Each primary and secondary school shall be equipped with at least 1 vice principal for the rule of law; the administrative department of education shall, in conjunction with the dispatching organs, establish a staff pool of vice principals for the rule of law; and give priority to the allocation of a vice principal for the rule of law in schools in remote areas, rural areas and weak schools in cities... This is a requirement clearly put forward by the Ministry of Education in the "Measures for the Appointment and Management of Vice Principals for the Rule of Law in Primary and Secondary Schools" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures").
Screenshot of the Ministry of Education webpage
The reporter learned from a press conference held by the Ministry of Education on February 17 that in order to further improve the system of vice presidents for the rule of law, the Ministry of Education, in consultation with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice, under the guidance of the Central Political and Legal Commission and the support of relevant departments, formulated and promulgated the "Measures", which will be implemented from May 1.
Ministry of Education press conference
Deng Chuanhuai, director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Education, said that over the years, the part-time rule of law vice principal system has become a "booster" for education management, and has played an important role in enhancing the protection of the rights and interests of teachers and students in schools, promoting the rule of law education for young people, and maintaining public order in schools and surrounding areas. At the same time, in practice, there are also problems such as unbalanced allocation of vice presidents for the rule of law, imbalance in the ability to perform their duties, large turnover of personnel, and difficulty in replenishing in a timely manner.
The "Measures" have a total of 20 articles, focusing on the issues of "what is", "what to do", "who will manage", "how to hire", "how to do well" and other issues of primary and secondary school rule of law vice principals, and systematically design the appointment and management system for the vice principals of the rule of law in primary and secondary schools.
In the view of Tong Lihua, director of the Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center, the release of the "Measures" marks the establishment of a unified national rule of law vice principal system, which will effectively promote the better role of the rule of law vice principal of primary and secondary schools.
The Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency is clearly defined
The state has always attached great importance to the construction of the rule of law vice president system.
As early as October 2002, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Central Office for Comprehensive Management of Public Order, and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Strengthening the Legal Education of Young Students," which proposed to improve the system of part-time legal vice principals and legal counselors.
In November 2003, the Ministry of Education and six other ministries and commissions issued the "Opinions on Regulating the Duties of Part-time Legal Vice Presidents and the Selection and Recruitment Management Work", which further stipulated the duties, selection and management of part-time legal vice presidents.
In May 2010, the Executive Meeting of the State Council deliberated and adopted the Outline of the National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020), which also has the requirements of "continuing to promote and standardize the construction of the system of legal vice presidents and legal counselors, and strengthening the training of legal vice presidents and legal counselors".
In December 2020, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Implementation Outline for the Construction of a Rule of Law Society (2020-2025)", which emphasizes the need to improve the rule of law vice president system.
In June 2021, the national "Eighth Five-Year Plan" law popularization plan forwarded by the Party Central Committee and the State Council once again clearly regarded young people as one of the key targets for the popularization of law by the whole people, emphasizing the strengthening of rule of law education for young people and the implementation of the rule of law vice principal and rule of law counselor system.
The Vice-Chancellor for The Rule of Law has also been included in the newly revised Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, which came into effect on June 1, 2021, and has established it as a statutory system. Article 18 of the Law stipulates that schools shall employ full-time or part-time teachers engaged in rule of law education, and may employ vice presidents of rule of law and off-campus rule of law counselors from judicial and law enforcement organs, legal education and legal service institutions, and other such units.
The 2022 work points issued by the Ministry of Education put forward that it is necessary to comprehensively promote the management of education according to law. In the view of Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, the formulation of the "Measures" is conducive to further promoting the management of education according to law and strengthening the rule of law education and protection of the rights and interests of minor students.
The Vice-Chancellor for the Rule of Law is appointed on the recommendation of the Department of Public Prosecutions and Law
Many people's concept of the vice president of the rule of law is still relatively vague. The "Measures" stipulate that the vice president of the rule of law refers to a person recommended or appointed by the people's court, people's procuratorate, public security organ, and judicial administrative department, and is hired by the education administrative department or the school, and concurrently holds the position of vice president in the school to assist in carrying out relevant work. The scope of application is general primary and secondary schools, secondary vocational schools, special education schools and specialized schools.
Judging from the current practice in various places, most of the vice presidents of the rule of law come from the public security and procuratorial law system.
Li Jun, procurator of the Yongxing County Procuratorate in Hunan Province and vice president of the rule of law of five-star school, gave a rule of law class for the students. Image source: Procuratorial Daily
In January 2021, the Supreme People's Court issued the Opinions on Strengthening Juvenile Trial Work in the New Era, clearly proposing to give full play to the role of vice presidents of the rule of law and strengthen publicity and education on the rule of law among young people. According to Jiang Jihai, director of the Juvenile Court Work Office of the Supreme People's Court Research Office and second-level inspector, as of December 31, 2021, courts at all levels and relevant departments have issued 297 normative documents such as opinions on strengthening the work of vice presidents of the rule of law, and 13,801 judges from 2,328 courts have served as vice principals of the rule of law in 15,332 primary and secondary schools, effectively maintaining campus harmony and stability and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
"The Supreme People's Procuratorate encourages and supports procurators at all levels to take the initiative to serve as vice principals for the rule of law and go to the campus to teach rule of law classes to primary and secondary school students." Li Feng, deputy director of the Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that as of the end of September 2021, nearly 40,000 procurators in procuratorial organs across the country served as vice principals for the rule of law in 77,000 primary and secondary schools, and a total of 15,606 court leaders from the procuratorates at the fourth level served as vice principals for the rule of law in primary and secondary schools, including 3,205 procurators, achieving full coverage of the chief procurator serving as vice principals for the rule of law.
The Ministry of Public Security has also always attached great importance to the work related to the vice president of the rule of law. Liao Qi, director of the Economic and Cultural Protection Department of the Public Security Administration bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said that in recent years, the Ministry of Public Security has set up a special leading group for maintaining campus safety and stability, and jointly with the Ministry of Education and the Central Political and Legal Commission has continued to carry out the special action of "protecting schools and gardens" for many years, and has selected more than 300,000 outstanding public security police officers with strong professional ability and rich experience to serve as vice presidents of the rule of law, and have organized various forms of safety education activities in schools to help maintain the sustained safety and stability of campus order.
The Vice President for The Rule of Law should be involved in the prevention and control of bullying in schools
When it comes to campus safety, many people first think of campus bullying, and one after another painful school bullying cases cast a shadow on the quiet campus.
In order to prevent the occurrence of bullying incidents in schools, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors and the Provisions on the Protection of Minors in Schools issued by the Ministry of Education last year have made special provisions on the prevention and control of bullying in schools.
The reporter noted that the "Measures" also mentioned the prevention and control of bullying in schools. The "Measures" stipulate that the vice president of the rule of law shall participate in the formulation and implementation of the school's student rights and interests protection system, participate in the student protection committee, student bullying governance and other organizations, and guide and supervise the school to implement the responsibility of protecting minors.
"The prevention and control of bullying in schools is an issue of concern to the central government, society and the people. The addition of the power of the vice principal of the rule of law will make the prevention system for the prevention and control of bullying in primary and secondary schools more solid and powerful. In the view of Wang Daquan, deputy director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Education, the vice president of the rule of law can play a role in preventing bullying in schools from many aspects.
Wang Daquan said that the first is to popularize legal education, and to explain to students how to prevent bullying in schools. Schools may also be urged and guided to formulate relevant systems and regulations in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Minors and the Provisions on the Protection of Schools for Minors. At the same time, the vice president of the rule of law can timely discover and stop the bullying behavior in the school, discover the hidden dangers of campus bullying, and prevent problems before they occur. In addition, the vice president of the rule of law can also give full play to the professionalism and authority of the rule of law work, participate in specialized agencies such as the School Bullying Identification Committee, and better determine what is bullying in schools. For those students who commit bullying in schools, the vice president of the rule of law can conduct discipline and special legal education for them, which can play an educational and corrective role.
Preventing bullying in schools is only one of the duties of the vice president of the rule of law, and the Measures expand the responsibilities of the vice president of the rule of law into six aspects, including promoting the study and publicity of Xi Jinping Thought on the rule of law, carrying out rule of law education, assisting in the protection of students' rights and interests, preventing juvenile delinquency, participating in safety management, implementing or guiding the implementation of educational punishment, and guiding governance according to law.
"Previously, in some places, there were still cases where the vice principal of the rule of law was used as a 'decoration', and the main responsibility was to go to the school to give students a rule of law class." Xiong Bingqi believes that the biggest highlight of the "Measures" is to further clarify the responsibilities of the vice president of the rule of law.
Deng Chuanhuai also pointed out that clarifying responsibilities can not only provide a basis for the vice principals of the rule of law to better perform their duties, but also help improve the governance system of primary and secondary schools, give play to the professional ability of the vice principals of the rule of law, and improve the protection mechanism for minors in schools.
Mobilize the enthusiasm for conducting juvenile rule of law education
The "Measures" stipulate the work responsibilities of the vice president of the rule of law, and one of the most important ones is to carry out rule of law education.
In recent years, public security organs have selected more than 300,000 public security police officers with strong professional ability and rich experience to serve as vice presidents of the rule of law, and have gone deep into schools to organize various forms of safety education activities. The picture shows the police of the police station of the Development Zone of the Jing County Public Security Bureau in Anhui Province carrying out the activity of the vice president of the rule of law entering the campus. Photo by Pan Yalei
Liu Hanyin, deputy director of the Ministry of Justice's Bureau for Law Popularization and Governance according to Law, said that to give play to the role of vice principals of the rule of law in the education of juvenile rule of law, it is necessary to combine the characteristics of the vice principals of the rule of law and make a fuss about pertinence and effectiveness.
"We will work with relevant departments to increase efforts in three aspects." Liu Hanyin said that the first is to select the vice president of the rule of law on the basis of merit, that is, to include those who have rich legal knowledge and rule of law practice experience and are enthusiastic about the rule of law education for young people into the talent pool of the vice president of the rule of law to create a high-quality and professional work team; the second is to focus on improving the ability and level, and will help the vice president of the rule of law to enrich the form and content of the rule of law education through professional training, business exchanges, experience promotion and other means, and improve the ability and literacy of the rule of law education; the third is to increase the intensity of incentives. In the overall layout of implementing the legal popularization plan and carrying out juvenile rule of law education work, the work of the vice president for rule of law is to be given overall consideration, and the difficulties and problems encountered in the work are seriously studied and resolved.
Liu Hanyin said that the vice presidents of the rule of law and their dispatched units who have achieved outstanding results in rule of law education work should be given priority in the selection and commendation of advanced individuals and advanced collectives in the national or local law popularization, and in accordance with relevant regulations, commendations and encouragement will be given, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of the vast number of vice presidents and dispatched units for the rule of law to carry out juvenile rule of law education.
The reporter learned that in order to encourage the work of the vice president of the rule of law, the "Measures" stipulate that the dispatched organs should create conditions for the vice president of the rule of law to carry out their work, and include the work of serving as the vice president of the rule of law into the workload and clarify it as the content of the assessment.
"The next step is to promote the inclusion of the training of vice presidents for the rule of law into the 'national training plan', encourage all localities to innovate training methods, enrich training content, improve training effects, and provide a strong guarantee for the performance of duties by vice presidents of rule of law." Deng Chuanhuai said that it is necessary to effectively build the team of vice presidents of the rule of law into an important force to promote the improvement of school governance capabilities and levels and protect the legitimate rights and interests of minor students.
"The vice principal of the rule of law should be truly embedded in the school, from the campus to the teachers to the students in the chain of rule of law growth." Chen Miaomiao, associate professor of Capital Normal University, believes that this will contain more scientific, professional and practical, and will also involve more training work, and disciplines such as children's studies, teacher education, and family education need to be reflected in the content setting of training courses.
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