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by wang xuqing, school of humanities and social sciences, xi'an jiaotong university 

recently, southern weekend published an article titled "can prohibiting county students from enrolling in municipal high schools prevent the "collapse of county high schools"?" the article argues that the collapse of county high schools is a trend and an inevitability. under such circumstances, restricting municipal schools from enrolling students across cities is not necessary or meaningful, and is a double "infringement" on county students and municipal schools. i hold the opposite view. before discussing the views of this article, i would like to point out two common sense issues that appear in the article.

1. local enrollment

the article believes that counties are the "territory" of the superior city, so municipal schools can naturally recruit students across cities.

i don't know if the author of the article is deliberately pretending to be confused. territorial management is the basic feature of my country's administrative management system. the scope of the territory is defined according to the administrative division level of my country. my country's administrative divisions are divided into four levels: provincial administrative divisions, prefecture-level administrative divisions (between provincial and county levels, including prefecture-level cities, regions, autonomous prefectures and leagues), county-level administrative divisions (including urban districts, county-level cities, counties, autonomous counties, banners, autonomous banners, special zones, forest areas, etc.), and township-level administrative divisions. obviously, cities and counties are two different administrative levels, and each level has its own clear jurisdiction.

the author of this article obviously confuses administrative levels with power levels. he thinks that the city level is higher than the county level and has more power than the county level, so it is natural that the city can recruit students at the county level. according to this logic, shouldn’t the city also be responsible for the coordination of the supply of educational resources, the management of educational and teaching affairs, and the overall arrangement of teaching and research work in the county? aren’t subordinate counties the "territory" of the superior city? is there only territorial enrollment but no territorial management? only talking about power, not responsibility. what is the truth?

it is common sense that power and responsibility are inseparable. the county level is responsible for the supply of educational resources for the entire county, and naturally has the right to recruit students in the county. the author of the article mentioned this in the next paragraph.

but the strange thing is, why does the same logic fail to work in city-level schools? the city is responsible for the supply of educational resources in the city, so why does it consider students from other regions when it comes to enrollment? isn’t the author’s self-contradiction too obvious? moreover, the author only mentioned that some students in the county lost opportunities after restricting cross-district enrollment, why didn’t he mention the loss of opportunities for some students in the city after cross-district enrollment?

2. municipal schools and municipal finances 

to be able to make such a statement, the author must not understand administrative divisions or local education finance. in reality, not all city-level schools are directly managed by the city. city-level schools are divided into city-owned schools and district-owned schools. the former are funded by the municipal government and managed by the education department at the same level, while the latter are managed by the district education bureau. to say that city-level schools are not just schools in the district where they are located is a lack of basic common sense. however, any parent who lives in a city and values ​​their children's education will not lack this common sense.

obviously, the author of this article tried to prove the rationality of cross-district enrollment and cross-district admission by using the two points of "local enrollment" and municipal schools being schools in the whole city. however, these two points are contrary to common sense and cannot support the argument. after clarifying this point, let's return to the main point of this article.

the main points of this article can be summarized as follows:

①the collapse of the county is an inevitable trend.

②high-quality students cannot save the county middle school.

③restricting cross-district enrollment has affected the level of municipal middle schools and delayed outstanding students in county middle schools.

④restrictions may lead to the creation of gray areas.

in view of these points, i believe:

① the key to discussing the issue of county schools is not whether they will inevitably collapse, but whether they can collapse at this stage. the answer is no.

②high-quality students are only one of the factors for the revitalization of county middle schools. what it saves is the regional education ecology.

③delay is a false problem. the real focus lies in the current overly inward-looking educational environment.

④ restrictions may cause minority groups to flow into the gray area, but picking the best students will lead to excessive involution of the vast majority of ordinary students and their families.

to illustrate the above point, this article will focus on two issues: first, why can’t county middle schools collapse? second, is it a waste of time for outstanding students to stay in county middle schools?

3.why can’t the county center collapse? 

one of the main points of the author of this article is that the collapse of the county center is an inevitable trend of urbanization. this is a typical case of replacing the thinking of the current problem with the so-called long-term judgment. the logic of this judgment is no different from "in the long run, we are all dead." the key to the problem has never been whether the county center will collapse in the long run, but why the county center will collapse at this stage, whether it can collapse, and how to prevent it from collapsing.

of course, the reasons for the collapse of county middle schools are very complex. generally speaking, it is due to the loss of students and teachers. however, if we carefully ask why students and teachers are lost, we will find that the current collapse of county middle schools is not a natural process, but is affected by the expansion of municipal middle schools, especially the rise of super middle schools. attributing the collapse of county middle schools to historical inevitability is obviously ignoring the factors that actually play a role in reality. after explaining the reasons, let's focus on why county middle schools cannot collapse at this stage.

the most superficial function of the county is to increase the educational opportunities for children from farming families, that is, to help the lower classes to move upward. but in fact, the county has a deeper function - to regulate educational competition and ease educational anxiety within the region.

we all know that education is very competitive now and the college entrance examination competition is very fierce. what is the reason for this extreme internal competition? generally, people would explain it with the marketization of education, family education expectations, employment situation, etc. however, after a nationwide survey, we found that it is actually closely related to the collapse of county middle schools.

the reason is simple. after the collapse of county middle schools, the students who could have been controlled within the county will flow into the city as a whole, and will be diverted to schools of different levels according to their academic performance and family economic conditions. this makes the students who were originally relatively randomly distributed in various counties, with both top, good, average and poor students, directly gathered in different schools within the city according to their academic level. the typical manifestation is that the top students are all concentrated in famous city schools, the good students are concentrated in the city schools that are one level lower, and the average and poor students are concentrated in the city middle schools and various county middle schools of the next level.

this change in the distribution of students will bring about an impact - a change in the competitive order of the college entrance examination.

we know that the final number of admissions in the college entrance examination is determined according to a ratio. this ratio is regulated by the state and remains basically stable. therefore, the number of people in a province who can finally enter 985211, the first or second tier universities is basically determined. the college entrance examination is a competition for scores on the surface, but in essence it is a competition for provincial rankings. taking the top students as an example, as long as they are in the top ten in the province, whether they score 720 or 690, they are all materials for tsinghua university and peking university. what is educational involution? it means that originally a score of 690 was enough to meet the requirements of the college entrance examination for top talents, but now you have to score 720. why do you have to score so many more points?

this involves the change in the competition order of the college entrance examination after the collapse of the county middle school mentioned above.

let’s continue to use the head students as an example:

we can imagine, under what circumstances would a student who is already an outstanding student continue to roll up his scores? of course, there are other powerful people around him, and there are a group of potential stocks catching up behind him. where do so many outstanding students come from? naturally, the best students are selected from the whole city or even the whole province. according to surveys, in areas where the county middle school collapses seriously, it is very normal for the top 100 students in the county to lose their scores in the high school entrance examination. even in areas where the county middle school is not bad, the top 30 students in the county high school entrance examination are very unstable. in other words, the essence of the city-level middle school picking is to gather the top students in the city and even the province together. and what they do when they gather together is essentially to roll up 690 points to 720 points, that is, to raise the score threshold of famous schools.

but the problem is that top students are top students (assuming that their academic status is relatively stable). if they stay in the county middle school, they may be in the top ten in the class. the actual competitors they face every day are only a dozen or twenty people, so the personal competition pressure will not be too great. similarly, the top students in the municipal middle school will not be too competitive if there are no top students from the whole city or province competing with them. in this case, the top students are still the same group of people, but they are scattered in schools at all levels, so everyone can maintain a state of moderate competition. the final college entrance examination scores may not be exaggeratedly high, but it is still this group of people who are actually admitted to prestigious schools.

however, if the county middle school collapses and the top students gather in large numbers, then students who were originally in the top ten in the county may be in the top 100 in the city-level school. their competitors have gone from a dozen or twenty people to one or two hundred. the competitive pressure can be imagined, and it is almost inevitable that the scores will get higher and higher. in fact, judging from the results, they are still the ones who go to famous schools. the only difference is that they use a more involuted way and higher scores to enter famous schools.

in other words, the collapse of county middle schools actually changes the entire order of college entrance examination competition, which is reflected in the direct transformation of competitors and competitive pressure on top students. once the top students gather to raise the score threshold of famous schools, good students from other schools will be forced to keep up, otherwise they will lose their chances. but the problem is that the overall source of students in other schools is not as good as that of the top schools, and to keep up, extremely harsh training methods must be adopted. this has led to the "factory-style" management of schools from top to bottom, from municipal to county levels, and the extremely intensive participation of students' parents in education, and students' academic studies have begun to roll inward. however, due to the high homogeneity of students within the same school, the roll inward cannot fundamentally change the provincial ranking of these students, and can only barely narrow the gap with students from top schools. the final result is the movie theater effect-originally everyone had a seat, but because the people in the first row stood up, all the audience had to stand to see the movie.

in short, the reason behind the collapse of county schools is the highly hierarchical distribution of students. this hierarchical distribution will cause the college entrance examination competition, which was originally carried out in the county, to become a competition between schools of different levels between counties and cities. the formation of the latter competition order is the key to the involution of universal education in the region.

it is on the basis of understanding this basic competitive order that we believe that one of the main functions of county schools is to regulate educational competition and ease educational anxiety. the premise for it to play this role is that the internal student source structure is relatively complete. if we compare the students in the whole city to flowing water, then the function of the county school is actually a dam. through the regulation of the dam, water at different water levels can maintain a relatively slow flow speed. therefore, the most important significance of restricting cross-district enrollment is actually to restore the normal student source structure within the county and re-play the dam role of the county school.

in short, with half of the families living in county towns, county schools cannot collapse. from an objective point of view, as long as county schools are strong, the competition intensity of the entire region will decrease, the sense of security of county residents will be stronger, the pressure on students will naturally decrease, the anxiety and burden of family education will be reduced, teachers will have a greater sense of professional achievement, and the operation of the county education administrative system will be more relaxed.

of course, some people will ask whether this will affect the quality of the college entrance examination. after all, high scores do represent the degree of ability development to some extent. this involves the issue of the limits of college entrance examination selection. overall, we believe that the main problem with the current college entrance examination is not that there are no talents, but excessive involution. the discovery of many students' abilities does not necessarily have to be completed in the form of examinations in high school. excessive involution may drain students' energy and potential.

some people may ask, can retaining students solve all problems? of course not. but retaining students is the most critical step in regulating the overall ecology of regional education. in this sense, retaining students may not necessarily save county schools and cannot be a reason for not restricting cross-district enrollment. as for how county schools will develop after retaining students, that is another question.

4. will it be a delay for outstanding students to stay in the county middle school? 

in the article "can prohibiting county candidates from enrolling in municipal high schools prevent the collapse of county high schools?", the author repeatedly mentioned that restricting enrollment policies would suppress the potential of "poor students" in counties. the subtext is that only when poor students enter municipal schools or prestigious schools can their chances of entering prestigious schools be realized, or even exceeded. is this really the case?

generally speaking, what we call "noble children" are at least 985 seedlings. these students are generally outstanding in county schools, and ranking around 30 in the grade is not a problem. so, can these students do better in the exam if they enter the municipal high school? our survey experience shows that this is not the case. after most of these students enter municipal schools, the final results they achieve are ranked in the county, which is actually not much different from the ranking in the senior high school entrance examination that year. not only that, we also found the ceiling of county students' grades. taking shaanxi as an example, the ceiling of county students' college entrance examination scores is basically around 670 points. in the c county middle school we surveyed, in 2023, the best score of the students who entered the municipal middle school was also in the top ten of the senior high school entrance examination. the score of the first place in the county was equivalent, and the ranking of the two in the county was not much different from the senior high school entrance examination. students who entered the municipal middle school successfully entered the top 985, while students who stayed in the county enjoyed national policies and eventually entered tsinghua. according to teachers at c county middle school, none of the students who have left c have been admitted to tsinghua and peking university.

in other words, although they are all "noble children", the final academic performance of students who enter municipal middle schools may not be exceptionally excellent. the academic ability of students who stay in county middle schools may not be fully explored. on the contrary, our investigation found that because the top students in county middle schools are precious, county middle schools often allocate the best resources to these students and provide all-round support in terms of academics, life, psychology, etc. on the contrary, students who enter municipal middle schools find it more difficult to obtain support at the school level, and mainly rely on their families and self-adjustment. this causes the academic risks of students who enter municipal middle schools to be greater. therefore, as long as the county middle school is well run, the "noble children" staying in the county middle school is not a delay, but a disguised protection.

obviously, the author of the article "can prohibiting county candidates from enrolling in municipal high schools prevent the "collapse of county high schools"?" assumes that county high schools cannot produce talented students. but he fails to see that the cultivation of talented students requires an environment and conditions. it is not that county high schools cannot produce talented students, but that the environment and conditions of county high schools are being destroyed. the author believes that without outstanding county high school students, it will be difficult for municipal high schools to promote mutual learning in teaching. why not mention the possibility of resuming the mutual learning in teaching in county high schools after these students stay in them? is the county high school unworthy?

in summary, the author believes that the delay of outstanding students is likely to be a false problem. because from the perspective of admission, most outstanding students are relatively determined during the high school entrance examination, and high school training is to further develop students' academic ability while keeping the gradient relatively stable. therefore, the most important function of keeping outstanding students in the county and running county middle schools well is to adjust the order of college entrance examination competition in the region, alleviate excessive internal competition and anxiety about universal education, and allow outstanding students to not have to roll to 720 points to enter tsinghua and peking university, while also allowing other students to not have to suffer the pain of "factory-style" learning and training, so that families no longer have to worry about their children's education.

of course, after retaining students, how to develop county middle schools is a real problem. the survey found that county middle schools currently have three main difficulties:

first, the problem of teachers. county middle schools are indeed facing the problem of not being able to recruit high-quality teachers.

second, the financial difficulties. limited by local finances and current funding requirements, it is difficult for county middle schools to fully motivate teachers, and it is also difficult to organize large-scale high-level learning, training, and exchange activities. they are also at a disadvantage in obtaining college entrance examination-related resources.

third, the dilemma of teaching and research. due to the lack of top students and the limited management and organizational capabilities of county middle schools, it is difficult for county middle schools to form a positive cycle of mutual learning and improvement, and it is difficult to improve teaching and research capabilities.

for these three points, in addition to expanding the funds for county middle schools and giving schools a certain degree of autonomy in the use of funds, it is more important to solve the problems of teachers and teaching and research. in the investigation, we found that municipal schools’ point-to-point assistance or joint schooling may be a solution. for example, municipal schools can send teachers in the form of a team to focus on solving the teaching and research construction problems of a certain subject in the county middle school in about three years; share teaching and research resources in the form of online courses and cloud classes, etc. in short, after retaining students, county middle schools urgently need to rebuild their own subjectivity in teaching and research and improve their teaching and research capabilities. this will serve as the basis for restoring the county-based college entrance examination competition order, and re-play the role of college entrance examination competition regulator and class mobility stabilizer.

finally, the author of the article "can prohibiting county candidates from enrolling in municipal high schools prevent the "collapse of county high schools"?" believes that restricting the enrollment of municipal high schools may create rent-seeking space. this cannot be denied. but we should be clear that, first, there is no perfect policy, only policies that can effectively solve key problems. compared with the negative impact of rent-seeking space after the implementation of the policy of restricting enrollment, not restricting enrollment will lead to the deformity of the entire regional education ecology, a multi-party loss for the education department, students, families, schools, and society, and the production of educational inequality. it is clear at a glance which choice to make. second, whether the flexible space will become a rent-seeking channel or a regulatory space that serves educational equity depends on the relevant policies and institutional settings. there is no need to affect the general direction of policy formulation and implementation due to problems that can be solved by mechanisms.