2024-09-22
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
wen yanghua school of social sciences, wuhan university
the county education system has the general characteristics of basic education and must assume the export function of the county society's educational expectations. students in the jurisdiction can move up through the county's primary and secondary education system and then enter university through the college entrance examination. the size of the county's education export is reflected in the number of students admitted to tsinghua and peking university and the enrollment rate of key universities in county high schools. a large number of students admitted to tsinghua and peking university and a high enrollment rate in key universities indicate that the county's education export is large, and the county society is relatively satisfied with the education in the jurisdiction, so parents are willing to keep their children in the county to study; on the contrary, the number of students admitted to tsinghua and peking university has been zero for many years, and the enrollment rate of key universities has declined year by year, indicating that the county's education export is narrow, and the hope of staying in the county to study in higher-level schools is slim. the county society is dissatisfied with the education in the jurisdiction and will vote with its feet, and the source of students will flow out of the county.
the county education system also has its own uniqueness, that is, it must respond to the uniqueness of the county society, including the urban-rural gap in the county society, and the county education must solve the problem of balanced urban and rural education; the economic differentiation of farmers' families has intensified, and the county education must respond to the different needs of different families for education and solve the problem of "education for all"; the phenomenon of left-behind youth in rural areas is serious, and the county education must respond to the needs of left-behind students for more time in school and school education, and solve the problems of left-behind children's extracurricular tutoring and mobile phone addiction. in other words, the supply of county education must match the characteristics of the county society itself, otherwise there will be a mismatch between the supply and demand of education.
in the county's primary and secondary education system, township schools and county middle schools play a pivotal role. the roles and functions of township schools and county middle schools in county education are both different and closely related. in terms of differences, county middle schools have to respond to universal problems in basic education. the county concentrates educational resources in county middle schools to solve the problem of education export, while township schools have to respond to special problems in county education and solve the special educational needs of county society. in terms of connection, the weakening of county middle schools will inevitably lead to the decline of township schools. township schools are a necessary channel for rural students to enter county middle schools, and township schools and county middle schools are interdependent. therefore, in the county, the "township school model" and the "county middle school model" must walk on two legs and cannot be neglected. once the two are weakened, it will lead to the collapse of the entire county education, which will harm farmers and county society.
as for the development of county education, the focus should be on developing township schools at the compulsory education stage, and on developing county middle schools at the high school education stage.
in order for a school to form a normal campus atmosphere and for a class to maintain normal teaching order, a certain scale of students is needed. according to the survey, the more reasonable scale of primary and junior high schools is 300 to 600 people, that is, one to two classes of about 50 people per grade. if the school has insufficient students, normal extracurricular activities and cultural and sports activities cannot be carried out. in junior high school, if there are not two classes in each grade, it is impossible to carry out class management. in terms of classes, a normal teaching unit is 30 to 50 people, about 30 people in primary schools, and up to 50 people in junior high schools. with this number of people, the class has scale, can carry out normal class activities, and form a class and teaching atmosphere; at the same time, because of the scale within the class, the students' grades and performance can form upper, middle and lower levels. the upper performance can set an example for the whole class and drive the middle level, and the middle level can convey the atmosphere and positive energy. otherwise, if a class has less than 20 people, students cannot form a hierarchical incentive mechanism, the class has no atmosphere, and the teacher's enthusiasm and initiative cannot be mobilized.
the survey found that due to low fertility and the migration of farmers, the number of school-age children in rural areas has decreased significantly. most village primary schools have either been withdrawn or turned into teaching points, or merged into district primary schools, but the number of students is relatively small. most of them are small-scale schools with less than 100 students, and many teaching points have only one or two students. although these small-scale schools have invested heavily in hardware facilities, the resource utilization rate is low and there is no scale effect. with the further migration of rural population and the concentration of students in township schools, most district primary schools, village primary schools, and teaching points will soon die out. township schools will become the main bearers of rural compulsory education services and government investment in rural education. we call this education management and development model in which education investment, student sources and teachers, and teaching institution management are concentrated in township schools the "township school model."
"rural school" is a general term for township schools and township central schools, including grades of central primary schools and junior high schools. township central schools are not only teaching institutions, but also have the overall management and teacher allocation functions for junior high schools, primary schools, and teaching points in the entire township. in terms of teaching management, rural schools mainly respond to and serve the educational needs of peasant families who have not been able to leave the town. therefore, they have strong rural matching characteristics in terms of educational goals, school management, and teaching methods. for example, in terms of educational goals, rural schools are different from urban schools in terms of their goal of further education. the most important thing for them is to be responsible for the discipline of students, because most rural school students come from "part-time work and part-time farming" families, and the students are left behind. the family's education and discipline education for them is very weak, so these responsibilities are transferred to the school's responsibilities, and the school must teach, discipline, and punish these rural children. in terms of school management, since the time left behind by left-behind children is spent ineffectively outside of school, there is no one to tutor them after class, and safety is also a problem. therefore, the appeal of rural families is that they hope that the school will take care of all the students, so that the children can stay in school more time, and there is a great demand for boarding. therefore, township schools should strengthen the construction and configuration of boarding functions in school management, such as strengthening the allocation of life teachers and related supporting facilities for evening self-study. in terms of teaching methods, if townships want to send students to ordinary high schools and ensure the teaching quality and school reputation to retain students, they must carry out differentiated management, divide classes at the school level, divide them into fast classes and slow classes, good classes and poor classes, and divide them at the class level, with good students sitting in the front and middle of the classroom and poor students sitting on the sides and back of the classroom.
according to the survey, township schools have very obvious advantages over small districts, village schools and teaching points: first, the students are large in scale. township schools concentrate most of the students who have not left the town. whether it is primary or junior high school, the school and class students have a certain scale, which can form a reasonable gradient, and the teaching and management of schools and classes can be carried out normally. second, it concentrates the outstanding teachers of the whole township. the central school has the right to manage and allocate teachers in the whole township. it can allocate outstanding teachers from the township to the township school, enrich the teaching team of each grade, and reasonably match the structure of old, middle-aged and young teachers. third, rural education resources are concentrated in township schools, rather than diluted in village schools and teaching points, so that educational resources can play agglomeration effects and scale effects. fourth, township schools have students of scale and a reasonable teacher structure, which can form a stable campus culture, atmosphere and management experience, and form a stable teaching and research team and tradition. in this way, rural schools will achieve good results in teaching and student management, and will be able to adapt to the characteristics of rural society with "half-work and half-farming", more left-behind children and less culture, respond to the educational needs of rural society, and liberate the young and strong labor force in rural areas; if there is hope for further education, rural schools will be able to retain students, forming a positive feedback, and rural parents will be more willing to keep their children in rural schools, reducing the family's education costs and weakening family education anxiety; allowing most children from families that cannot move to the city to receive relatively good compulsory education and have the same opportunities to go on to higher education through the education provided by rural schools.
the imbalance in the distribution of urban and rural educational resources is an objective fact. in the initial allocation of teachers, county towns are more able to attract outstanding college students. in the secondary allocation, outstanding rural teachers also flow to county towns, making rural schools a training base for outstanding teachers in county schools. in terms of teaching resources, training resources, teaching and research resources, scientific and educational resources, and information resources are richer than those in township middle schools. rural families who are able to move to the city also spare no effort to send their children to county schools, and outstanding rural students continue to lose. this is a major trend. the current education department is also promoting relevant measures to balance urban and rural education. the more successful one is the policy of enrolling high-quality high school students in counties to schools. this allows township middle schools to have the right to enter high-quality high schools in proportion to the number of applicants, limiting competition within the school, and to a certain extent guaranteeing the high-quality students of township schools.
however, the "new education city" built by the county government in the county seat has greatly aggravated the loss of students in rural schools. in order to develop county real estate and promote the county economy, the county government has invested a large amount of educational resources in the vicinity of real estate, attracting farmers to move to the city and buy houses through education. in some places, in order to attract farmers to move to the city, the county seat specially relocated high schools and junior high schools located in townships with excellent teaching quality to the county seat, forcing farmers to move to the city and buy houses. this wave of operations by the county government will inevitably accelerate the decline of rural schools, and the consequences of the decline of rural schools are particularly serious, which will doom most rural students to failure before they have time to work hard. the logic is as follows: first, the large-scale and rapid outflow of rural students, especially excellent students, will inevitably lead to a large reduction in the number of students in rural schools and a tendency towards de-scaling and gradient, making it difficult to sustain the school atmosphere, breaking the reasonable teaching scale, and the teaching performance of rural schools will decline; second, the class students have no scale and no gradient, and the sense of accomplishment and gain of teachers is getting less and less, which will not inspire enthusiasm, motivation and initiative, and further promote the outflow of excellent teachers; third, the school has no performance and the outflow of excellent teachers, which increases the dissatisfaction and distrust of rural parents with the school, forcing excellent students and students who have the ability to flow out further, and finally the students who remain in the rural schools are the children of families who cannot afford to flow out; fourth, these families themselves are disadvantaged families and incomplete families (such as divorced families) in rural areas, accounting for a large part of rural areas. their families cannot provide their children with knowledge education and formation education, and they are completely dependent on the school education of rural schools. once the rural schools are weak, even if they work hard individually, they have no chance to move up through compulsory education, not to mention that they don’t know how to work hard.
the decline of rural schools means that most children from rural families who cannot go to the city have been left out of the compulsory education system early on. first, this is a great injustice. the county has openly abandoned the majority of people for the sake of urbanization and the quality education of a few people. secondly, it has increased the educational burden of families who go to the city to study, including buying houses, consumption, living, and accompanying their children. these high costs have also blocked farmers who cannot afford to go to the city. thirdly, the level of competition for high school entrance exams has moved up to the county level, and individual families are competing for educational resources in the county, which has exacerbated the educational anxiety and competition of rural families, further promoted the urbanization of education, and exacerbated the decline of rural schools.
according to the investigation, there are generally only one or two good general high schools in a county, and at most one so-called "provincial key high school". the reason for this is related to the centralized allocation of high school education resources. primary and secondary education is compulsory education, and the allocation of educational resources emphasizes fairness, so it needs to be relatively balanced. however, high school education is not compulsory education, but competitive education. in order to participate in the city-wide and provincial college entrance examination competition, resource allocation must tend to be centralized, rather than evenly allocated to all high schools, in order to facilitate the county's competition in the city-wide and provincial college entrance examinations. therefore, this school-running model in which the county concentrates educational resources to run one or two general high schools, and sends educational performance signals to the county society and higher-level governments through the college entrance examination performance of these one or two schools, is the "county high school model."
according to current surveys, the registered population of general districts and counties is between 400,000 and 500,000 and 1 million, and there are generally six to seven to ten general high schools in the jurisdiction. among them, there are generally two to five high schools in the county, and the rest are distributed in regional central towns. high schools in county towns can generally recruit students from the entire county, such as the best one or two high schools, while high schools in central towns mainly recruit students from junior high schools in the townships in their area. the best one or two high schools in the county bear the function of being the social education export of the county and creating educational achievements for the county government. students admitted to tsinghua university and peking university and key universities are generally in these one or two schools, while other high schools basically have no students from tsinghua university and peking university, and there are fewer students from key universities, most of whom are second- and third-tier college students and junior college students.
the best one or two high schools in a county are the so-called "county middle schools". county middle schools have the following advantages over other high schools in the county: first, the number of students is guaranteed. county middle schools recruit students from the whole county, and the number of students does not fluctuate with the fluctuation of the number of junior high school students in the whole county. even if the number of junior high school students in the county is greatly reduced, it will not affect the enrollment of county middle schools, because county middle schools recruit students with high rankings; after the "indicator to school" policy, the number of students in county middle schools cannot be reduced. therefore, county middle schools can determine and adjust the number of admissions according to their own resources and development goals. however, other high schools are located in towns and have relatively limited enrollment scope, so the number of admissions is affected by the junior high schools in the district. if the number of junior high school students in the district decreases, the enrollment options of high schools in the district will be reduced, and they may even have to reduce the enrollment scale as the rural population decreases and flows. even if these high schools are allowed to recruit students from the whole county, it is difficult to find students from other districts. in some counties and cities, high schools in the district are relocated to the county seat for the convenience of enrollment. second, the quality of students is guaranteed. the enrollment of county middle schools is a legal selection of the best students. the first and second choices filled in by the best junior high school graduates in the county must be the county middle school. only after the county middle school has been admitted, other high schools will be admitted. some county middle schools can also attract outstanding junior high school graduates through relevant policies. for example, the top few students in the county who apply for their school can enjoy certain rewards such as material bonuses, family members living in the school to accompany their studies, etc. third, effective teachers are guaranteed. in addition to being able to recruit outstanding graduates and train their own high-quality teachers, county middle schools can also transfer outstanding teachers from other middle schools through the education bureau to enrich the teaching staff. fourth, in addition to students and teachers, there are other best-quality and richest software and hardware resources, including budget, project investment, honors and awards, campus culture, veteran teacher resources, teaching and research experience, management experience, management team building, alumni relations, social relations, political resources, social reputation, etc.
if a county runs one or two county middle schools well and the county middle schools have good college entrance examination results, the following positive effects will overflow: first, it will meet the needs of the county government and its main leaders for educational achievements, thereby continuously obtaining political, economic and other resource support at the county level. second, it will meet the needs of the county society for the export of educational expectations, that is, the educational expectations of students from peking university and more key college students, so that the county society will have trust in and support county education, and then retain high-quality junior high school graduates in the county. third, the county middle school guarantees the export of county education, and excellent junior high school graduates can stay in the county. the county education system will remain relatively complete, and most families in the county can obtain basic education services at a relatively low cost through the county education system, and there is still a great hope to enter the university through the county middle school export. since county education can meet the schooling needs of most families in the county, only a few families with resources will go to prefecture-level cities and provincial capitals to purchase better education resources, but it will not trigger other families to follow suit and compete. fourth, it will reduce the intensity of educational competition in county society. the current college entrance examination competition is mainly based on the county level, with county middle schools as the carrier to participate in the provincial college entrance examination competition, rather than individual families directly participating in the competition between families in the province. then, within the province, it is the competition between counties, and even more so the competition between county middle schools; and students and their families only participate in the competition within the county, that is, the competition to enter the county middle school. when the quota arrives at the school, the competition between students and families is limited to the junior high school they attend, that is, the competition quota, the competition scope is narrower, and the competition pressure is smaller. therefore, participating in the college entrance examination competition with county middle schools as the carrier limits the scope of competition and greatly reduces the intensity of educational competition and educational anxiety in the county society.
county middle schools have been running relatively well in the past two or three decades, with moderate social education anxiety and not fierce competition in the county. however, in the past decade or so, social education anxiety and competition in the county have intensified, and one of the important reasons is the weakening of county middle schools. the weakening of county middle schools is mainly due to the following reasons: first, the provincial and municipal super middle schools recruit students across regions. the top students in the county are attracted away by these schools through various preferential policies. there are no top students in the county middle schools. excellent students, middle-level students and backward students all lack the driving force. the school's college entrance examination performance is inevitably declining. the number of students admitted to tsinghua and peking university has been zero for many years, and the rate of key universities has been declining year by year. the third is the outflow of excellent teachers. basic education is an education of experience accumulation. the cultivation of excellent teachers cannot be achieved overnight, but requires time to settle. however, the outflow of excellent teachers is a short-term thing, so it will lead to a lack of excellent teachers in the county middle schools and an unreasonable teacher structure, which will also seriously affect the school's teaching performance.
the decline of the county will have serious political and social consequences:
first, without the reputation of students from peking university and tsinghua university and the signboard of the enrollment rate of key universities, the county society has doubts and distrust of county middle school education and county education. excellent students and middle-level students from families with economic conditions have also begun to vote with their feet and leave, making the student source structure of county middle schools even more unreasonable. even if the school has a certain scale, the classes cannot form a reasonable echelon, the students' knowledge, comprehension and test-taking abilities are not good, and the teachers have no sense of teaching achievement, so they are more likely to be attracted by private schools and super middle schools. negative feedback is formed.
second, the county education system is not trusted. as long as some people leave the county to study in the province or city, other students and their families will follow suit and compete, forming an expectation that anyone who is able to leave will leave, which intensifies the education anxiety in the county society. then, in order for their children to attend better schools in the province or city, they will buy more educational resources in the market, and even hope that their children can attend good schools in the province or city from junior high school or elementary school. parents who are able to do this will set an example and set a trend, and parents who are not able to and whose children have not yet reached junior high school (elementary school) will be really anxious.
third, families with the means send their children to other counties from primary and junior high schools, which results in the depletion of students in the county's junior and primary schools and the disintegration of the entire county education system from high school to junior high school and primary school. county education can no longer produce outstanding students.
fourth, families with the means send their children to good schools in the province and city, and those who stay to study in county high schools and junior high schools are children from ordinary families in the county. these families are the majority in the county, and because they cannot leave, they rely most on the county education system, especially the county middle school education. if the county middle school education is good, they will have an outlet and a greater chance of further study, which is good for them. however, the county middle school is weak - the source of students is destroyed, the teacher structure is unreasonable, and educational resources are concentrated in provinces and cities. no matter how hard they work, they are unable to "change their fate", and it is difficult for them to get out of the county middle school.
in general, township schools, based on the special characteristics of rural society, have realized the basic right of most rural children to enjoy compulsory education nearby and at low cost, and have ensured the fairness of county education. county schools concentrate county education resources to participate in provincial and municipal education competition, reflecting the efficiency of the county education system, thus responding to the education expectations of county society, maintaining the county society's trust in county education, and maintaining the integrity of the county education system.
the weakening of county township schools and county middle schools has made county education unsystematic and no longer able to match the characteristics of rural society and respond to the educational needs of county society, let alone provide an outlet for county society's educational expectations. the biggest consequence of the weakening of township schools is that the children of lower-class peasant families in townships fail before they even try, while the weakening of county middle schools means that no matter how hard the children of ordinary families in the county try, they cannot see a future, and ultimately the college entrance examination becomes a game played by the children of a few families with economic conditions.
collect and organize the latest news information and make it available for free for everyone to read
