Focus
What challenges should education face under the "double reduction"
On September 1, Beijing parent Fang Yuan excitedly posted a circle of friends: "New semester, new atmosphere! After the'double reduction', Beijing elementary school students can arrive at school at 8:10, which is about half an hour later than before. Don’t be too small. Watching this half an hour, it makes parents and children more calm in the morning, and the experience is excellent! Small changes reflect a better life, and the progress of society is felt through this little experience."
On July 24, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Compulsory Education Students' Homework and Off-campus Training" (referred to as the "Double Reduction" policy), which clearly stated that the total amount of homework should be reduced. To reduce the burden of students’ heavy homework, improve the school’s after-school service level, meet the diverse needs of students, and at the same time fully regulate off-campus training behavior. Off-campus training institutions shall not occupy national statutory holidays, rest days, and winter and summer vacations to organize subject training.
Vigorously improve the quality of education and teaching to ensure that students learn well in school.
The day before the start of school, Beijing, where Fangyuan is located, formulated a new schedule for primary and secondary school students in the city. The morning class time for elementary schools is generally no earlier than 8:20, and middle schools are generally no earlier than 8:00.
The first new semester under the "double reduction", not only in Beijing, but also in many places across the country gave primary and secondary school students and their parents a "big gift": the child’s time for school in the morning has been postponed, and the child can sleep for a while; in the afternoon; After school is at the wrong time, parents don’t have to “skip” to pick up their children; children don’t have to do mechanical repetitive homework and stay up late at night; more and more children don’t have to sit in training on weekends. Join the class of "internal scrolls"...
The new school year this year is indeed different from previous years.
However, the "double reduction" policy is not simply adjusting school schedules, or even lessening the burden on students. Its goal is to build a good education ecology, and the ultimate goal is to build a high-quality education system.
The "double reduction" policy is a complex project related to all aspects of education, and many problems in current education have been accumulated over the years. Obviously, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of the "double reduction" policy, education still faces many challenges.
Can the off-campus training that runs all the way really "stop the fire"?
Over the years, off-campus training has become an important source of burden for students in compulsory education.
"We will conduct a national study on the development of children and children every five years, and the results have found that children’s learning pressure is increasing." said Hongyan Sun, director of the Children’s Research Institute of the China Youth Research Center, who answered the questionnaire in 2005. Children are basically born in the '90s. In 2015, the children who completed the questionnaire were born after 00. "The results show that the extracurricular tutoring time on weekends after '00' is three times that of the'post-90s'. In 2005, the children The time for make-up classes on weekends was 0.7 hours, and by 2015 it became 2.1 hours."
Behind the doubling of learning time is the doubling of the training market.
At a press conference held by the Ministry of Education at the end of 2018, Lu Yugang, Director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, introduced that as of the press conference, a total of 400,000 off-campus training institutions had been surveyed across the country, of which 273,000 had problems.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily combed the official data of the Ministry of Education and found that the total number of compulsory education schools in the country was 218,800.
In other words, the total number of training institutions nationwide has reached twice the total number of schools in the compulsory education stage.
Behind the rapid expansion of off-campus training is the "crazy dance" of capital.
"In 2013, I said to the founders of those training institutions,'If you only rely on improving scores, it is very dangerous. There is no future.' The answer of those people is:'If we don't rely on improving scores, there will be no present.' "Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, said that capital is more important to the present.
Capital encumbers off-campus training institutions, and institutions envelop countless children and parents, gradually diverging from the essence of education, which has become the pain of compulsory education.
Therefore, reducing the burden of off-campus training for students in the compulsory education stage is the top priority of this "double reduction".
The central government's "double reduction" policy proposes to insist on strict governance and comprehensively regulate off-campus training behavior.
The local version of the "double reduction" policy has made more detailed arrangements for this. Taking Shanghai as an example, it requires strict approval of training institutions, strict institutional investment and financing, strict limitation of training time, strengthened training content management, and strict Institutional fee management, strengthened management of employees, improved supervision of training institutions, and no longer approves new subject-based off-campus training institutions for students in compulsory education. Existing subject-based training institutions are reviewed and uniformly registered as dual-management non-profit institutions ; For the online discipline training institutions that were originally filed, the approval system will be changed, and the online discipline training institutions that have been filed will go through the approval procedures again in accordance with the standards.
However, blindly "tightening" is not the most fundamental solution.
"Now it's just the first dominoes that have been overturned. It remains to be seen to what extent the'double reduction' policy will affect off-campus training." Chu Zhaohui said.
In the opinion of experts, the reason for "waiting to be seen" is to see whether the roots of training outside the school are still there. "The root of the chaos in training is that the evaluation criteria of the examination are too single and there is still an imbalance between schools." Chu Zhaohui said.
In recent years, our country has been reforming examinations and evaluations.
A few days ago, the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Examinations in Compulsory Education Schools" issued by the Ministry of Education stated that it is necessary to accurately grasp the test functions, significantly reduce the number of tests, standardize the management of test propositions, rationally use test results, improve the evaluation of the learning process, and strengthen studies. Requirements for quality monitoring and sound management and supervision mechanisms.
"Examinations in the compulsory education stage mainly play a role in diagnosing academic sentiment, improving teaching, and evaluating teaching quality. Except for junior and high school level examinations, other examinations do not have a screening and selection function." said Lu Yugang, director of the Department of Basic Education, Ministry of Education. , It is necessary to reasonably control the difficulty of the examination, and it is strictly forbidden to make propositions that exceed the class standard and exceed the teaching progress.
However, experts believe that the reform is not strong enough.
"Many people think that our education evaluation has been reformed. In fact, we are only changing the examination." Chu Zhaohui said that the education evaluation reform should include examination reform, enrollment reform and examination and enrollment management system reform.
However, the reform has remained at the examination level for many years, and the other two levels have not been involved too much.
Some experts believe that precisely because of this, there is a market for off-campus training that quickly improves scores by brushing questions.
If the single evaluation standard is still there, it means that the “soil” of score-only theory is still there, and it means that it is still a challenge to completely “stop” the out-of-school training that runs all the way.
Can school education gain confidence from now on?
The outside of the school is governed, but what about the inside of the school?
First and foremost, it is also "minus".
The central government's "double reduction" policy clearly states that the total amount and duration of homework should be reduced in an all-round way, so as to reduce the burden of heavy homework among students.
Improve the operation management mechanism, rationally control the operation structure, classify and clarify the total amount of operations, improve the quality of operation design, and strengthen the guidance for completion of operations.
Students are not allowed to approve and correct their homework by themselves, and it is strictly forbidden to assign or disguise their homework to their parents, and it is strictly forbidden to ask parents to check and correct their homework.
Localities have put forward more specific measures based on the actual local conditions in the central government's "double reduction" policy.
Shanghai proposes that it is strictly forbidden to conduct district-wide and district-wide unified examinations of subjects (including academic quality monitoring) for the first to third grades of elementary schools; for the fourth to eighth grades to conduct district-wide unified examinations of subjects; if all districts want to conduct academic studies Quality monitoring does not exceed 1 time per academic year, and only random sampling monitoring is possible. The proportion of randomly selected students shall not exceed 30% of the current grade.
Zhejiang Province proposes to use the "five management" (primary and secondary school students' homework, sleep, mobile phone, physical fitness, reading material management-reporter's note) as a starting point, and promote the use of "reduction of homework, increase of sleep, reduction of tuition, increase of exercise, reduction of brushing questions, Burden reduction action focused on increasing practice.
Beijing has proposed that the first grade of primary school insists on "zero-start" teaching, schools must not organize any form of enrollment, placement test, and strictly prohibit the division of key classes and experimental classes; improve the quality of classroom teaching and improve the efficiency of students' learning in school.
In July, the Ministry of Education proposed to implement the "5+2" model of after-school services, that is, schools should provide after-school services 5 days a week, at least 2 hours a day, and provide extended services for students whose parents still have difficulties in picking up their children. Time hosting service.
Many places across the country have started "upgraded" after-school services in the new semester.
Students have fewer homework, fewer exams, and students are back on campus. What happens after that?
"Reduction" is not the fundamental meaning of the "double reduction" policy. As Li Yi, deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Education and Work Committee, said, "We must not only'control chaos, reduce burdens, and prevent risks', but also'reform, transform, and promote promote'."
When students return to campus, the challenge to school education has just begun.
A middle school league committee teacher described the situation before the "double reduction" policy was introduced: "I am most afraid of organizing after-school activities. A basketball game will be picked up by parents for a while, and one will be picked up by parents for a while. They are all extracurricular classes. of."
However, the reasons for students and parents are also very good.
"In the past few years, I have never understood a physics class in school. The teacher talked at his own pace. If I didn’t understand, I couldn’t find the teacher. The extracurricular class was different. I had problems that I did not do right, and the teacher was more anxious than me. , Always catch me and let me correct my mistakes." said Wang Feng, a junior high school student in Beijing.
There are more and greater challenges for school teaching.
"If the quality of school teaching is not good, under the new demand, the extracurricular training in the compulsory education stage may still be revived." Chu Zhaohui said.
Therefore, improving quality and efficiency, fundamentally meeting the diverse educational needs of students, and ensuring that students learn, learn enough, and learn well in the school is the confidence to retain students, and can truly play the role of the main channel and main position of the school.
The key to increasing this confidence is "whether school education in the compulsory education stage can achieve a high-quality balance, and whether the teaching quality and effectiveness have been effectively improved." Chu Zhaohui said.
After the "double reduction" policy was promulgated, various places have tried to achieve a better balance of educational resources.
Li Yi introduced that starting from the new semester, Beijing will promote the rotation of cadres and teachers in a large area and a large proportion.
All principals and deputy principals who have been in retirement for more than 5 years and have worked in the same school for 6 years shall exchange posts in principle; all those who have been in retirement for more than 5 years and have worked in the same school for 6 consecutive years or more Teachers in public schools should be exchanged and rotated in principle.
Li Baoping from Beijing Huiwen Middle School is a senior English teacher. She started to work in the Chuiyangliu campus of the group last year and was responsible for the teaching and guidance of the English group in the junior and senior high schools.
She not only listens to and evaluates the lessons, but also asks the teachers around her to listen to the lessons in her own class and provide demonstrations.
After a year of hard work, the English scores of the branch school students have improved significantly.
Facts have proved that when job rotation is normalized and institutionalized, it can indeed become an effective measure to balance the gap between schools.
However, some experts pointed out that there are still great challenges in realizing normalization and institutionalization of job rotation. The biggest challenge is the difference between "strong schools", "weak schools", "high-quality schools" and "ordinary schools" that still exist in various regions. .
"Now schools can be divided into three, six and nine grades. As long as there are teacher rotations at this level, there will be resistance, and the greater the gap between schools, the greater the resistance." Chu Zhaohui said.
Can the parents of the "chicken baby" completely "kill the drums"
The off-campus training institutions have been governed and the burden on students has been reduced, so can the parents of "chicken baby" "lay flat"?
"Before, 90% of the children's classes were basically making up lessons. Of course, we also make up. If we don't make up, we will fall behind." said Ms. Li from Dongguan City, Guangdong Province. Her child is now in the first year of junior high.
During the summer vacation, she enrolled her child in an online math class. After the "double reduction" policy was introduced, Ms. Li said that she would "wait and see", "If everyone can't make up, it's okay, the child's learning pressure is indeed very high. "
Many parents have the same wait-and-see attitude as Ms. Li: on the one hand, they are fortunate that the country has finally introduced policies to govern the out-of-school training that makes their children more and more tired. Stand out from the competition.
However, some parents have a more "radical" attitude.
Chen Ran, a parent in Beijing, has a son in the third grade of elementary school. Since the child was very young, Chen Ran has allowed him to study at a well-known English training institution. After the "double reduction" policy was introduced, she posted this in the parent group The text: "Finally, there is no need to attend training classes, and children can have a happy childhood." Unexpectedly, some parents soon replied: "Xiao Ming went to general high school, Xiao Hong went to vocational high school, will they all have a bright future? Don't be stupid Now, as long as the college entrance examination is still there, your children can go to Tsinghua University and Peking University, but can't your children?"
As soon as this kind of remarks came out, the relaxed atmosphere in the group immediately disappeared, and some parents began to discuss how to "save classes."
This is the legendary theater effect.
Watching a movie in the theater, the people in the front row stand up, can the people in the back not stand up?
As a result, everyone stood up, and no one dared to sit down again.
Parents’ concepts need to be changed urgently. They should look at education from the perspective of their children’s lifelong development, instead of focusing on only one knowledge point and one exam.
The central government's "double reduction" policy also proposes to improve the coordination mechanism of home, school and community.
Further clarify the responsibilities of home-school education, close home-school communication, innovate collaborative methods, and promote the construction of a collaborative education community.
The education department should work with the Women’s Federation and other departments to set up parent schools or online family education guidance platforms, promote the construction of community family education guidance centers and service sites, guide parents to establish scientific parenting concepts, rationally determine their children’s growth expectations, and strive to form a consensus on reducing burdens.
However, only policy provisions are not enough.
It is also necessary to truly establish confidence in the policy in the minds of parents. In fact, parents’ doubts are whether the policy can be truly implemented.
This requires localities to decompose the "double reduction" policy in more detail, and formulate more targeted and perfect rules, so that parents can rest assured about the policy.
“When changing the parents’ concept, the follow-up policies must be kept up in time.” Sun Hongyan said, there is time after the “double reduction”. There is still a difference between “what you want to do” and “what you can do”. Exercise, but where can they exercise? Where can children exercise scientifically and safely? These problems should be resolved quickly."
(Students and parents are pseudonyms at the request of interviewees)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Fan Weichen and intern Su Jingjing Source: China Youth Daily