China Workers' Network Review: Changing the "one exam determines the major" policy, expecting the credit system reform to inject new vitality into the development of vocational education
2024-08-21
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Li Jing, commentator of China Workers Network
Recently, the Workers' Daily reported on Shandong's implementation of the credit system reform in higher vocational colleges across the province. Through the implementation of the credit system, students with spare time can study a minor while studying their major according to their own career development plans and interests. The major and minor majors can be converted, which breaks the shackles of "one test determines the major".
The implementation of the credit system plays a positive and important role in promoting the reform of education and teaching and talent training models in higher vocational colleges, further mobilizing the enthusiasm of students to learn and teachers to teach, cultivating more technical and skilled talents with innovative spirit and practical ability, and continuously improving the quality of vocational education.
The distinctive feature of the credit system is its flexibility, which can fully stimulate students' interest in learning. Behind this is actually the educational idea of cultivating talents in an individualized way. Every student is a unique individual and a growing individual. What major to study and what field one is really interested in may change with changes in the level of understanding and various aspects of the situation.The credit system is, to some extent, a correction or supplement to the "one test determines the major" system. It can encourage students to actively explore areas that they are interested in and want to study, and gain greater freedom to grow and develop.
(Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
The credit system places higher demands on the curriculum of higher vocational colleges.Vocational schools mostly train technical and skilled personnel. It is very important whether students can apply what they have learned and whether they can quickly integrate into the company and start working.Students want to choose the majors they are interested in, and they also want to know that the courses they are learning are useful and practical, and have better employment prospects. The school's curriculum should also take these factors and needs into full consideration. If the courses cannot attract students, then the number of students willing to take the courses for credits will naturally decrease. This can actually force teachers to continuously optimize the course content, update and expand their "reserves" in a timely manner, and keep the courses open and new.
In 2015, the Ministry of Education pointed out in its Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Vocational Education and Teaching and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Talent Training that it is necessary to "establish a credit accumulation and conversion system... implement 'credit system, menu-based, modular, and open' teaching"; the Action Plan for the Innovation and Development of Higher Vocational Education (2015-2018) released in the same year also proposed "promoting the gradual implementation of the credit system in junior college higher vocational colleges". Based on these opinions and requirements, Shandong Province issued the Notice on Accelerating the Reform of the Credit System in Higher Vocational Colleges in 2017, and approved a number of higher vocational colleges to pilot the credit system management in the following years. Today, the credit system has been fully implemented in higher vocational colleges across Shandong Province.
(Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
The credit system reform of higher vocational colleges in Shandong Province is a microcosm of the reform and development of vocational education in my country. In recent years, vocational colleges and vocational education personnel in various places have taken the lead in exploring new models for the construction of a modern vocational education system. For example, Heilongjiang Vocational College uses simulation to fully replicate the production environment of enterprises to ensure that the training program can be connected with social needs and students can learn something useful; Shandong Qingdao Electronic School took the lead in establishing the Qingdao Electronic Information Industry Vocational Education Group, and jointly created a new platform for the integration of industry and education with 10 vocational colleges, 10 industry associations, and 88 enterprises; Sichuan Chengdu Rail Group established the Rail Transit Vocational College to cultivate more outstanding talents that meet the actual needs of production, and explored the "school-enterprise integration" school-running model... These reform and innovation measures have provided new ideas for the construction of vocational colleges and the development of vocational education in more places.
We hope that higher vocational colleges in various places will accelerate the pace of reform, allow innovative consciousness and strength to compete and burst forth, demonstrate the responsibility and role of vocational education in cultivating new quality productivity and building a modern industrial system, and cultivate more high-quality technical and skilled talents, skilled craftsmen, and master craftsmen for the country.
Source: China Workers Network
