Guangzhou primary and secondary school principals retire one after another, and the expansion of the "head coach pool" is urgent
2024-08-14
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Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Jiang Jun
Recently, Qiu Zhijian, principal of Guangzhou No. 5 Middle School, retired. Currently, a large number of primary and secondary school principals in Guangzhou have retired or are on the way to retirement. In addition, the dozens of primary and secondary schools newly added each year in the city are also in urgent need of "heads". The talent pool of principals is deeply "broken". How should famous and large schools deal with the "principal shortage"?
A large number of primary and secondary schools appeared
School-level cadre vacancies
Recently, Qiu Zhijian, the principal of Guangzhou No.5 Middle School, retired and was succeeded by Party Secretary Xia Haibo. If nothing unexpected happens, Qiu Zhijian will become the chief principal of No.5 Middle School Education Group.
Qiu Zhijian single-handedly built No.5 Middle School into a famous school. Eight years ago, No.5 Middle School ranked second to last among the 24 national model high schools in Guangzhou. Its admission score had been at the bottom for more than a decade. It had poor student sources, poor export performance, and serious teacher loss. This year, No.5 Middle School achieved the best results in the college entrance examination, taking the lead among the district schools in Guangzhou; the results of the junior high school entrance examination were also at the first level for three consecutive years. Therefore, whether the change of the principal of No.5 Middle School will have an impact on teaching results has attracted much public attention.
This is not the first time that the handover of principals of famous schools has attracted public attention. In recent years, the public has directly felt that a number of principals/party secretaries of well-known primary and secondary schools have retired or are on the way to retirement. Zhang Xianlong of No. 2 Middle School, Peng Jianping of Guangzhou Middle School, Qiu Zhijian of No. 5 Middle School, Chen Xiangchun of Nanwu and other principals have retired one after another, and a number of "old heads" of large and famous schools such as Guangya, Zhixin and Huayang are about to retire.
What is not felt deeply by the public but has a far-reaching impact on education is that a large number of school-level management cadres in primary and secondary schools in Guangzhou's 11 districts, especially in the central urban area, are retiring or about to retire. A relevant person in charge of a district said: "From the age structure of primary and secondary school-level management cadres in the district, nearly 100 people have retired in the past three years. The overall age structure is too old, and the number of reserve cadres trained and reserved is insufficient and the depth is not enough. There are many uncertain factors affecting the quality and development of school management in the future."
"Yuexiu and Haizhu have faced a number of retirements of primary and secondary school principals in recent years, and the succession process has caused some hidden concerns: for large and famous schools, it is difficult to find a successor principal who can match the school's social status and reputation; for ordinary schools, it is not difficult to promote a principal, but from a global perspective, there is a 'deep' gap, with an age gap in the reserve team of principals and a lack of backbone forces. If the team building is not strengthened, problems will become apparent in a few years." An industry insider introduced.
In addition, in the past five years, Guangzhou has opened dozens or even hundreds of new primary and secondary schools every year, and these schools also need principals. It can be said that Guangzhou is facing a "principal shortage" to a certain extent.
Retired principal
Where did they all go?
Where have all the retired principals gone?
In March this year, Zhang Xianlong, the principal of Guangzhou No. 2 Middle School, retired and was introduced by Huangpu District as a talent introduction to serve as the principal of Guangzhou Experimental Middle School Education Group and Guangzhou Experimental Middle School. The principals of two leading middle schools in Haizhu District retired this year, namely Chen Xiangchun and Qiu Zhijian. Chen Xiangchun has been appointed as the principal of Nanwu Middle School Education Group. If nothing unexpected happens, Qiu Zhijian will also be appointed as the principal of No. 5 Middle School Education Group.
In addition, principals and famous teachers who have retired from public schools and have a good reputation and strong professional skills are the "hot buns" that private schools are vying for. Peng Jianping, the host of the Guangdong Province Famous Principal Studio and a senior teacher, retired from the post of executive principal of Guangzhou Middle School and was hired as the principal of the private Guangzhou Tiansheng Experimental School (formerly the Tianhe School affiliated to Guangdong Experimental Middle School); Xie Xiangang, who has the honor of being a famous principal in Chancheng District, Foshan City, has been appointed as the executive principal of Baiyun Experimental School in Baiyun District, Guangzhou; Kong Zhen, a national outstanding teacher, a special-grade primary school mathematics teacher, a senior teacher, and the host of the Guangdong Province Famous Teacher Studio, has been appointed as the executive vice principal of the Panyu Affiliated Primary School of Guangzhou Nanfang College...
After the retirement of the famous coach
The luminous and heating effects are "discounted"
At present, the effects of famous coaches and teachers’ “radiance and contribution” after retirement are mostly “discounted” and their value is not fully utilized.
After all, when you work in a private school, you will always be subject to the power of capital, and you will inevitably face the game of discourse power between the principal and the capital. If you become the head principal of a group, the respected old principal will have a bigger stage. Is it a good choice? Not necessarily. An education group is just a loose or tight alliance of some schools. Each school in the group is still an independent individual. The school is an independent legal person. The principals of each school bear legal responsibilities for the school and are in charge of human rights, affairs and property rights.
“The chief principal cannot rush to the front. It is not his right and it is not his place to do the work. It is not your responsibility and it is not what you should do. It is also not good for the unity of the team.” A chief principal said that he would never take the initiative to interfere in the daily operation and management of member schools.
This year, most of Guangzhou's 11 districts issued relevant policies, giving principals the right to recommend personnel appointments and dismissals in member schools. Regarding this right, one principal said, "It looks good, but it's actually useless" because it's difficult to actually implement it. "I'm a retired old man, why do I need this right? It offends people."
Countermeasures
Outstanding principals delay retirement
Wu Yingmin, honorary principal of Guangzhou Middle School, suggested that old principals/secretaries who are highly respected, energetic, and highly recognized by teachers and students can delay retirement for a few years to make use of their remaining energy to help Guangzhou make a smooth transition in the next few years. It is understood that primary and secondary schools in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places have explored more flexible mechanisms for the appointment of school-level cadres. A good principal can work in the same school for 20 to 30 years, and there are cases where he retires at the age of 65 or even 70.
Equipped with young and middle-aged school-level cadres
Industry insiders suggest that channels should be opened up through application review, recruitment of outstanding talents, special training, etc. While strengthening the training and reserve of school-level cadres, at least one school-level cadre of about 40 years old should be assigned to large and famous schools to create a high-quality platform for young cadres to improve their experience and enhance the depth and quality of school-level cadre reserves.
Develop a bottom-up talent recommendation mechanism
At present, the construction of the talent team of principals usually adopts a top-down selection and appointment mechanism by the competent departments. Recently, Shenzhen launched a talent reserve project for basic education cadres. Grassroots talents who meet the conditions can recommend themselves and be selected into the city's basic education talent reserve pool after passing the assessment. They will be systematically tracked and trained in a stratified and classified manner, and recommended to principal training bases inside and outside the city for on-the-job training. Guangzhou can learn from the good practices of Shenzhen and other places to broaden the selection of principal talents.
In short, whether it is to tap into existing resources or expand new ones, it is urgent. Perhaps the solution is to make the principal talent pool, the "pool of leaders", open and inclusive.
