Inspections, forms filling, and traces are still excessive... Formalism on campus is unstoppable

Campus formalism is still a major pain point for school administrators and grassroots teachers. In 2019, the Office of the Central Committee and the Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Reducing the Burden of Primary and Secondary School Teachers and Further Creating a Good Environment for Education and Teaching" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which clearly put an end to formalism on campus and reduced the non-teaching burden for teachers. Banyuetan reporters' investigation found that the implementation of the "Opinions" has achieved certain results, but this problem is very stubborn, and in addition, new situations are constantly emerging, and campus formalism has not been banned.

Form Filling, Traces, "Water Training"

Grassroots teachers and school administrators said that the current campus formalism is mainly manifested in the following aspects.

-- Cope with the inspection and supplement form, the form is strict to harsh.

Many primary and secondary schools have the heaviest daily burden of coping with various inspections. The head teacher of a middle school in Guangdong said that the superiors come to inspect five or six times every semester, and in order to meet the need for cleaning every time the inspection is carried out, the class tables and chairs must be placed in a straight line, "even if there is a little crooked."

Some teachers reported that the main content of the inspection by the superiors was not to listen to lectures and visits, but to check various written materials. In order to cope with various inspections, schools are generally equipped with a special material room, and whenever there is a superior inspection, the school will establish a "material group" and call relevant teachers to the material room to supplement the materials together. Sometimes, there is no template for the material to be checked, and teachers either look for templates on the Internet or contact other schools to find examples and "copy homework". "Supplemental materials are often made up until midnight." A primary school teacher in the Northeast said.

——Entering the campus has mutated into punching in, and the daily management is busy.

Compared with the previous activities on campus, some activities on campus have become electronic punch-in. One of the teachers interviewed said that he was often asked to take photos of a certain job. Various "small hands join big hands" tasks will also be distributed to teachers, requiring parents and students to cooperate, download the app to answer questions, and upload screenshots. "For example, anti-fraud, learning the Constitution, drowning prevention and other propaganda, some older parents can't operate it, so we have to do it for them." The teacher said that after sending the notice, he had to urge parents over and over again, and upload it solitaire.

Many parents have reported that they have signed a letter of guarantee twice in three days, from physical education class accident exemption, custody exemption, military training exemption to Internet addiction prevention commitment, etc., and asked parents to sign the letter of guarantee for everything. Some parents said that the school sent teachers and teachers sent to students, and they felt that all levels were afraid of taking responsibility.

——Regardless of the "water duration" of training, the effect is worrying and going through the motions.

Education and training is a way for teachers to improve their educational literacy and teaching skills. However, some teachers reported that some training courses did not match the subjects and stages of teachers' tenure, but they became an important indicator for teachers' evaluation and evaluation. "Of the dozens of hours of courses in the training catalog, only one or two are related to my own subject, and the others can only be played with the sound turned off." A teacher interviewed in Anhui Province said that she often played online training courses while correcting homework, or turned on her mobile phone in the office before class and "studied" after class.

"As a class teacher, I spend a lot of time doing these mechanized, formalized and repetitive tasks, and countless forms are collected and collected." A middle school homeroom teacher said.

Lazy government, throwing the pot, and sending tasks

Front-line educators and experts believe that campus formalism is the result of the laziness of the education management and evaluation system, the transfer of responsibilities at various levels, and the deformation of apportionment of tasks, which also derives some new variants of formalism.

-- The evaluation system is lazy and political. Many of the teachers interviewed believed that some education management and evaluation stayed on paper, tables, and data because it was easiest to do so, and local governments also needed these materials for display. In fact, many contents of education are not easy to be scientifically quantified, such as the comprehensive quality of students, the teaching quality of teachers, and the teaching ethics and style of teachers, etc., and it is difficult to fully reflect the tabular data. Education experts say that simply evaluating teachers and schools based on forms and data is a manifestation of lazy education management.

-- The burden of responsibility is thrown downward. In the interview, a grassroots education supervisor admitted that the reason why all kinds of inspections have to be left is because they also have to face the "supervision" of their superiors. Therefore, when inspecting the materials, it is important to leave their "supervision traces" and feedback comments in case they need to deal with other inspections in the future. A primary school principal said that the school requires students and parents to sign various exemption guarantees and pledges, which is also to "throw the responsibility outward".

- A new variant of apportionment tasks. Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, believes that the "paper inspection" and evaluation of various kinds of work are a new variant of the tasks assigned in the past. In 2014, a school received 700 to 1700,2019 implementation documents from its superiors every year. In <>, after the state issued the "Opinions", the number of various documents was greatly reduced, and some places turned the past task of issuing documents into post-inspection materials. In fact, simply changing the form of apportionment still imposes a burden on schools.

Assign fewer tasks and give more autonomy

In view of the above-mentioned formalism, education experts suggest that the responsibilities and powers of the government and schools should be clarified, a more scientific evaluation system should be formulated, a modern school system should be established, and fewer tasks should be assigned and more autonomy should be given to running schools.

An education expert at a university in southwest China believes that some local governments, under the influence of bad political performance, have accumulated non-teaching tasks and pressure on schools and front-line teachers. Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, suggested that the responsibilities of government departments at all levels in the development of education and the management of schools should be clarified, and that administrative departments should be supervised in accordance with the law, so as to implement the rights that belong to schools to schools.

Zhang Sining, a researcher at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that the standardized management of education should be strengthened to minimize the additional burden on teachers in addition to education management. In the evaluation, focus on practical work and problem solving, rather than looking at the material. There should be more in-depth on-site inspections, and time should be given to rectify the problems found, seek truth from facts, and effectively solve practical problems.

Chu Zhaohui suggested that the construction of a modern school system should be accelerated, the level of running schools in accordance with the law and governing in accordance with rules and regulations should be improved, the ability of schools to govern independently should be improved, the school governance structure should be improved, and administrative documents and instructions should be reduced as much as possible; Promote the separation of government and schools, and the separation of management and management, and implement and expand the autonomy of schools in running schools; Only by forming an educational governance system that "separates government affairs, has clear powers and responsibilities, makes overall planning and coordination, and is standardized and orderly" and builds a modern school system of "running schools according to law, self-management, democratic supervision, and social participation" can we effectively put an end to formalism.

Half Moon Talk Reporter: Li Shuangxi, Wang Ying, Zhou Siyu