"Double subtraction" to return education to the original intention

"Double subtraction" to return education to the original intention

Text/ Longdong Daily reporter Sun Yuzhen

Taking stock of the hot words in 2021, the "double subtraction" list is on the list. On July 24, 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Homework and Off-campus Training for Students in the Compulsory Education Stage (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The "Opinions" put forward that "it is necessary to continue to standardize off-campus training (including online training and offline training) to effectively reduce the excessive homework burden and off-campus training burden of students in the compulsory education stage", referred to as "double reduction".

Under the "double reduction", what kind of changes have been brought to society, schools and families, the reporter recently investigated the implementation of the "double reduction" policy in our city.

Visible happiness -

Homework is less hobby and more

Before the "double subtraction", these phenomena were commonplace: during the week, students just came out of the school gate and entered the door of the external mathematical, physical and chemical tutoring class, or sat at the desk to pick up the lights as soon as they entered the house; on the weekend bus, they were crowded with children who rushed to various off-campus training classes with school bags - children who should have enjoyed the joy of growing up were subjected to learning pressure and emotional pressure that were not commensurate with their young age.

Citizen Li Wei's child is a seventh-grade student at the North Street Experimental School in Xifeng District. Li Wei said that before the "double subtraction", children would go to off-campus training classes every day after school to receive tutoring, and then continue to complete homework after returning home. Although I was anxious and distressed, I couldn't solve it. Li Wei's anxiety gradually disappeared after the "Opinions" were issued.

After the introduction of the "double reduction" policy, all relevant departments at all levels in the city have solidly promoted and formulated measures to make the "double reduction" policy land to the letter.

Fan Jianguo, deputy director of the Municipal Education Bureau, said that in the process of implementing the "double reduction", the city aims at the goal of "two reductions and three improvements", that is, to reduce the excessive homework burden of students in the compulsory education stage, reduce the burden of extracurricular training, improve the management level of school operations, improve the level of school after-school services, improve the level of school education and teaching, comprehensively strengthen the management of student homework, fully carry out school after-school services, thoroughly rectify off-campus training institutions, and effectively improve the level of school education and teaching. The "double reduction" policy has been implemented soundly and achieved remarkable results, and a good education ecology has been gradually built.

Children are the first to perceive and experience the changes brought about by the "double subtraction". Wang Mengzhi, class six (1) of the North Street Experimental School in Xifeng District, is happy that he now has more time to relax. Since this semester, she has participated in after-school services in school every day, difficult problems have been explained by teachers on the spot, written homework has been basically completed in school, and when she returns home, she will read extracurricular books and do what she likes.

In order to give children more time and comprehensively reduce the burden of students' homework, the city's education departments at all levels and schools have made efforts to rationally regulate the homework structure, improve the homework management methods, reduce the total amount of students' written homework, incorporate homework design into the teaching and research system, focus on improving the quality of homework according to the age characteristics and learning rules of students of all grades, resolutely overcome mechanical and ineffective homework, and make repetitive and punitive homework no longer appear in children's after-school homework.

The city's compulsory education stage schools have all carried out after-school service work, the content of after-school services in strict accordance with the national "double reduction" policy requirements, first of all, to guide students to seriously complete homework, students with learning difficulties to tutor and answer questions, for students with spare energy to expand learning space, and to carry out a variety of science, sports, art, labor and other community activities.

Wang Junbin, director of the education unit of the Xifeng District Education Bureau, said that all primary and secondary schools in Xifeng District will incorporate homework into the whole process of management, plan students' homework at the beginning of the semester, reasonably determine the proportion of homework structure of each discipline, strictly prohibit parents from assigning or disguised homework, strictly prohibit parents from inspecting and correcting homework, and strictly prohibit homework through WeChat groups or QQ groups. The total amount of homework is classified and controlled, and the high quality, high efficiency and high level are reflected in the layout of homework, and the first and second grades of primary schools do not assign written homework, the average completion time of written homework in grades three to six does not exceed 60 minutes, and the average completion time of written homework in junior high schools does not exceed 90 minutes.

The reporter found in the interview that some schools put forward higher requirements for improving the quality of homework design, encouraged teachers to be bold and innovative, designed homework that meets the requirements of educating people in the new era, reflects the characteristics of the school, and is suitable for the actual situation of students, and requires teachers to make full corrections and accurate analysis of the assigned student homework.

"The school requires teachers to strengthen homework management and assign homework at different levels and in a targeted manner, creating prerequisites for students' all-round development and healthy physique." Li Yongyong, principal of Xifeng District Unity Primary School, said. The workload of students' homework has been reduced, but the quality of teaching and classroom teaching efficiency in the school has been improved across the board.

Li Hua, a teacher at North Street Experimental School, will give more consideration to improving students' interest in learning when assigning homework, and it is more scientific and reasonable and more personalized than before. Nowadays, she clearly feels that since the "double reduction", students' enthusiasm and enthusiasm for learning have become higher, and the efficiency of mastering knowledge has gradually improved.

Since the introduction of the "double reduction" policy, Mao Qiang, director of the Education Unit of the Huanxian Education Bureau, has participated in the whole process of reducing the excessive homework burden of students in the county. He introduced that since September 10, 2021, Huanxian has done solid and effective work in reducing the amount of student homework, and the education department requires schools to design homework according to the actual situation of students according to the differences between urban and rural areas in the county. Up to now, the amount of homework for primary and secondary school students in the compulsory education stage in the county has been reduced by about 30%.

In reducing the burden of students' homework, the development of after-school services has become the most powerful starting point. Since the launch of after-school service work in Xifeng District Tuanjie Primary School, the participation rate of students in after-school services has reached 94.5%, and all teachers have participated. Under the premise that students complete their homework, they actively carry out club activities such as calligraphy, painting, clay sculpture, erhu, and pipa.

There are many township schools in Huanxian County, and in the after-school service work, fully consider the safety factors on the way for students to leave school, and re-concentrate and enrich the after-school service courses, so that students with good learning can exercise various interest categories after completing their homework. For the 2,400 left-behind children in the county, schools have also set up "left-behind children's homes" to arrange teachers to cultivate interest and read guidance for boarding students.

After a semester of burden reduction and after-school service work, parents can engage in their own work with peace of mind, no longer anxious about picking up their children in advance and going home to tutor their children; at the social level, the rich and colorful after-school service content has further enhanced the public's trust in school education; in schools, education and teaching methods and means have been activated, and the requirements for the quality of classroom teaching have reached a new height. Of course, the most beneficial is the students, after completing the learning tasks with quality and quantity, they liberate their nature, expand their horizons, meet the diversified needs of learning, and gradually move towards quality improvement and happy learning.

The road to transformation in the throes——

Off-campus training gradually standardizes operation

Undoubtedly, after the issuance of the Opinions, the most affected are discipline-based off-campus training institutions.

In recent years, all kinds of off-campus training institutions have mushroomed from schools, communities and other population agglomeration areas, only in the Xifeng urban area, before the "double reduction", there are 304 various types of training institutions, including 77 discipline training institutions, thousands of practitioners, nearly 10,000 students, the volume is quite large.

The landing of the "double reduction" policy has resolutely stepped on the "brakes" on the off-campus training institutions that are rapidly expanding in scale and the most beloved off-campus training institutions for private investment. This foot "brake", if improperly operated, the resolution policy is not grounded, it is very likely to trigger new social contradictions.

Rapid response, in-depth research, heart-to-heart talks, the introduction of methods, and efforts to help the transformation of institutions, so that the requirements of the "Opinions" can be smoothly implemented, is the successful practice of our city. After more than 5 months of efforts, the city's discipline-based off-campus training institutions have ranked first in the province in terms of rectification and reduction work, and 63 of the 98 discipline-based off-campus training institutions in the city have been transformed into non-disciplinary off-campus training institutions, 35 have been cancelled and shut down, and the reduction rate of discipline-based off-campus training institutions has reached 100%.

In Xifeng District, where off-campus training institutions are most concentrated, planning is in the front and rectification is in the front, ensuring that the operation of the institution is always under the supervision of the education department, standardizing operation and healthy growth.

According to Zuo Tingwei, a member of the party group of the Xifeng District Education Bureau and director of the Education Supervision Office of the District Government, in May 2021, the Xifeng District Party Committee and the District Government issued relevant policies, set up a special working body, and set up a joint working group by the education, public security, market supervision, civil affairs and other departments, which lasted two months to govern the off-campus training institutions in the district, with obvious results.

On the night of the introduction of the "double reduction" policy, the Xifeng District Education Bureau convened relevant personnel to study the policy, thoroughly understand the spirit, and on the basis of the previous rectification work, re-arrange, register and establish a ledger for the 304 off-campus training institutions in the district. Focus on the rectification of disciplines, actively guide and fully cooperate in accordance with the two ways of shutdown and transformation. Up to now, 304 off-campus training institutions have been reduced to 255, 77 discipline-based off-campus training institutions have been closed, and 63 have achieved successful transformation, with a reduction rate of 100%.

In HuanXian County, how to resolve 7 discipline-based off-campus training institutions is also one of the important tasks that the county's education department thinks about and implements. Huang Shengli, full-time supervisor of the Huanxian Education Bureau, said that Huanxian fully mobilized social forces, did a good job in publicity and guidance, and the school issued a notice to each student's parents, blocking the possibility of students participating in off-campus training from the source. At the same time, the county education bureau organized staff to go door to door to explain policies and solve puzzles for the heads of training institutions, and actively think of ways and ideas for them to achieve a smooth transition and shutdown.

In the work of dissolution, Xifeng District has given full play to the party building strength and the vanguard and exemplary role of party members, and has built party branches in training institutions and achieved good results.

Guo Yanqi is the head of the Vocational Formation Unit of the Xifeng District Education Bureau, and his department is mainly responsible for the management of off-campus training institutions. In the face of a large number of off-campus training institutions, how to manage and standardize is a problem that he and his colleagues often explore. He found that the heads of off-campus training institutions have many university graduates, many party members, and high quality of personnel. Therefore, under the leadership of the general party branch of the bureau, four party branches in the categories of music, calligraphy and painting, sports and enlightenment were set up, and outstanding party members were selected as party branch secretaries through self-recommendation, voting and election, publicity, and appointment by the general party branch, and a number of groups were set up under it, and all 255 off-campus training institutions in the region were brought under the leadership of the party organization. In the "double reduction" work, under the leadership of the party branch, all training institutions have overcome many difficulties, responded to national policies, strengthened industry self-discipline, and actively cooperated with the transformation and cancellation work according to their own characteristics, maintained social stability, and gave full play to the role of party members as vanguard models and fighting fortresses to ensure the smooth landing of the "double reduction" policy.

For the heads of off-campus training institutions in disciplines, it is not an exaggeration to describe their state at that time as "suffering". Because they are optimistic about the prospects of the huge education and training market, some have invested millions of yuan just built, some have invested huge human, financial and material resources to expand the scale, and some have collected part of the tuition in advance. At this time, the "double reduction" policy was introduced, and they fell into a difficult situation.

In order to reduce the burden on training institutions and reasonably resolve contradictions, the city's education departments have given a certain period of buffer period to help training institutions make smooth transition and transformation, minimize economic losses, and resolve various contradictions.

Qin Huayang, He Jie, and Wang Hongzu were all engaged in discipline training in Xifeng before, and after the "double reduction" policy was introduced, they fell into confusion for a while, investing funds, rent, teachers' salaries, and students' class hours, and various pressures followed, and they did not know where to go. After calming down, they actively adjusted their thinking, investigated the market, and successfully transformed into art training institutions under the guidance of the education department.

Excitation from the outside in ——

Let education inside and outside the school return to the original intention

The "double reduction" policy has effectively alleviated parents' anxiety, greatly reduced the burden on students, and discipline-based education has completely returned to campus. In the face of more expectations and higher requirements of society and families for school education, how will the city's education departments and schools at all levels meet this demand?

For a long time, the city's education system has attached great importance to improving the quality of school education and teaching, changing concepts, adjusting ideas, and introducing measures to achieve high-quality education and balanced education. As early as 2020, the city's education system carried out the "three excellent +" project and the "excellent education Qingyang" project, with the strong to lead the weak, to the excellent training, resource sharing, steady progress, further increase the total amount of high-quality education resources, expand the coverage of high-quality education resources, promote education fairness and inclusiveness, and achieved good results.

Liu Xiaohu, principal of Dongzhi Junior High School in Xifeng District, participated in the "Excellent Principal +" training community, and he and the principals of 4 rural schools regularly carried out training activities, determined the theme of the training, walked into the classroom, paid attention to detailed discussion, took the strengths of others, and made up for their shortcomings.

Xifeng District Tuanjie Primary School has carried out two activities, "Quality School +" and "Excellent Teacher +", through teaching and research activities, sending teachers to the countryside, evaluating lessons, etc., to achieve the goal of high-quality schools driving weak schools, and achieving resource sharing, mutual exchanges, and common improvement.

Reducing the burden of homework and off-campus training has put forward new challenges to school education and teaching, and all kinds of schools in the city have conducted in-depth research to design teaching and research models that conform to their own actual conditions, improve the professional level of teachers, and improve the quality of teaching.

Huanxian Nanguan Primary School firmly grasps reform and teaching, and actively carries out online teaching and research activities with the Affiliated School of Beijing People's Congress to broaden teachers' horizons, improve teachers' literacy, and improve the efficiency of classroom teaching. In order to improve the quality of after-school services, professional sports coaches are hired to guide students voluntarily, and strive to satisfy parents and society.

Yang Xinning, director of the third grade of Huanxian No. 5 Middle School, obviously felt that since the "double reduction", the students' energy in class has been full, and the teacher's classroom efficiency is also improving. These changes are due to the teacher's greater emphasis on the sorting out of the difficult points in teaching, from shallow to deep, interlocking, hierarchical settings and hierarchical advancement when tutoring homework, targeted, and remarkable results.

Therefore, Fan Jianguo believes that the "double reduction" work requires reducing the burden but not the quality, the outside of the school is reduced, the school should be raised, focusing on the improvement of the quality of school education and teaching in the whole process, highlighting the main position of school education, strengthening the main role of school education and teaching, so that students can learn well in school, enhance physical fitness and practical exercise outside the school, and let the future masters of home-school co-education have a complete personality and life experience.