"According to the previous survey of school-age children in the jurisdiction, some schools have a high degree shortage due to the dense population distribution within the service scope and the growing population of new residential quarters. In 2023, they will face a situation beyond the existing degree acceptance capacity." In mid-June, the Education Bureau of Anning District, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province issued such a "degree warning", indicating that the scope of primary and secondary school enrollment will be appropriately adjusted. "School-age children in the district will be admitted in strict accordance with the batch order, and unacceptable students will be arranged by the District Education Bureau to enroll in other schools."
Entering the "enrollment season", school enrollment in the compulsory education stage affects the hearts of thousands of parents of prospective first-year students. With the seventh year of the implementation of the "two-child policy", the conduction effect brought by the "baby boom" is concentrated in this year’s primary school entrance. According to media reports, since the beginning of this year, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jinan, Dalian, Changchun, Qingdao and Chengdu have issued degree warnings for primary and secondary schools. Will this year be the "hardest year to enter school"? Behind the degree warning, how can all localities ensure that they are "close to school" and "eager to learn"? The reporter conducted an interview.
Large increment of school-age population and regional imbalance cause "degree shortage"
For some primary and secondary school students in Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, going to physical education class should be "upstairs" rather than "downstairs" — — Their playground was built on the roof.
"Not only the playground was built with fences on the roof, but also a runway was opened around the teaching building and next to the fence. Almost all the available open spaces have been developed into sports venues. " Liu Jie, chief of the Basic Education Section of the Education Bureau of this district, told the reporter that in order to increase the per capita exercise area, some schools had to "look around for space".
Behind the emergency move is the increasing number of local students and students. Liu Jie told reporters, "This year’s increment is the biggest. At least 1,000 new degrees should be added in the whole region. According to the maximum class size of no more than 45 students, more than 20 new classes have to be added."
The "peak" of the degree demand increase is not only reflected in the first-and second-tier cities in coastal developed areas. According to a material provided by the Education and Sports Bureau of Xihu District, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, with the implementation of the comprehensive two-child policy in 2016, the number of students enrolled in compulsory education in this district has shown a significant growth trend in 2022, and the number of students enrolled in 2023 will come from the year with the highest birth rate in the whole region, and the number of school-age children will reach a new high.
"The data shows that in September 2022, there were 6,652 students enrolled in primary schools and 2,240 students enrolled in junior high schools in Xihu District. The total number of students enrolled increased by 972 compared with 2021, and the number of students enrolled increased by 3,120 compared with 2021 (excluding municipal and private schools). Through the bottom-up analysis, the number of bottom-ups in 2023 increased by 1,282 compared with that in 2022 (excluding municipal and private schools). " According to the relevant person in charge, "according to the pre-judgment, there will be 7671 primary school-age children in this district this year."
In addition to the large increase of school-age students, the regional distribution of required degrees is uneven, which is another feature of the data. The reporter learned that the growth of school-age children and adolescents in Xihu District of Nanchang City in 2023 was bounded by Hongcheng Road, and the total amount of the old city and Chaoyangzhou area increased slightly, with the main growth concentrated in Hongcheng area and Chaoyang New City area south of Hongcheng Road. It can be seen that for the new city area, the degree shortage situation is more obvious.
"It is estimated that the school-age population of basic education in Ganzhou will gradually fall back after reaching the peak of 1.8 million in 2022, but the school-age population will quickly concentrate in cities," said Lai Zhengwen, deputy mayor of Ganzhou Municipal People’s Government of Jiangxi Province. "The proportion of students in county towns is 68.5%, which has exceeded the urbanization rate of 56.4%, and the gap in urban compulsory education degrees is about 200,000."
"Some areas appear ‘ Degree shortage ’ The problem may be related to the local education authorities and other relevant departments’ inaccurate prediction of the population birth rate and the demand for educational resources. " Wang Jianmin, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Beijing Normal University, said that due to factors such as economic and social development, new situations and new features such as increased mobility of school-age children have emerged, and the education authorities should make predictions and actively respond to changes in the demand for teaching resources.
Take multiple measures to dig up the stock and promote the increment, so as to ensure that we should live within our means.
"The situation was predicted a few years ago. This new wave was reflected in the number of kindergarten students three years ago, and then it will be transmitted to secondary schools step by step." Liu Jie said, "In this case, we will definitely give an early warning, or we must ensure that we should make every effort and enter the school nearby."
"According to estimates, Xihu District of Nanchang City can actually provide 7,965 degrees (according to 45 students/class) in 177 primary schools in 2023, which can generally meet the increase in the enrollment demand of school-age children and adolescents in the whole region in 2023. We are trying our best to recruit students at the peak of the enrollment population to ensure that every school-age child and teenager in the region can enter school normally." The relevant person in charge of Xihu District said.
Faced with the demand for new degrees with a large total amount and uneven geographical distribution, local initiatives are different. The common measure is to make full use of the new degree resources by properly adjusting the division of school districts. The reporter learned that there is a new campus west of Ziyu Road and south of Shuichang Road in Nanchang — — Ziyu Campus of Nanchang Zhanqian Road School Education Group will be delivered in the near future, and it will officially open in September. There are 36 classes in the campus, including 24 classes in primary schools, which can accommodate 1080 people. There are 12 classes in junior high school, which can accommodate 600 people. According to the arrangement, another 26 classrooms can be rebuilt and expanded in the campus, with the maximum capacity of 62 classes. It is estimated that 1,890 new degrees can be added in primary schools and 1,050 new degrees can be added in junior high schools.
"Through the previous field research, the campus has drawn up the corresponding school district division plan according to the degree it can provide and the degree demand. According to the specific geographical location of the campus and the principle of taking the main road as the boundary, the surrounding areas east of Taohua South Road, south of Shuichang Road, west of Zhenjun Road and north of Jiuzhou Street are designated as the school district scope, which can alleviate the degree shortage of Taohua Campus (formerly Taohua School) of Railway No.1 School Education Group." Yan Qianqian, deputy head of the Compulsory Education Unit of Xihu District Education and Sports Bureau, introduced.
Liu Jie said that private schools will take advantage of the opportunity of "changing from private schools to public schools" to allocate new degree resources to areas with tight degrees. "Private schools were originally enrolled for the whole region, and now the policy has been adjusted to block-oriented recruitment, which is supplemented to some public schools with tight resources in the school district. These schools have a good standard of running schools and ordinary people are willing to go. "
In addition to making good use of new resources, it is also the choice of many regions to fully tap the "stock". Faced with the increasing enrollment demand year by year, some schools in Chaoyang New Town in Nanchang have checked the existing teaching space and invited professionals to make planning and accounting. The results show that the increase in enrollment demand can be met by transforming the existing classrooms.
"The campus renovation project of OCT Campus of Zhanqian Road School Education Group is expected to renovate 27 classrooms and 14 offices, and 725 new degrees can be added; The whole campus classroom renovation project of Songbai School Education Group Chaoyang Campus is expected to renovate 29 classrooms, which can add 1,240 degrees. Relevant work will be implemented from July to August to ensure timely completion and ensure the smooth enrollment of the two schools in 2023. " The relevant person in charge said.
"Generally speaking, if local government departments do a good job in demand forecasting, they can solve it by increasing teaching classes without building new schools. For the substantial increase in the demand for educational resources, we can consider setting up a new school to deal with it. " Wang Jianmin analyzed.
Strengthen the forward-looking policy and reasonably respond to the changes in the demand for educational resources.
Liu Jie said that by recruiting more than 200 teachers in various subjects and conducting pre-job training in time, there are still ways to think about "software", "‘ Hardware ’ Short-term supply shortage is more realistic. The design scale of a school is certain. After increasing the number of classes, the area of playgrounds, toilets and canteens per capita will become tense. " Liu Jie said that at present, some schools can only improve the use efficiency by means of multiple rounds of dining, and alleviate the problem of insufficient space per capita.
"In recent years, Beilun District has made a comprehensive plan for the construction of basic education resources and laid out many schools. However, after all, a school has a long use cycle from new construction to investment, which may not keep up with the increase of students, and the configuration is still slightly lagging behind. " Liu Jie said that if the three large-scale schools can be put into use in succession in 2024-2025, the per capita tension will be fully relieved from next year to the year after. "A grade can add at least 1,000 degrees."
"While ensuring the supply of classrooms and ensuring the demand for admission, Xihu District will also do a good job in upgrading the hardware of each campus in the region, and strive to improve the conditions for running schools and build a quality campus." The person in charge said that the district adopts the strategy of "one chess game" in the whole district, ensures the scientific flow of teachers in the region through the two-way communication mechanism within and outside the group, reasonably selects new teachers for posts through personnel agents, increases teacher training, and ensures that full-time teachers in new degree schools are adequately equipped.
Wang Jianmin believes that in the short term, the problem of degree shortage in areas may have a certain impact on the teaching quality due to the expansion of class size, the addition of new classes and the introduction of new teachers. Various forces should be mobilized to solve it in time, with government departments leading, social forces supporting and parents actively cooperating. "Classrooms, multimedia, laboratories and other resources will have an impact, but the key is the shortage of high-quality teachers. Teachers’ teaching level and classroom management experience are scarce resources, which cannot be achieved overnight, and it takes time to accumulate and precipitate."
Then, with the decline of the number of people born after the "peak", will the new education and teaching resources be "idle"?
"From the data of kindergarten enrollment, we predict that there will definitely be a wave of decline in the next few years, but it will not drop anywhere." Liu Jie said that Beilun District of Ningbo is located in the coastal area, and its industrial base is mainly manufacturing, which is attractive to foreign population and its base will not drop too obviously. "Then with ‘ Peak ’ As time goes by, junior and senior high schools will have to supplement many resources; Now the state promotes the construction of a high-quality balanced area for compulsory education, and the number of primary school classes can be appropriately reduced; In addition, faculty and staff also retire naturally every year, which can basically maintain a relative balance. "
The reporter noted that the Opinions on Building a High-quality and Balanced Basic Public Education Service System issued by the Central Office and the State Council not long ago proposed that all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should formulate standards for the allocation of urban compulsory education degrees, and cities and counties should rationally plan and guarantee sufficient construction land, strictly implement the regulations on the allocation of schools in new residential quarters, and speed up the expansion and expansion of urban schools.
"First, we must establish an early warning mechanism for resource allocation risks, and strengthen information integration, monitoring and early warning of population and education data; Second, we should optimize the distribution of educational resources according to the changes of school-age population and urban economic and social development, and make up for the gap in resource supply as a whole; Third, we should optimize the allocation of teachers’ resources and fully implement ‘ District Management School Appointment ’ Reform, through the combination of teacher preparation and government procurement services, timely supplement the shortage of subject teachers, strengthen the construction of high-school and consistent schools, and vigorously cultivate teachers with high-school and backwards compatibility ability to enhance the overall deployment ability. " Meng Hui, deputy mayor of Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, said.
"In short, the large-scale emigration or return of the population and the changes in the birth rate of newborns should be taken as an important basis for the education authorities to evaluate the changes in the demand for educational resources, and they should make judgments and plans and make timely adjustments to avoid them as much as possible ‘ Degree shortage ’ Or ‘ Excess degree ’ Situation. " Wang Jianmin proposed.
(Reporter Zhou Shixiang)