According to the website of the Ministry of Education, in early June 2014, the Ministry of Education dispatched five inspection teams consisting of education administrative officials, national inspectors, relevant experts, and journalists to conduct inspections and patrols on the standardized operation of compulsory education schools in ten provinces, namely Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, in accordance with the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Carrying out the 'Ten Thousand Mile Journey · Season 2' Activity for Compulsory Education Schools" (Jiaoji Yiting Han [2014] No. 13).
Overall, various regions have a good understanding of regulating the behavior of compulsory education schools and reducing the heavy academic burden on students. They attach great importance to this work in terms of ideology, have specific and clear requirements, and have taken a series of effective measures, achieving significant results. But during the inspection, some irregularities in educational practices were also discovered. One aspect is enrollment. Some schools have not been able to enroll students in designated areas and still use interviews, selection exams, or other methods to select students. Secondly, in terms of course arrangement. In some places, the regulations on the total class hours of compulsory education schools, as well as the total class hours of Chinese and mathematics weeks, exceed the national and provincial regulations. In some places, there is insufficient provision for courses such as music, physical education, and art, as well as local courses. A few schools have not fully implemented the requirement of one hour of exercise per day. Thirdly, in terms of exam evaluation. A few schools rank students' exam scores and publish them on the bulletin board. In terms of presenting exam results, some schools have not yet implemented the method of adding grades and comments. Some schools have exceeded the national regulations in terms of exam frequency and subjects. Fourthly, in terms of teaching materials and teaching aids. A small number of school students still have a heavy academic burden, and some junior high school students have reported having more written assignments, practice papers, and teaching materials. The fifth aspect is in terms of daily routine. Some schools require boarding students to wake up after 5 o'clock in the morning, and their schedule is not scientifically and reasonably arranged. Sixth, in terms of organizing make-up classes. Some schools organize students to attend classes on weekends. The seventh aspect is school management. Some places have not fully implemented the system of school responsibility supervision and listing supervision. There are still weak links in safety management. The "Letter to Parents of Primary and Secondary School (Weibo) Students on Preventing Drowning" issued by the Basic Education Department of the Ministry of Education has not been fully implemented. Some schools have edited the content of the letter and distributed it, while others have not collected the receipt. The eighth is the problem caused by the inadequate implementation of government responsibilities. The phenomenon of large class sizes is more common in some places, some schools have insufficient teaching equipment, some places have a shortage of teachers, and the shortage of teachers is more prominent. In addition, the phenomenon of "reducing the burden on schools, increasing the burden on parents, reducing the burden on campus, and increasing the burden outside of campus" still exists to varying degrees, and further consensus needs to be formed on reducing the burden.
Various regions should continue to deepen the promotion of the second season of the "Ten Thousand Miles Journey to Reduce Burden" activity in compulsory education schools, collect, organize, and promote experience in reducing burden, and form a consensus on reducing burden, increasing efficiency, and improving quality. For schools with non-standard educational practices, they should be urged to conscientiously implement relevant national and provincial regulations and requirements, and rectify existing problems within a specified period of time. We need to increase exposure and investigation efforts, strictly hold responsible persons accountable, and effectively regulate the behavior of compulsory education schools. We need to deepen the comprehensive reform in the field of education and reduce the burden on students from the source.
2. List of problematic schools
Main typical experiences from various regions
1、 Innovative evaluation methods
In 2013, the Education Bureau of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, collaborated with the Basic Education Quality Monitoring Collaborative Innovation Center of Beijing Normal University (Weibo) to implement the Regional Education Quality Health Examination and Improvement Project, and conducted a green indicator evaluation reform experiment in compulsory education schools throughout the city. Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province has established a "three in one" monitoring and evaluation system for the quality of green education in compulsory education, which includes subject wide evaluation, process wide evaluation, and collaborative evaluation, guiding schools to form a green quality awareness. Qiaokou District has established a "green quality" evaluation system that includes six dimensions and issued the "Guiding Opinions on Six Year Quality Monitoring of Primary School Stage Three". Huanggang City has introduced the "Comprehensive Quality Evaluation Plan for Primary and Secondary School Students" and the "Work Evaluation Plan for Primary and Secondary School Teachers", breaking the traditional evaluation methods of "teaching by points" and "learning by points". Anhui Province actively explores the implementation of a credit management system in compulsory stage schools, incorporating all courses stipulated by the state into the scope of credit management, reasonably determining the procedures and methods of credit management, and emphasizing the evaluation of students' learning process. Continuously improve the content and methods of academic proficiency testing and student comprehensive quality evaluation, reform the presentation of exam results in primary and junior high schools, abolish the "percentage system", implement the evaluation method of "grade plus comments", reduce the use of unified exams and tests, and require that lower grades of primary schools do not organize school unified exams. The "percentage system" has been generally abolished in primary schools in Jilin Province, and an evaluation method of "grade plus comments" has been implemented. Some primary schools in Liaoning Province have implemented a grade based academic credit system, where the percentage of test papers is only considered as 1/5 of academic performance. Passing the test papers earns 2 points, and a full score earns 3 points, effectively playing the guiding role of evaluation in deepening the implementation of quality education.
2、 Standardize enrollment and admission procedures
The Education Department of Anhui Province publishes the comprehensive enrollment policies for compulsory education in various regions on provincial media every year, actively accepting social supervision and exploring the "joint enrollment mechanism" for high-quality high schools. Hubei Province fully implements the requirement of exemption from entrance exams for admission to nearby schools. Hebei Province has issued the "Opinions on the Reform of the 2014 Junior High School Graduation and Entrance Examination and Ordinary High School Enrollment System" and the "Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Work of Exempting Compulsory Education from Entrance Examination and Approaching Enrollment", clarifying that the enrollment indicators for provincial demonstration high schools' public assistance students will be evenly distributed to each junior high school according to a ratio of not less than 80%, implementing comprehensive and transparent enrollment and canceling special talents. In 2013, Shanxi Province issued the "Implementation Plan for the Participation of Migrant Workers' Children in the Entrance Examination after Receiving Compulsory Education", which adheres to the principle of "two priorities" while ensuring the same city treatment for students after enrollment. Various prefecture level cities in Liaoning Province have introduced a plan to exempt compulsory education from entrance exams and enroll students in nearby schools. The proportion of enrollment quotas allocated to regional junior high schools for provincial demonstration ordinary high schools and provincial key high schools has reached 90%, and 5 prefecture level cities have reached 100%. All children of migrant workers are arranged to attend public primary and secondary schools, achieving 100% enrollment.
3、 Deepen classroom teaching reform
Reducing the burden is to improve the quality of education and teaching. While doing subtraction, we must also do addition well. Huaihe East Road Primary School in Erqi District, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province adheres to the educational philosophy of "meeting diverse needs, emphasizing individual characteristics, pursuing diversity and harmony, and achieving a wonderful life". Following the educational philosophy of "making learning active, making courses colorful, making homework interesting, making technology outstanding, making the fragrance of books drift, and making exams easy", the colorful educational philosophy runs through the entire process of education and teaching. In 2011, the Education Bureau of Wuhan City, Hubei Province issued the "Plan for Implementing the Efficient Classroom Construction Project in Primary and Secondary Schools", promoting the construction of efficient classrooms in primary and secondary schools throughout the city. The Education Bureau of Huanggang City has issued the "Guiding Opinions on Optimizing Classroom Teaching Models and Promoting Classroom Teaching Reform", actively exploring new classroom teaching models with stage characteristics that are independent, cooperative, and full of vitality. The Education Bureau of Qiaoxi District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province has proposed a teaching philosophy of "achieving one goal, handling five relationships, and achieving four reductions and four increases". Wenyi Road Primary School in Beilin District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province has formed a classroom teaching model with low starting point, small incision, large capacity, lively atmosphere, and high learning enthusiasm through "three optimizations and one improvement", namely optimizing teaching objectives, optimizing teaching process, optimizing teaching evaluation, and improving classroom teaching quality. The Second Middle School of Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province, aims to create a school characteristic of "facing all students, advocating individuality, and emphasizing the cultivation of talents", implementing the "three-stage" efficient classroom teaching mode, and preventing students from reading books blindly.
4、 Carry out a variety of colorful activities
Qipan Street Primary School in Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, leverages the teaching staff of a social professional team to organize interest activity teams such as Go, instrumental music, choir singing, and Peking Opera in each grade, and regularly conducts various art professional training and art competition activities. Huangmei County Third Primary School in Huanggang City has launched a promotion activity for reading, developed school-based courses such as Huangmei Opera, Yuejiaquan, and Huangmei Picking Flowers, and insists on holding annual reading festivals, sports festivals, art festivals, and science and technology festivals. Nanjing Hongguang Middle School in Jiangsu Province has established 21 student associations, including playing diabolo, orienteering, eggshell painting, and Paper Cuttings, to build a stage for students' personality development. Shanxi Experimental High School insists on carrying out a variety of extracurricular cultural and sports activities, with 90% of student clubs participating. The school offers more than 40 elective courses every Tuesday afternoon. The Education Bureau of Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, fully utilizes the abundant resources of patriotic education in the city to carry out education on patriotism, tradition, and environmental protection. With the "One School, Two Brightnesses, One Person, Two Activities" campaign as the carrier, it carries out a variety of campus cultural activities. Pengli Primary School in Pengshan County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province fully explores the important significance of excellent traditional culture for school education, carries out activities to collect family traditions and teachings, promotes traditional Chinese virtues, and effectively guides students to gradually understand and comprehend the core socialist values.
