Editor’s Note: At present, competitions and training in primary and secondary schools organized by various institutions are extremely hot. The lack of standardized competition market in primary and secondary schools has increased the financial burden of parents of participating students, impacted the normal education order in primary and secondary schools, and is very unfavorable for reducing students’ excessive burden and promoting healthy growth. In response to this problem, People’s Forum NetworkInterview with Chen Lihua, principal of Chaoyang Experimental Primary School..
If we measure children from a more comprehensive perspective, we will slow down and respect their interests and personality development more.
People’s Forum Network:What do you think is the reason for the chaos in primary and secondary school competitions?
Chen Lihua:The competition itself is a very normal thing. The reason why there will be chaos is because children use this result for further studies. The root cause of this situation is China’s national conditions — — There are many children and relatively few high-quality resources. There is nothing wrong with the competition itself. In fact, there are many competitions abroad, and children like and are interested in it. At home, the pressure on children will be greater, not driven by interest, but by tasks. It is a state of development in China that there are many people and relatively few high-quality resources. If everyone accepts it calmly, it may be better on this issue.
However, parents often can’t accept it calmly. This so-called chaos is actually related to parents’ desire to satisfy their own psychological state. Some parents still haven’t decided what kind of children to train. They just want to win some performances in class after class. They think that if they pay for the competition class, the task will be completed, and how to learn the rest is their own business. Training institutions also take advantage of parents’ psychology to offer corresponding courses. Parents should have greater courage and confidence, know what their children want and what kind of people society needs.
In addition, it is also one of the reasons that the evaluation criteria of schools are relatively unified. As far as I know, many developed countries, such as Britain, are evaluated by third parties. Although they will rank, they are not directly linked to the evaluation of the school, so the results will not be the only criterion to measure the good or bad of the school. This situation would be better if our schools, including the administrative departments, did not take scores as the only measure. In this way, educators will measure children from a more comprehensive perspective, their pace will slow down, their interests and personality development will be more respected, and the chaos of competitions will be alleviated. Of course, it will take some time.
People’s Forum Network:Compared with previous years, what changes have been made in the competition chaos in recent years?
Chen Lihua:There is a process in primary and secondary school competitions. At first, it was simply that some students who were particularly strong in a certain subject were keen to participate in competitions. At that time, the students who participated were really interested in those subjects. However, after a while, the competition was fired up. Because it was directly linked to the junior high school, some middle schools selected children by "taking the pit class", especially after the abolition of the unified examination for primary schools.
Of course, these years have changed a lot. For example, Chaoyang District in Beijing has done a good job in grasping the policy, and basically does not use the results of competition exams as the basis for measuring students’ junior high school. However, some parents are not at ease, and they have enrolled many extracurricular classes for their children. Training institutions also use this psychology to do some competition training.
The change of parents’ mentality is the most important, and this change takes time.
People’s Forum Network:How do you think this kind of chaos should be regulated to better solve this problem?
Chen Lihua:It’s hard to say about supervision For so many years, the problem of competition training class has not been completely solved, which shows that this matter has its own insurmountable side, and it is difficult to say that it can be solved by cutting off three axes. It takes time to solve this problem and people need to raise their awareness. I think it is almost impossible to say that a certain document can curb this situation. For so many years, many leaders and education experts want to solve this problem, which can not be easily solved by saying a word and issuing a document. Now many competitions, education and training have been marketized, and the change of the market also needs a long process.
If anything can be done at this stage, my suggestion is to downplay the guidance of exam results to schools. Try not to mention the number one scholar, 600 points or above, and the online rate of undergraduate courses, which will cause unnecessary social pressure. If you don’t do well in an exam, someone will say, Look, this school has regressed. But in fact, the superficial score has regressed, and the education behind it has not necessarily regressed.
There are many candidates in China, and the competition is fierce. Although the economy is developing rapidly, people’s understanding of education has not reached enough rationality. Now parents are struggling to move forward in this state. To solve this problem completely, the change of parents’ mentality is the most important, and this change takes time. (Interview: Sun Yiheng, People’s Forum Network)
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