sign a resignation certificate-which reads "There are no labor disputes, disputes, and unsuccessful disputes between the two parties." Salary expenses paid".
But the company did not settle the employees' wages in July and August at that time.
After that, Li Ming and his colleagues called in the police, labor bureau staff and reporters.
He also posted a rights defense video on the Internet. Some netizens commented below, "When I lied to parents to go to class, why didn't you think about today? They weren't good people."
He felt that these criticisms were "quite normal." "(We) are using all methods to guide parents to buy our courses. All sales are like this." Li Ming said that his family is still in debt and has a college degree. I just graduated and want to make more money in sales.
On August 16, after mediation by the Labor Bureau, the company re-drew a resignation certificate, indicating the date of payment of wages. He received his wages and gave up the claim for resignation compensation.
Compared with Li Ming's right to defend his rights, Yang Yue feels more aggrieved.
She is a high school geography teacher in a public school. She has been working for ten years. Now her monthly basic salary has just reached 4000 yuan. In order to increase family income, she works as a part-time teacher on a small and medium-sized online education platform, focusing on "one-to-one". Subject counseling.
Yang Yue revealed that the online “one-to-one” teaching model requires a large number of teachers. In order to reduce expenses, the organization recruited many part-time teachers at a rate lower than that of full-time teachers. Some of the teachers come from public schools. “It’s not like the advertisement says. All of them are famous teachers."
The company is registered in Shanghai, and part-time teachers come from all over the country. They usually rely on a work group to maintain contact.
After the "double reduction", the company group disbanded not long after Yang Yue was unable to find the person in charge, "It seems that we have never existed in this company." Because part-time teachers have no contracts, and the Ministry of Education stipulates that public primary and secondary school teachers shall not participate in compensation. She can hardly take the step of defending her rights to make up classes.
Before the "sudden brake"
After the "double reduction" earthquake, teachers of education and training became the target of public criticism of extracurricular education, and students who participated in extracurricular supplementary classes were jokingly called victims.
"We seem to be unable to see the sun, or even black sheep." Li Han believes that the voice on the Internet has demonized the education and training teachers. "We are not so selfless, but not so bad. Most people in the industry are (to teach and train) As a means of earning a living."
Li Han has been engaged in teaching and training for 11 years and has witnessed the distortion of the industry.
In 2014, some parents appeared in her institution, hoping that their children would win an Olympiad certificate through out-of-school training in order to get a stepping stone to further studies.
Here, she saw the emergence of "advanced education" one after another, the first grade elementary school students learn multiplication, and the third grade learn to use equations to solve problems.
Two years later, Capital entered the education and training industry, competition intensified, and there were more free classes in the market, and her institution also took advantage of the trend to provide free trial listening.
In the training class for training insiders, she has also seen some organizations pull banners in the class during the renewal window-I will train your children when you come, and I will train your children's competitors if you don't come.
Cheng Shen, a "star teacher" from an English training organization, also feels deeply about this.
Ten years ago, he had just graduated from a normal university. Extracurricular training was only a supplement to school education. He taught "New Concept English" at a teaching and training institution.
However, since 2016, teaching and training institutions have become the gas station for test-oriented education, and the starting line for student competition has been continuously advanced. Even first-year children appeared in his English class, who have just learned the alphabet and have weak writing skills.
He once persuaded parents that their children were not suitable for this course, but the parents still insisted.
"Parents have misunderstandings about children, and he thinks their children are geniuses." Cheng Shen said.
Parents have thrown up difficult questions to education and training institutions: How to prove that my child is better than other children?
Cheng Shen said that the organization needs to prove to the parents that the money spent on me is more worthwhile.
In order to win in the market competition, large and small teaching and training institutions have begun to work hard on the amount of homework, student performance, and service. Yes, it must be very fast."
Industry turmoil and anxiety coexist, and front-line teachers of education and training institutions have become direct bearers of high pressure.
Half a month before the "double reduction" policy was introduced, Li Han was hospitalized for threatened miscarriage due to high-intensity classes. At the point of the test, you will be more anxious than the students and worry that you will not be able to explain it properly."
There is fierce competition among education and training institutions, and advanced renewal is a common phenomenon in education and training institutions.
Wang Hui works as an English teacher in Beijing’s Haidian District. She said that all educational institutions are unified and will use various routines to ask parents to pay in advance. “For example, for a 10-month course, children only learn three. This month, it (the company) will use some activities to chat with parents and ask them to renew their reports."
In a large education and training institution where Wang Hui had been, communication training took place every once in a while, and how to train teachers to persuade parents to continue classes.
When it was time to renew classes, the office door was still locked at ten o'clock in the evening. The supervisor took the key and asked the teachers to call the parents, “Don’t go home if you can’t finish the call. You can leave and pay two hundred yuan. "Wang Hui repeated.
In the six years of working, as a teacher, although Wang Hui could not accept the organization’s advanced charging routine, she would still do it, "for life." When meeting parents with good family conditions, Wang Hui's mentality was okay, but she encountered some actions. The parent of the takeaway rider, she felt "very uncomfortable" with the money.
There is a special list of parents in the system of Li Ming's institution. Insiders call it the "Tibetan Golden Pavilion". It is full of parents who have made many phone calls but have no intention of buying lessons.
During the telephone lesson sale, Li Ming discovered that the parents who are most worried about their children's grades are the parents with poor family conditions.
These parents are worried that their children will have poor grades and will work for a lifetime like themselves in the future. The tutoring before is useless, but now they want to look for them again, but they are afraid that it will not work.
"They want to apply for classes most, because it's cheap, so it's a psychological comfort." Li Ming said.
Zhang Wei is a professor at the Institute of Curriculum and Teaching of East China Normal University, and has long been engaged in the research of off-campus training and governance policies.
Her comparative research found that the domestic middle-class and lower-middle-class families have the strongest training anxiety. The education expectations of such families are focused on their children's college entrance examination scores and domestic college diplomas.
From the perspective of supply and demand, on the one hand, parents have demand, on the other hand, education and training institutions create demand and respond to the market.
In an environment of educational competition, students receive anxiety signals from schools, education and training institutions, parents and classmates, and bear the burden of schoolwork.
In Chengshen's English class, the pupils' English sentence making seemed unimaginative. Some said they did their homework at home, and some said they did their homework in the playground. They were all doing their homework.
After the "double reduction", a fourth-grade student said to Cheng Shen, "It seems that the teacher will not be able to go to class anymore. I am so happy." Cheng Shen teased him, "If you don't study, you won't be happier in the future." Unexpectedly, the student said. "Teacher, I will still study, because if I don't study, I won't have a good job or a good life."
Diversion
In response to policy changes, both parents and education and training institutions are seeking new ways out.
At the company's regular meeting on Monday, the leader spoke at the top, and Zhang Nan stared at the phone below to teach his son.
His son is enrolled in a public school in Shanghai, and is about to enter the "critical year" of Xiaoshengchu.
On August 14, he received a system notification from the teaching and training institution Xueersi. Affected by the policy, all the fall face-to-face courses registered by parents were automatically transferred to online classes.
However, the institution has arranged face-to-face lectures from Monday to Friday nights.
As an "old student", Zhang Nan has the opportunity to teach him again.
He remembers that when he first grabbed the lessons, the lessons of the famous teachers were basically all in seconds, and after repeated several times, he finally grabbed the math and English lessons, which was no different from the previous grabbing classes before the "double reduction".
After school starts, Zhang Nan and his wife will go to work on weekdays, and they are going to ask the elderly to help take their children to class. If they are busy with work on weekends, they will enroll their children in more physical education classes as a caregiver.
For the past month, Xu Xiaoya, the head teacher of the education and training institution, has kept sending messages from her mobile phone. Parents have kept asking whether classes can start on weekends.
The parents said that if the online class is open, it is enough to record the class, "make it up on weekends." She also especially instructed her to remind her to reserve a place for her child when the class started.
This makes her feel that she and most of her parents are "in the same boat."
In the process of chatting with parents, Xu Xiaoya discovered that some parents are already seeking small group lessons, that is, several students find a teacher to go to home or coffee shop for tuition.
Parents have to pay a higher price if they want to get the opportunity for their children to do weekend tutoring.
She obviously feels the anxiety of the parents, "They (parents) are still very anxious in private. Many parents don’t know what to do next. Whether it’s the third or second grade parents, they will feel that their (children) are very A crucial year."
Cheng Shen said that some parents invited him to attend classes at home on weekends. These parents are generally financially well-off or familiar with him.
Cheng Shen is still on the wait-and-see. He comforted himself. Maybe the "double reduction" is a good time to get in touch with better-quality parents and narrow the scope of customers.
Off-campus training is also called shadow education. "With the reform of the public education of the school itself, the role of cultivating talents has been weakened, and many invisible things have been transferred outside the school. Therefore, shadow education will deepen the unfairness of education. "Li Angran said.
He is a researcher in the Department of Sociology of Zhejiang University, his main research fields are educational sociology and family sociology.
In his view, the "double reduction" is precisely from the perspective of public education, trying to solve the problem of educational inequity-the burden reduction system of public education has spawned the heat of off-campus training.
Li Angran believes that the issuance of the education policy is consistent. From the beginning of the burden reduction to the "Opinions on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions" issued by the state in 2018, the education department has been arranging the country's educational undertakings. "Double reduction" is not Sudden "one size fits all".
This time, it seems that the off-campus training market has been more rigorously rectified because the epidemic has accelerated the development of the online education industry and capital has entered the education and training market.
Li Angran said that the impact of the policy after its implementation remains to be studied.
Judging from the similar "double reduction" policy introduced by South Korea in the 1980s, affluent families just refused to let their children go to education and training institutions, and directly hired one-on-one tutors. These children's academic performance improved faster, which later led to South Korea. Differentiation of elite universities.
Transformation
In the teaching and training circles, there is a voice-"The end of the universe is the textual research".
Chen Chunhe said that most of the teaching and training teachers around him use training institutions as a springboard, and the ultimate goal is to work in schools within the system.
"Double reduction" has strengthened Chen Chunhe's determination to test and edit.
On the morning of August 15, Chen Chunhe went to take the recruitment examination in the district.
After four o'clock in the afternoon, the results were announced. Chen Chunhe ranked fourth and was selected as a substitute teacher for public schools.
In the local area, non-teacher students who want to take the exam must first become teachers of the two-year class in a public school.
The school implements a system of equal pay for equal work within the staff and outside the staff. Chen Chunhe can only get about 3,000 wages per month during the substitution period, which is less than one-fifth of her teaching and training teacher, but she is satisfied. “After all, the school is relatively stable. Unlike an organization that wants to do sales, you can finally concentrate on education." The only shortcoming is that her major is English, but now she is going to teach Chinese. She is afraid that she will come up with a "good" when she praises students in the classroom.
Chengshen’s teaching and training institution has moved the subject training courses on Friday nights and weekends to mid-week, and offers a large number of quality education courses on weekends, such as robotics, painting, speech, and Go.
During the period, the company conducted a survey and asked if the in-service teachers would teach art, sports, etc. Chengshen found that there were very few applicants, "Most teachers are products of exam-oriented education."
Under the dual pressure of "double reduction" and the epidemic, Wang Hui's company suffered serious losses, and she simply resigned on her own initiative.
She clearly felt the situation was grim: before, after she resigned, she updated her resume online and received at least 15 interview invitation calls a day.
But this time, almost no one contacted her, and she is still waiting for work at home.
After graduating from English major in 2015, Wang Hui has been teaching in educational institutions. He is 30 years old this year.
Under the policy, she did not see the hope of her own development, and faced the difficulties of transformation. "I have been working in the education industry. What can I do after I quit?"
Li Angran believes that for the education and training industry, it is now in a quiet period. Some low-quality education and training resources will be gradually cleared out, and high-quality education resources will remain.
This industry has strong resilience. As long as there is a little flame, it will start to ignite again. After all, for most families, extracurricular education is just like buying a house.
"The ideal education ecology is the collaborative education of schools, families, off-campus training institutions and even the entire society. We all bear the responsibility of educating children." Zhang Wei said that school education is inclusive, popular, more standardized, and more stable. ; Off-campus training is relatively diverse and flexible. “If you can increase understanding, communication and even learn from each other and learn from each other inside and outside the school, it will be beneficial to the development of overall education.”
(At the request of the interviewee, all the characters in the article are pseudonyms except experts)
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
The Paper, trainee reporter Chen Yuanyuan, and intern Chen Yulu, Luosai, Li Kewen, Sima Youjia, and The Paper News reporter, Ren Wu