The revision of the Teacher Law is imminent, and the new changes are worth looking forward to
A few days ago, the Ministry of Education announced the "Teacher Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised Draft) (Draft for Soliciting Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft"), which is open to solicit opinions from the whole society.
The current teacher law was enacted in 1993. After nearly 30 years, Chinese education has developed rapidly at this stage. Great changes have taken place in the scale, quality, and structure of the teaching staff. The total number of full-time teachers has increased from 10.9789 million to 17.9297 million.
To meet the needs of education development and teacher team building in the new era, the new teacher law has been awaited for a long time by teachers and the whole society, and the new changes after the revision have also attracted great attention.
Clarify the right to education and discipline
The right to education punishment has been a hot topic in recent years. Due to the lack of clear laws and regulations, it is easy to be confused with corporal punishment and disguised corporal punishment. In addition, parents’ highly sensitive and aggressive behaviors have caused many teachers to be afraid and unwilling to rectify some needs in reality. Disciplinary students for their behavior.
This revision incorporates "educational punishment" into the basic rights of teachers.
"The draft clarifies that education punishment is the basic right of teachers. It also raises the relevant content in the "Rules of Educational Discipline for Primary and Secondary Schools (Trial)" to the level of legal provisions, which provides a legal basis and guarantee for teachers to implement educational punishments, which is conducive to cracking down on teachers’ problems. The ultimate goal of managing, unmanageable, and dare not control issues is to promote the healthy growth and all-round development of students." said Jing Anlei, an associate researcher at the China Education Policy Research Institute of Beijing Normal University.
Yi Lingyun, director and researcher of the Teacher Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, said: “This is not only the recognition and protection of teachers’ job behavior, but also the limitation and restriction of teachers’ professional responsibilities. Education is an art that requires careful design and punishment. Criticism, praise and encouragement are all educational methods and means to implement the fundamental task of "Living and cultivating people". Teachers need to use them flexibly according to the actual situation. Emphasizing the dignity of teachers and respecting teachers and teaching must be recognized and given to teachers. The right to legally use educational methods, and exempt teachers from extreme situations such as public opinion accusations and parental retaliation caused by the proper implementation of educational disciplines."
Cai Chun, Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Dean of the School of Education of Capital Normal University, said: “The draft incorporates educational discipline into the teacher’s right to guide and evaluate under the original law. Educational discipline is a requirement and necessary part of educational activities, and it is also an important guarantee for maintaining the order of education and teaching and realizing the right to education of students."
Liu Fuxing, Dean of the School of Education of Renmin University of China, said: “Clarifying that education discipline is the basic right of teachers, which can avoid the phenomenon that teachers dare not manage to a certain extent. At the same time, it also clarifies the management obligations of teachers, which can prevent teachers from not wanting to manage to a certain extent. Phenomenon."
Clarify the status of national public officials
The draft stipulates that teachers in public primary and secondary schools are state public officials.
Although the treatment of teachers has always been implemented with reference to civil servants, the general impression of the society is that teachers are career establishments, which are still different from national public servants.
"This is an important step forward." Liu Fuxing said, "Previously, the teachers' law did not reflect the public education function of the teacher profession and the education function of the party and the state. The education function and the strengthening of the education function of teachers assigned by the party and the state and the responsibility of safeguarding the interests of the party, the state and the people are new and higher requirements for public primary and secondary school teachers on the basis of teacher ethics and style, ideological and political quality, etc. ."
"In fact, the 2020 "Public Officials' Governmental Sanctions Law" and the 2018 "Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the Construction of the New Era Teacher Team" have made this clear. It highlights the public nature of the teaching profession and strengthens the national mission and responsibility undertaken by teachers. The responsibilities of public education services." Yi Lingyun said, "The draft is further clarified, which will help teachers improve their political, social, and professional status."
Cai Chun said: “Public primary and secondary school teachers are the specific performers of the national public education service responsibilities, involving the public, public funds, and social resources, and have an important impact on social public interests. Therefore, the legal status of a national public official is in line with the public The professional characteristics of primary and secondary school teachers are compatible with the inherent requirements of the teacher profession and the society’s requirements for the teacher profession. A clear legal identity can be better protected on the one hand; on the other hand, it means that they have to perform corresponding obligations, such as exchange rounds. The obligation of the post, the obligation to make up lessons without compensation, the obligation to collect gift money from students and parents, and the obligation of property, etc., have also put forward stricter requirements on the education and teaching work of teachers."
"This provides a legal basis for'ensure that the average salary level of primary and secondary school teachers is not lower than or higher than the average salary level of local civil servants". It is foreseeable that the status and treatment of teachers will continue to improve, and teachers will become truly enviable. Profession." Jing Anlei said.
Raise the entry barrier for academic qualifications
The draft stipulates that the entry threshold for teachers' minimum academic qualifications should be raised to the kindergarten as the junior college, and the primary and secondary schools as the undergraduate.
Previously, the minimum educational requirements were as follows: kindergarten requires graduation from preschool normal school, primary school for secondary normal school, junior high school for junior college, and high school for undergraduate.
The first two are actually high school education.
"Educational qualifications reflect to a large extent the level of professional knowledge and professional competence of teachers in the pre-service education stage. The increase in educational qualifications is actually an increase in the requirements for teachers' professional literacy. This is the world's advanced level of development with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The foundation of high-quality education.” Yi Lingyun said, “This is not only an inevitable requirement for the construction of a high-quality education system in the future, but also an inevitable result of the development of teacher education in recent years. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, my country has gradually shifted from a three-level normal education system to a two-level teacher education system. The reform of the teacher education system is actually to move up the level of teacher training. Now higher education is becoming popularized. In 2018, a unified national teacher qualification system was established. The reformed teacher qualification examination has expanded the source of teachers, and the number of applicants has increased year by year. One of the conditions for registration is to have a college degree or above."
Jing Anlei said: "The gross enrollment rate of higher education in 2020 is 54.4%, and the number of university graduates in 2022 is expected to reach 10.76 million, which can continue to provide more excellent teacher resources for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools."
From 1993 to 2020, the proportion of kindergarten teachers with a college degree or above increased from 2.8% to 85.75%, and the proportion of primary school teachers with a bachelor degree or above increased from 0.18% to 66%.
"It can be said that this revision is a positive response to the educational reality of the overall improvement of teachers' academic qualifications under the background of the popularization of higher education. It reflects the advancement of the law and will also help guide the academic standards and professionalism of teachers in our country. The level of chemistry continues to improve." Cai Chun said.
Improve treatment and security
The draft not only stipulates the prohibition of employment, such as sexual assault, abuse, violent injury and other illegal and criminal acts, as well as the prohibition of alcoholism, history of mental illness, or history of abuse of psychotropic drugs.
Many new regulations have also been made on the treatment and protection of teachers, of which two points are worthy of attention.
The first is to further implement the autonomy of the income distribution of colleges and universities, stipulating that “colleges and universities shall independently determine internal distribution methods in accordance with relevant national regulations, and improve the salary and income distribution system that is oriented to increase the value of knowledge and conforms to the characteristics of the industry of colleges and universities.” This provision was obtained by universities and colleges. The teacher is highly affirmed.
Liu Fuxing said: "This is very conducive to encouraging university teachers to carry out original innovation, very conducive to the construction of double first-class, very conducive to building an innovative country."
Cai Chun said: "This regulation is in line with the reforms in the field of higher education that have been implemented in recent years, such as the reform of decentralization, regulation and service, and the distribution policy oriented to increase the value of knowledge. It reflects the compliance with the law of higher education development and the work of college teachers Full consideration of characteristics."
The second is to ensure that teachers devote themselves to teaching and cultivating people calmly.
Except for special and emergency situations, teachers shall not be arranged to carry out relevant work in places unrelated to education and teaching, and teachers shall not be arranged to engage in law enforcement, on duty or other work unrelated to teachers' duties outside the school.
At the same time, stipulations are made for the investigation of responsibilities for insufficient government guarantee duties.
"The draft responds to the heavier extra burden of teachers in teaching and educating people, which has become a more prominent problem in recent years. It is intended to focus on the regulation of social affairs entering the campus, which is conducive to creating a good education and teaching environment and allowing teachers to devote themselves to teaching and education. People work." Cai Chun said.
Liu Fuxing believes: "This is also an important progress, which has a strong practical relevance. The government's responsibility and accountability have been specified to a certain extent, which is conducive to ensuring the implementation of the law."
Jing Anlei said: “Clarifying the main responsibility of the government to ensure that teachers perform their duties is conducive to creating a system and a social environment for teachers to teach with peace of mind, guiding teachers to focus more on education and teaching, and reshaping the persistence of teaching and educating people. The determination to love education and the persistence of fame and fortune indifferent."
(Our reporter Li Yulan)