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In mid-to-late July this year, Zhao Yucheng, Party Secretary and Principal of Chuzhou Applied Technology School in Anhui Province, experienced ups and downs in his mood. At first, Zhao Yucheng was worried that the number of students taking the high school entrance examination in the county would be lower than in previous years, which would affect the number of students enrolled in the school. For this reason, he tried to go out of Chuzhou City and go to northern Anhui to carry out recruitment publicity in the early stage.

What Zhao Yucheng didn't expect was that the school planned to enroll 200 students in Quanjiao County, but more than 400 people signed up. There were also a large number of students from other counties in Chuzhou City, and more than 300 people from Bengbu City, Fuyang City and Bozhou City in northern Anhui Province. "On July 10, the school completed the enrollment and admissions, and finally enrolled 1,120 people, 240 more than the previous year."

Taicang Vocational Secondary School in Jiangsu Province also witnessed a hot scene this year - the number of applicants has continued to rise in recent years. This year's enrollment plan was less than 2,000, but the actual number of applicants exceeded 4,000. Majors such as mechanical design and manufacturing, mechatronics, and e-commerce are particularly popular.

This year, the enrollment of secondary vocational schools in many places across the country has become "hot". Many schools have posted notices to close the enrollment gates in advance: Enrollment is full and no one will be accepted. Some schools even have parents queuing up overnight to register their children. According to media reports, in Nanning, Guangxi, during the enrollment period of some secondary vocational schools, there were a large number of people registering at the gate, and the scene was lively.

In recent years, the topic of "difficulty in recruiting students for secondary vocational schools" has frequently become a hot topic. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? Does this mean that secondary vocational education is widely recognized? Where is the high-quality development of secondary vocational education? China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporters conducted an interview.

The reasons for the boom in secondary vocational education are diverse.

"Since the promulgation of the newly revised Vocational Education Law, vocational education has been regarded as a type of education that develops equally with general education, and a vocational education college entrance examination system has been established, and the path for secondary vocational students to enter higher education has gradually been opened up." Yan Xionglin, principal of Lianyuan City Industrial and Trade Vocational Secondary School in Hunan Province, introduced that in the past two years, the school's enrollment in majors such as machinery manufacturing, new energy vehicle maintenance, and computers has been very popular, and the number of places in the "3+2 secondary and higher vocational transition classes" has also been in short supply. "For students in county-level cities whose academic performance is not ideal and whose family economic conditions are average, choosing a public secondary vocational school with free tuition is more cost-effective." Yan Xionglin said.

Yin Li, a special-grade teacher in Jiangsu Province and vice-president of Taicang Secondary Vocational School, believes that as some outstanding graduates of secondary vocational schools emerge in the industry, more people realize that secondary vocational students also have good development prospects if they master a practical skill. In addition, various policies have been implemented to help students "have a way to further their studies, find employment, and start a business." At the same time, with economic development and industrial restructuring and transformation, the society has a strong demand for skilled talents, which provides more development space for secondary vocational students.

"The increase in enrollment in recent years is due to policy support, as well as the improvement in operating conditions of secondary vocational schools, increasingly clear ideas about how to run schools, and the market's need for skilled talent," said Yang Lin, principal of Hefei Science and Technology School of Economics, Trade and Technology. "But it is worth noting that the popularity of enrollment in some secondary vocational schools does not mean that secondary vocational education has been widely recognized. More students choose secondary vocational schools out of necessity because of their scores." Yang Lin observed that some parents and students who registered were anxious, and some students had an inferiority complex.

He also pointed out that the phenomenon of "overcrowding" also exposed that the enrollment and admission methods of secondary vocational schools in some regions need to be further improved. "Some schools do not have unified and clear enrollment and admission standards, some schools adopt the strategy of 'first come, first served', and some schools allow students to fill in their applications online based on their scores, which allows students to choose schools freely and flexibly, but this also brings uncertainty to the school's enrollment cycle and plan."

In response to these phenomena, Yan Xionglin suggested further improving the sunshine enrollment platform, implementing the same platform for general high schools and secondary vocational schools to fill in applications and admissions, standardizing the operating conditions and enrollment behaviors of private secondary vocational schools, and ensuring sunshine enrollment.

"It is a good thing that a few schools are currently enrolling students, but it has not changed the fact that the vast majority of families still choose to send their children to ordinary high schools." Yin Li believes that things often have two sides, and the popularity also brings some problems. Some schools blindly expanded their scale in this upsurge, just like a child who is eager to grow up, but ignores its own infrastructure. The teaching staff failed to keep up with the pace of school expansion in time, resulting in a decline in teaching results, which undoubtedly deviates from the country's ardent expectations for vocational education to cultivate high-quality technical and skilled talents, skilled craftsmen, and great craftsmen. She said that schools must calmly deal with the trend of popular registration and concentrate on cultivating new-era craftsmen with craftsman awareness, delving into process technology, and making good use of craftsman thinking.

Vocational education is "small but excellent", and the quality of education is the hard truth

"The 'hot' enrollment in secondary vocational schools cannot be generalized. It has not affected the entire secondary vocational education." Many interviewees mentioned this point of view during the reporter's interview. For secondary vocational education, the state has opened up the path for secondary vocational students to enter higher education through top-level design, and as schools that undertake training tasks, they must undoubtedly vigorously improve the quality of education and attractiveness. "This is the only way for schools to survive." Yan Xionglin said.

Not long ago, Huai Jinpeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Minister of the Ministry of Education, said in an interview with the media that they will deepen the integration of vocational and general education, industry-education integration, accelerate the construction of a modern vocational education system, hold "small but good" secondary vocational education, enhance the core school-running capabilities of higher vocational education, and accelerate the integration of vocational education with serving economic and social development. Through the design of a system that integrates vertically and horizontally, students with different talents and development interests can effectively learn and develop in a diversified manner.

"Against the background of the 'hot' enrollment of some secondary vocational schools, the concept of 'few but good' proposed by Minister Huai Jinpeng has profound significance." Yin Li believes that "few but good" does not simply reduce the number of schools, but focuses on quality improvement and connotation development. From the perspective of quality improvement, although the enrollment situation is good, the quality of education and teaching cannot be ignored. The teaching staff of some secondary vocational schools is relatively weak, and the professional level and practical teaching ability of teachers need to be further improved; "few but good" requires concentrating resources to strengthen the construction of the teaching staff and gather strength to build an elite team; from the perspective of connotation development, "few but good" means paying more attention to campus culture construction and cultivating students' comprehensive qualities; from the perspective of industrial docking, "few but good" secondary vocational education should better achieve deep integration with the industry; from the perspective of regional development, "few but good" secondary vocational education should better serve the local economy.

According to data from the Ministry of Education, nearly 1,000 national secondary vocational education reform and development demonstration schools have been built across the country, and 2,000 secondary vocational schools have reached the construction standards of provincial key schools. At the same time, there are 358 majors in 19 major categories in secondary vocational schools across the country. Especially in fast-growing industries such as processing and manufacturing, high-speed railways, urban rail transportation, e-commerce, and modern logistics, most of the new employees come from vocational schools.

Many interviewees said that this means that the development scale and structure of secondary vocational schools are constantly being optimized, and the conditions for running schools are constantly improving. It also reflects the country's ardent expectations for vocational education to cultivate high-quality technical and skilled personnel.

"Economic and social development requires both top-notch innovative talents who can send satellites into space and large numbers of skilled talents who can improve the quality of life of the people." Hu Huiping, Party Secretary and President of Hefei Railway Engineering School, believes that "secondary vocational education can only be strengthened, not weakened, by relying on employment and further study."

He said that in the face of new development situations and the pain points of poor connection between secondary vocational education, higher vocational education and undergraduate vocational education in terms of professional systems, talent training programs, and curriculum content, he suggested systematically promoting the integrated construction of "secondary, higher vocational education and undergraduate vocational education" in terms of professional settings, talent training programs, teaching staff, curriculum materials, teaching plans, teaching practices and quality feedback, so as to lay a solid foundation for the modern vocational education system.

He also called for new fiscal revenue to be tilted towards vocational education, supporting vocational schools to use local debt to improve their operating conditions; exploring the establishment of a differentiated funding system based on major vocational education majors, and tilting towards majors with high operating costs, close industrial connections, and great social demand.

Wang Borong, Party Secretary of Gulang County Vocational Secondary School in Gansu Province, suggested that the state increase its financial investment to enable secondary vocational schools to upgrade their training equipment in a timely manner in line with modern industrial development, and at the same time allow more teachers to "go out" to learn advanced knowledge and concepts to better meet students' learning needs. "The implementation of vocational education policies must be more continuous and stable. We hope to open more vocational and technical universities and increase the number of college entrance examination places for vocational secondary school students, so that the children's future will be brighter."

Zhao Yucheng observed that some children who choose secondary vocational schools lack self-confidence and have no reasonable plans and goals for the future. Helping these children regain their confidence and cultivate good living habits should be the "first lesson" of the school. He gave an example that his school introduced national defense education and the "Colorful Moral Education" brand, allowing students to start with housekeeping, learn the fine traditions of the army and the fine style of the soldiers, cultivate students' patriotism and collectivism, and let students clarify their goals.

He believes that it is important to improve the social recognition and attention of secondary vocational education. Since society still has the traditional impression of vocational education as "poor students and chaotic school management", some students come from poor families and their parents do not attach importance to education. Children rarely receive "flowers and applause" from childhood, but more blame. This requires society, family and school to work together to help students grow up healthily.

"In the final analysis, improving the quality of education is the hard truth." Zhao Yucheng gave an example. The school has carried out curriculum reform, increased the proportion of practical courses, and opened 87 training rooms in the school from Tuesday to Thursday afternoon. Students choose skill courses according to their professional characteristics and interests, "building classrooms in workshops and workshops in classrooms"; in view of the current situation that some children are interested in theoretical courses and some children have strong hands-on ability, the school respects the wishes of students and teaches content of different difficulty and requirements accordingly.

Yin Li believes that the "hot" enrollment of some secondary vocational schools is undoubtedly a positive phenomenon, which shows that secondary vocational education has been recognized by the society to a certain extent. "Fewer but better" points out the direction for the future development of secondary vocational education. Secondary vocational schools should focus on quality improvement and connotation development while maintaining a good enrollment situation. Through various means such as concentrating resources, optimizing teachers, and strengthening industrial docking, they can run "fewer but better" secondary vocational education, cultivate high-quality skilled talents, and provide solid talent support for the development of the economy and society.

China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Wang Haihan Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily