This article comes from the WeChat public account: Fudan University China Research Institute ( ID: ChinaInstituteFDU) , author: Lu Jianguo (Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Ganyu District Secretary for Education), This article first appeared: “Oriental Tribune” (total No. 7), Original title: “Lu Jianguo: Small Issues and Big Logics, Thinking of China’s Fundamental Education Governance”, header image from: Visual China
Education is a national plan. Basic education is the cornerstone of education. Because of its wide coverage and high correlation, it has always been the focus of attention of the whole people. In October 2019, Nanjing’s burden reduction turmoil is a typical case. After the Thunder’s burden reduction was initiated, due to insufficient standards of implementation, operations such as raids on school schoolbags, checking for test papers and extracurricular tutoring materials, etc., caused public debate after fermentation. Subsequently, the relevant superior departments promptly intervened in correcting the mistakes, and slowly resolved this wave of public opinion.
Although the disturbance in the public opinion field has subsided, the deep governance issues behind it still exist. The root of the problem is that in recent years, some experts and scholars have lacked basic cultural and institutional confidence, intentionally or unintentionally, systematically criticized and deconstructed China’s basic education, and dumped bath water with children, which can be used to criticize Words of education, such as duck-feeding education, question-making machines, high scores and low energy, weak innovation, etc., are almost all put into basic education, and after these ideas are packaged, they are instilled in the public through various media channels. .
Under the rule of mouth, China ’s basic education seems to be born with original sin, and the policy level also lacks concentration. It echoes with it and is subject to various restrictions. In this atmosphere, basic education can only dance in shackles.
Of course, there are also scholars and opinion leaders, such as Professor Lu Yi of Fudan University, Editor-in-Chief of China Education Online Chen Zhiwen, and well-known IP NingNan Shan et al. Refuted and hedged this wave of deconstruction as much as possible. However, in the era of great change, in the face of unprecedented complexity, where is China’s basic education going? How to solve the current problems, such as lightening the burden and related problems? This article attempts to start with a few specific issues, to explore the way of governance, a view, right should throw a brick and attract jade.
Primary school: Can I take the test?
In 2019, a remote mountain school, Guangyuan Fanjia Primary School in Sichuan, was praised by Peking University Professor He Fan as “the most advanced school in China’s educational philosophy” for its unique teaching practice and exploration -remarks “label =” Remarks “> (1) , causing widespread concern.
Fan Jia Primary School principal Zhang Pingyuan is very educated, and some of his educational thoughts are also very insightful. For example, he has a more avant-garde point of view on student achievement: 80 years old. Right or wrong, the author does not make value judgments here. I believe that he can be recognized in the education ecology of Sichuan Guangyuan, which proves that this concept has its practical and reasonable.
However, another principal who is thousands of miles away, Lifetime Honorary Principal Zhuo Li of Beijing Shijia Primary School, has a different view. In an interview with “Looking Think Tank”, Regarding the question of “Whether scores are important or not”, Principal Zhuo Li believes that excessive pursuit of scores will affect children’s ability to see only the branches and not the overall picture. However, for the grades of first-year students, he advocated: 100 points.
Regarding scores, although Zhang Yuanping and Zhuoli Li have different views, but behind their words, there is a general educational reality lurking: that is: exams.
It is true that examination questions at the elementary school level are a sensitive topic in the current educational context in China. The current policy has clear and strict restrictions on this. The basic requirements are roughly as follows: More than one time, no more than two times in other grades, and it is strictly limited to internal school exams, no regional exams are allowed, and rankings must not be announced .
Objectively, primary school is mainly to develop education, focusing on cultivating good behavior and learning habits of children, restricting the number of exams, and not publishing the ranking of results, which is necessary and reasonable because it can avoid The child entered the test track prematurely.
Of course, exams are restricted, not negative. Because, as an effective means of monitoring academic quality, exams are veryNecessary, this is already a consensus, just as the GDP assessment system is an effective evaluation of the local development status. Although China has now entered a stage of high-quality development, it has not cancelled the GDP assessment because the relationship between the two is not contradictory.
Just to measure green GDP requires a more scientific index system and more reasonable score weights, rather than choking on food. The same is true for exams.
As far as examinations are concerned, because of the prohibition of regional unified examinations, the school ’s self-organized examination monitoring is in doubt. Imagine that if there is no unified monitoring by the National Bureau of Statistics and other ministries and commissions on the economic and social development of various parts of the country, but the local governments are allowed to make their own evaluations, will the gold content and credibility of the results be greatly reduced?
Perhaps precisely because of this concern, the Ministry of Education annually organizes and monitors the quality of students ’compulsory education at the national level every year, instead of letting all localities organize themselves.
Regional examinations are not allowed. For policy makers, the main concern is to trigger competition between schools, fearing that such competition pressure will eventually be transmitted to students, thereby increasing students’ academic burden. It should be said that this concern was originally good and not unreasonable, but on the other side of the coin, due to the lack of strict regional examinations, some teachers in some schools, appeared in the final exam, simple questions, correction and release Even some teachers falsely fill in the scores.
Because, after such an operation, after the transcripts are taken home, the students do not suffer from bears, the parents are very happy, and the teachers are naturally treated, and they are all happy. What’s more, Xiaosheng was a straight one at the beginning, and he didn’t have to worry about showing his feet in whitewashing. However, the potential hidden danger is the positive feedback effect of the examination mechanism and the failure of systematic distortion.
There is no regional unified test. On the one hand, as mentioned above, it will cause local education departments to be unable to accurately grasp the true quality of students ’learning. Naturally, the shortcomings of various schools cannot be learned. From talking?
On the other hand, because there is no unified evaluation standard, each teacher ’s true teaching level and working status lack objective and fair evaluation standards, and the mechanism of rewarding good and punishing poor is also difficult to operate effectively.
If so, the teacher will do the same thing more and less, and teach the bad one better, especially between schools. Over time, there will be a phenomenon of bad money expelling good money, and it will intensify the extra-school supplementary lessons, and the education will be affected. To a great extent, the education ecology will also be structurally damaged, which will cause far-reaching damage.
Of course, most principals and teachers are embarrassed by their inner moral laws, and generally do not falsify, but trust cannot replace supervision, there is no good mechanism to restrict, and self-discipline alone, anyone in any industry may alienate and transform.
In fact, as a policy maker, you may wish to look at the problem from a different perspective. At the elementary school level, allowing regional examinations is not only helpful for the local education department to grasp the real situation, but also helps to discover the true teaching ability of teachers, and it can also avoid big pots. To curb negative slack and stimulate teachers’ endogenous motivation, thereby promoting more high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education.
As for the negative effects derived from the unified examination, the author believes that it can be avoided by strictly limiting the scope of the announcement of results and strictly prohibiting rankings and other technical means. However, if one vote is rejected because there are some shortcomings in the unified examination, some of them will be missed.
College entrance examination: Ca n’t I promote the champion?
In June 2019, the author went to Taiwan to do educational exchanges with the delegation. I noticed a phenomenon in particular: There is a big red leaderboard on both sides of the entrance of every high school. It is understood that this list is basically posted for one year. By the end of the second year college entrance examination, after replacing the new list of famous school students, it will enter the next publicity cycle, year after year.
The author pays special attention to this phenomenon because it is strictly prohibited on the mainland. At the policy level, the attitude is clear: It is strictly forbidden to publicize the hype “College Entrance Examination Champion” and “College Entrance Examination Rate”. Once found, it will be dealt with seriously. In fact, this regulation, just like the primary school cannot take the exam, is a specific governance measure derived from the principle requirement of burden reduction.
The title of the gold list, in the context of Chinese culture, has been a great event for the ancestors of the Emperor Guangzong since ancient times. In the poem “Four Happiness”, the poet Song Zhu of the Northern Song Dynasty listed “the time of the title of the gold list” in his poem “Four Joys”. First, after thousands of years of word of mouth, folk agreement has been established. At present, although the enrollment rate of college entrance examinations has risen sharply after colleges and universities have expanded their enrollment, college entrance examinations are not as rare and precious as before, but in many rural areas, a college student in the village will still gong and congratulate.
When the author works in the township, the town government will send a big red envelope to any child who is admitted to Tsinghua University. In the past few years, the wind has changed sharply. It seems that the promotion of the college entrance examination champion and the rate of entering the college will bring parents and students into the ditch. It is really a crime to be added. This regulation can be described as the strange status quo unique to Chinese education.
For policy makers, this control may be considered to weaken the test-taking tendency and reduce learningThe effective means of burden, on the one hand, demonstrate the governance ability of top-level comprehensive policy, on the other hand, it can also guide the society to correctly understand the college entrance examination. However, the results were minimal.
Because in China, who believes that knowledge changes destiny, no matter whether the college entrance examination is given or not, the demonstration effect of talent selection is there. Therefore, for parents, the college entrance examination promotion is strictly prohibited, which is equivalent to covering the ears and stealing the bell. effect. The school is obedient and will not be publicized directly, but there will be a variety of information such as a list of champions, which is widely circulated in the parent group and the circle of friends, and is well known.
An interesting phenomenon-level paradox: In addition to some education departments’ efforts to suppress the number one college entrance examination and college admission rate, the Chinese society as a whole has given systematic affirmation.
For example, after Liao Junbo, the secretary of the outstanding county committee of the country, was killed for work, the “Fujian Daily” newsletter “He Forever Integrates Himself in This Green Mountain and Green Water” has this description: When he heard that Zhenghe County had been 25 There has never been a freshman from Tsinghua University. Many qualified parents have sent their children to study abroad at night, and visited Zhenghe No. 1 Middle School at night. After that, they personally participated in the provincial quality inspection and analysis meeting of the third grade graduation class every year.
Later, after Dangzhenghe finally achieved a breakthrough in Tsinghua Peking University, Liao Junbo told his wife Lin Li: For more than 20 years, some students in our Zhenghe finally got admitted to Peking University. A secretary of the county party committee personally participated in the third grade quality inspection and analysis meeting, and was delighted that some students were admitted to Peking University. In the value judgment of mainstream media, this is an important manifestation of Liao Junbo ’s concern for people ’s livelihood.
For another example, after retiring from the former headmaster of Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School, he went to teach in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province. In 2019, he was awarded the title of “Model of the Times” by the Central Propaganda Department. In the “Spring” special report, the changes in Chen Liqun’s teaching background Jiang Min Middle School, especially the changes in the college entrance examination, are not hesitant to affirm: In 2018, Taijiang County broke the “record” of no 600 points or more in 11 years of the college entrance examination, and 8 people passed 600 points , 450 people passed the bachelor’s degree; in 2019, 561 people from Taijiang Min passed the bachelor’s degree, one of which exceeded 100 for the first time; in three years, the increment of the college entrance examination in Taijiang County rushed from the end of the whole state to the first.
According to the article “Chen Liqun: A Poverty Alleviation Warfare” of a retired and well-known principal of CCTV, the online rate of college entrance examination for college students in Taijiang in 2019 reached more than 65%. Interestingly, this report from CCTV was reproduced on the official website of the Ministry of Education on September 10 of the same year.
For another example, the WeChat public account of “Half Moon Talk”