Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, March 31.

Question : Students are dissatisfied with recruitment, teachers are poached... How to revitalize the county?

  Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Ke Gaoyang, Wei Jingyu, Deng Qianqian

  This year's National Two Sessions, "strengthening the construction of ordinary high schools in the county" was written into the government work report, and the development of the county has once again entered the public eye.

  In the 1980s and 1990s, a group of district and county high schools were far ahead in the college entrance examination rate and the quality of running schools, changing the fate of thousands of rural students.

However, in recent years, many county-level high schools have experienced a loss of high-quality students, and some of them are even dissatisfied with their enrollment.

  At the end of 2021, nine departments including the Ministry of Education and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of General High Schools in County Areas.

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters found that policy support has improved the development problems in the county to a certain extent, but there are still many hurdles to achieve sustainable development.

Dissatisfied with the enrollment recruitment, how to break the loss of students?

  Wudan No. 1 Middle School in Wengniute Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the best high school in the entire banner. Students in the banner were proud to be admitted to Wudan No. 1 Middle School.

However, starting ten years ago, Wudan No. 1 Middle School began to experience difficulties in recruiting students, and even the enrollment plan could not be completed at one time.

The situation is similar at Jinshan Middle School in the nearby Karaqin Banner.

Principal Yang Junqing said that the school had planned to recruit 8 classes a few years ago, but only 4 classes were recruited.

  Similar situations exist all over the country.

Where did the students in the county go?

The reporter learned that at the beginning of this century, with the rise of private schools or private office-aided school-running models, some schools took advantage of their flexible school-running autonomy to "pink" the source of high-scoring students across regions to gain a competitive advantage and steal some of the high-quality students.

Since then, some provincial and municipal middle schools have also joined them, and the "war for students" has intensified, and more and more students with excellent grades have left the county.

  A person in charge of a county education committee in Chongqing reluctantly said that more than 70 of the top 100 students in the county's high school entrance examination last year were admitted to high schools in the main urban area.

After the local high-speed rail was opened to traffic, the "siphon effect" of schools in the main urban area became more obvious.

  The No. 1 Middle School of Yongtai County, located in the mountainous area of ​​Fujian, has not been admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University for many years due to the large outflow of high-scoring students.

Principal Zhang Houlin said that with the process of urbanization and the attraction of high-quality education in urban areas, more parents are sending their children to high schools in urban areas.

  Many educators said that to solve the problem in the county, we must first stabilize the source of students.

The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development and Improvement of Ordinary High Schools in County Areas" clearly states that it is necessary to resolutely put an end to cross-regional recruitment in violation of regulations, and prevent the excessive loss of students in the county.

  The reporter's investigation found that some places have begun to take measures to stabilize the source of students.

In Sanming, Fujian, the high school enrollment plan of 12 counties and districts in the city implements an overall arrangement. High-quality ordinary high school targets are recruited to the school. It is strictly forbidden to compete for students in violation of regulations, "pinch top" enrollment, cross-regional enrollment, out-of-plan enrollment and early enrollment. Most of the students stayed in local high schools.

  "Strengthening enrollment management is the first step. The key to retaining students is to truly enhance the attractiveness of the county." Guo Congbin, a researcher at the Institute of Educational Economics of Peking University, suggested that the county can be encouraged to develop with diverse characteristics and enhance its attraction in the process of dislocation development. At the same time, it will continue to expand the special program for targeted enrollment in rural poor areas to increase the opportunities for rural students to further their studies.

Teachers "change jobs" and "run away", how to solve the difficulties of teachers?

  The loss of the county is not only the source of students, but also a large number of outstanding teachers.

In Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, seven subject group leaders and class teachers were poached in one year from a county, and all chemistry teachers from one county were poached.

  Statistics show that there is a total shortage of 77,000 teachers in counties across the country, and the ratio of students to teachers in 3,776 counties exceeds the national standard.

  "The county's fiscal revenue is low, and the salaries of teachers in the county are not as high as those in the prefecture-level and above places, and the treatment is far lower than that of the municipal schools. Because there is no rural subsidy, the treatment of the teachers in the county may not catch up with the rural teachers." The principal of the county high school told reporters that the school has teachers applying for transfer almost every year, and the low income is an important reason.

After some teachers won city-level competition awards, schools in the main urban area soon offered high prices to "poach people" and let more teachers "go away".

  In addition to the loss, the aging of the teaching staff and the structural shortage of teachers are also problems faced by many counties.

Due to the limited financial capacity at the county level, it is difficult to recruit teachers to fill positions, and the teaching team is seriously aging. The average age of teachers in some counties is over 50 years old.

In addition, due to the implementation of the shift system in some schools after the reform of the new college entrance examination, many counties still face the problem of shortage of teachers in some disciplines, and there is a serious shortage of laboratory teachers.

  The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development and Improvement of Common High Schools in Counties" requires that schools in developed areas and urban areas are strictly prohibited from poaching outstanding principals and teachers from weak areas and counties, and for schools that maliciously poach talents from counties, all types of schools should be stopped. Qualifications for priority evaluation.

  "The ban plays a certain role in maintaining the stability of teachers in the county, and at the same time, we should also see the various reasons why the county cannot retain talents." Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that schools in developed areas and urban areas enjoy location advantages, and also Higher remuneration packages can be given, and the financial strength of weak areas is limited, and it is difficult to "retaliate" in the face of high-paying poaching.

He suggested that by further strengthening the overall planning at the provincial and municipal levels, earnestly increasing the salaries and living conditions of teachers in weak areas and counties, and creating space and environment for their career development, in order to better retain good teachers and attract outstanding talents.

  In this regard, exploration in some places has already paid off.

Located in the hinterland of Wuling Mountains, Chongqing Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County is a former national poverty-stricken county.

Under the circumstance that financial resources are not abundant, the local area has continued to increase investment in education, and the conditions for running schools in the county and teachers' salary have been improved simultaneously. The results of the college entrance examination in the past three years have made breakthroughs year after year.

As the education ecology has entered a virtuous circle, the loss rate of local teachers has been greatly reduced, and the source of high school students who have once flowed out in large numbers has also appeared in a "return" trend.

The rate of enrollment has declined, how to grasp the quality of running schools?

  After the loss of a large number of students and teachers, the quality of running schools in the county dropped sharply.

  According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, in 2020, there will be 7,243 county-level high schools in my country, accounting for "half of the country's general high schools", and county middle school students account for nearly 60% of the total number of general high school students.

However, in recent years, the overall enrollment rate in the counties has dropped sharply. Students admitted to key universities in some provinces are concentrated in a few "super middle schools". Some counties have been out of Tsinghua University and Peking University for many years. 10 points for a line.”

  "County-level education is the foundation of China's education. The county not only entrusts the local people's high expectations for education to change their destiny, but also directly affects the level of local economic, social and cultural development." Representative of the National People's Congress and executive of the China Education Policy Research Institute of Beijing Normal University Dean Zhang Zhiyong said that how to "create blood" for the county and improve the quality of running schools is a major issue that must be considered in the process of promoting education fairness.

  The "14th Five-Year Plan" Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of Common High Schools in County Areas lists "improving the quality of education and teaching" as one of the key tasks. Scale schools, increase the level of funding input in the county, etc.

  At present, various regions have begun to explore the diversified development of ordinary high school education models.

In Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, through enrollment reform, the local area kept the source of students in Qixian County, and proposed to run high-quality high-quality high schools, subject-specific high schools, and branded vocational high schools at different levels, so as to broaden the way students go to school.

As a second-class high school, Balihan Middle School in Ningcheng County vigorously develops diversified courses such as sports and art.

In the past three years, nearly 200 people have been admitted to sports and art colleges and universities, and the undergraduate enrollment rate has surpassed that of many high schools with better students, achieving "low entry and high exit".

  The trusteeship assistance mechanism is also an effective way to speed up the improvement of the level of running schools in the county.

In Fengjie Middle School in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the "double-teacher classroom" has become the daily study of thousands of students.

With the help of Internet technology, the students shared the same high-quality teaching resources with the students of Chongqing No. 8 Middle School more than 400 kilometers away through the screen.

According to the assistance agreement signed by the two parties, Fengjie County also sends teachers to Chongqing No. 8 Middle School every year for on-the-job learning to improve the level of teaching management.

  "Improve the quality of education in the county, so that children in the county and villages can receive better education and win more opportunities." Experts such as Zhang Zhiyong suggested that we should stand at the height of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and promoting the strategy of rural revitalization, and further increase The investment and assistance in education in the county will stimulate the vitality of running schools in the county, and promote the high-quality, balanced and equitable development of education.