Do a good job in the ＂answer sheet＂ of higher level development of education

"The collapse of the county" and the difficulty in introducing excellent educational talents … As an underdeveloped prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hunan Province, the regional GDP ranking is not in the top of the province. In the past few years, the overall level of basic education development in Yongzhou City was still hovering in the middle and lower reaches of Hunan Province.

How to achieve a higher level of education development?

"Adhere to the priority development of education, implement the strategy of building a strong city through education, and play a’ combination boxing’ around promoting high-quality and balanced development of education, improving teaching quality, and narrowing the educational gap between the north and the south, so as to promote the high-quality development of education in the city!" Zhu Hongwu, secretary of Yongzhou Municipal Party Committee, said.

With the attitude of striving for the first place, Yongzhou handed over an "answer sheet" for the development of education at a higher level. From 2020 to 2021, Yongzhou’s education work won the encouragement and praise of Hunan provincial government for its hard work supervision twice; In 2022, it was awarded "excellent" in the evaluation and assessment of municipal and state governments’ educational responsibilities … What is behind this to promote the change?

Promote at a high level to solve the "collapse in the county"

The quality of high school education and teaching in Daoxian, ningyuan county and other counties is not high, which was once a pain point in Yongzhou.

In 2023, the secretary of Yongzhou Municipal Party Committee and the mayor successively organized special investigations to gain an in-depth understanding of the development of county-level ordinary high schools, and proposed to carry out the assistance and co-construction of Yongzhou No.1 Middle School and Yongzhou No.4 Middle School in Ningyuan No.1 Middle School and Daoxian No.1 Middle School, so as to promote the high-quality development of county-level high schools in the city.

"Twinning to help county-level ordinary high schools, the county party committee and the county government bear the main responsibility, and the city and county-level supervision offices have been keeping an eye on it for a long time …" Zhu Hongwu said that Yongzhou promoted twinning to help county-level ordinary high schools as a major educational reform.

In September, the counterpart support team entered Daoxian No.1 Middle School and Ningyuan No.1 Middle School to carry out their work, and started with the establishment and improvement of various school management systems to help the school improve the scientific and standardized management level.

Yongzhou City and Helping Counties set up a special fund of 10 million yuan for the aided schools every year, and establish and improve the incentive mechanism for work evaluation. Every year, the local county party committee, county government and the Municipal Education Bureau organize the performance evaluation of cadres and teachers sent by the municipal high schools, and those who pass the examination will be rewarded by the county where they are located every year.

"The municipal and county finances have also set up special funds for our school to ensure that we and the cadres and teachers sent by the municipal high school will carry out all aspects of teaching, research and education reform in a normal way." Mary, a teacher from Daoxian No.1 Middle School, said.

"The quality of high school education is one of the important indicators to measure the quality of education and people’s satisfaction in a region. We will continue to increase urban planning and help nanbu county, such as Ningyuan and Daoxian, get out of the dilemma of’ collapse in the county’. " Chen Ailin, deputy secretary of Yongzhou Municipal Committee and mayor, said.

It is reported that the city has invested 1.77 billion yuan to build six public ordinary high schools with high standards, and invested more than 500 million yuan to rebuild and expand nine public ordinary high schools. In the past five years, the city has added nearly 50,000 high school places.

Optimize and improve quality to solve the problem of "more but not better"

Jump rope happily for 10 minutes between classes, and have the same music class with the students who help rural schools … Recently, children are enjoying a happy campus life at the teaching point of Shankoupu Village, Tuojiang Town, Jianghua Yao Autonomous County.

In the past, there were many teaching points in Yongzhou, accounting for a relatively large proportion in Hunan Province. Rural education was "big but not strong" and teaching points were "many but not excellent". Sprinkling pepper noodles is not only difficult to see obvious results, but also wastes resources.

In the spring of 2020, Yongzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government took the lead in exploring the optimization and upgrading reform of rural small-scale schools in Xintian, and achieved more than expected results. "Xintian Experience" was also selected as "100 Cases of Exploration of Grassroots Reform in Hunan".

Based on the "Xintian Experience", in 2021, Yongzhou continued to make efforts to optimize and upgrade small-scale rural schools as an important measure to promote the balanced development of urban and rural education and boost rural revitalization, and comprehensively promote the optimization and upgrading of teaching points in the city. In the past three years, Yongzhou has embarked on a path that can be replicated and popularized in the optimization and upgrading of rural teaching points.

Up to now, the number of rural teaching points in the city has been optimized and upgraded to 353, 236 left-behind Children’s Home schools have been established, and 535 online joint schools have been built. All small rural schools in the city have achieved full coverage of the Internet and Banbantong.

"Let every rural child enjoy a better education, which is the solemn commitment of the municipal party committee and the municipal government to the people of the whole city." Huang Zanxiao, Party Secretary and Director of Yongzhou Education Bureau, said. Through continuous efforts, Yongzhou has basically realized the transformation from "small and weak" to "small and beautiful" and "small and excellent".

Bringing education together to solve the "teacher dilemma"

Yongzhou’s economy is underdeveloped, and its attraction to talents is limited. At one time, it faced the difficult problem of teachers’ "attracting, cultivating and retaining". How to break the game?

In recent years, Yongzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have issued "Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the System and Mechanism of Talent Development" and "Article 36" of the New Deal for Talents, etc., in order to attract and retain talents for the city’s education system.

Since 2018, the city has introduced more than 800 high-quality education talents. In 2023, the city introduced 175 outstanding educational talents. Up to now, the number of primary and secondary school teachers in the city has increased by more than 20% year-on-year, the number of deputy senior judges has nearly doubled year-on-year, and the actual number of deputy senior judges has increased by 192% year-on-year, effectively stimulating the enthusiasm of teachers.

To build a high-quality and professional team of high school teachers is inseparable from the guidance of famous teachers. Yongzhou has written the construction of "famous teacher project" into the government work report for three consecutive years, taking it as an important starting point for strengthening the city through education.

In recent years, Yongzhou organized and selected 40 "Yongzhou Chief Teachers", built 100 county-level famous teacher studios, and promoted the professional growth of more than 5,000 young and middle-aged outstanding backbone teachers.

At this year’s Teachers’ Day Celebration Conference in Yongzhou, the main leaders of Yongzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government awarded licenses to 20 newly established municipal famous teacher studios. "These famous teacher studios are like entrepreneurial teams, and all teachers, young and old, are full of passion." Wen Jiayou, a researcher at Yongzhou Academy of Educational Sciences, said.

The introduction of talents, the project of famous teachers, and the promotion of teachers’ abilities … Yongzhou is taking a series of reform measures to solidly promote the construction of "three teams" of principals, class teachers and teachers, constantly stimulate the initiative and creativity of teachers, and consolidate the foundation for the high-quality development of Yongzhou education.

China Education News, 1st edition, November 29th, 2023.

Author: Special correspondent Li Qing Our reporter Yang Xiye