Recently, when the reporter visited an education and training institution, the institution was conducting an enrollment briefing for a school's primary and junior high school. Originally, the junior high school implemented the policy of free entrance examination, but there are still many parents who are anxious about choosing a school for their children. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to deploy a special action for sunshine enrollment in compulsory education. This is the first time that the Ministry of Education has made a comprehensive and systematic work plan for the national compulsory education enrollment in the form of a special action. Why the special operation? What kind of problems are you targeting? What measures will be taken?
The goal of the Ministry of Education's special action to carry out sunshine enrollment in compulsory education is to comprehensively investigate the outstanding problems that the people have strong reactions to, and resolutely rectify the phenomena of "black-box operation" and "pinching enrollment".
As early as 2014, the Ministry of Education began to promote the entrance to the nearest school without examination; In 2019, the mainland began to promote the full coverage of compulsory education schools without examinations. However, there are still illegal enrollment problems in some schools in some areas, which undermines educational fairness, and rectifying the "pinching" is also one of the difficulties to be overcome in this special action. The so-called "pinching", that is, "point recruitment", refers to the fact that individual schools lock in and recruit top students before the allocation of places through various illegal means, so as to widen the gap in the quality of students with ordinary schools.
At present, it is in the enrollment stage of the junior high school, and the reporter's investigation found that the enrollment briefing held by some institutions for the purpose of cooperating with individual schools is secretly being carried out.
The so-called "Primary 5 class" refers to the selection of students in the fifth grade of primary school in middle school, and the selected students will directly enter junior high school in the sixth grade. The reporter's investigation found that similar selection examinations are being quietly carried out in some schools and educational institutions recently.
"Pinching the tip" method 1: selection examination
The day before the May Day holiday, the agency staff released information that a private school was about to hold an open day, saying that activities for the fifth and sixth grade students would be held on the last day of the holiday. The reporter tried to sign up, and a few days later received a call from the school.
According to the appointed time, the reporter came to this school. As soon as they entered the school building, parents and children were separated. The child was brought into the classroom on the first floor, and the stationery that had been required to be brought was originally used to participate in the selection exams organized by the school. As soon as the exams start, parents gather to exchange ideas about their children's learning. During the chat, the reporter learned that this school has previously conducted a number of joint examinations with a key public middle school in other districts for the whole city, and this exam may be the last round of this year's enrollment season. At 12:30 noon on May 5, the three-hour exam was over, and parents were arranged to pick up their children on the school playground.
This kind of various tests and interviews, organized by the schools themselves or jointly organized with social training institutions, for the purpose of selecting students, are exactly the violations that this special action will resolutely correct.
At the same time, the special action also made a number of provisions on the enrollment behavior of private schools, such as whether there is illegal cross-regional enrollment, whether there is mixed enrollment with public schools, etc., no matter which one, the private school is obviously in violation. From the chat of parents, the reporter learned that in addition to participating in similar selection exams organized by schools, there is also a channel that can be "recruited" is to participate in various cup competitions, so some cup competitions banned by the Ministry of Education are still secretly being carried out.
"Pinching" method 2: Participate in the cup
Olympiad competitions such as Huashu, Hope Cup, Major League and Masters are all illegal competitions that have been identified by the Ministry of Education. Since 2018, the Ministry of Education has been continuously regulating national competitions for primary and secondary school students. In November 2022, the Ministry of Education announced the "List of National Competitions for Primary and Secondary School Students in the 2022-2025 School Year", commonly known as the "White List", and clearly stipulated that "all competitions that are not included in the 'List of National Competitions for Primary and Secondary School Students' are illegal competitions, and there are no academic competitions for students in the compulsory education stage in the list". In January this year, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and other departments jointly issued a document, once again making it clear that the Masters, Hope Cup, and Hua Cup are all illegal black competitions, and they will resolutely crack down on illegal black competitions. However, there are policies and countermeasures, and these illegal competitions and black competitions in these disciplines are then carried out in the name of summer camps, winter camps or research studies. For example, a research summer camp called Red Spirit and a Guangdong camp recently released by a training institution are actually an Olympiad competition that has been renamed from the Hua Cup to the Huashu Star.
The reporter's investigation found that because the black competition has often been reported in recent years, the exam has been temporarily cancelled, so if you want to register, you can only go through the institution, and the exam method is becoming more and more hidden, and even you have to go to other places to participate in the competition, so as to reduce the risk of being reported. These illegal and expensive registration Olympiad competitions are sought after by parents, and the results of the competitions have also become an important basis for individual schools to "point out the top".
In addition to the Olympiad, the school's second focus is English. In March 2021, the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education announced that it would withdraw from hosting the Cambridge English Level 5 exam, which made it less popular for a while, but since last year, the Cambridge English test has become popular again, and many primary school students have passed the Level 3 FCE exam equivalent to the domestic high school to university level.
The reporter noted that in recent years, the Ministry of Education has repeatedly emphasized that the results of primary and secondary school discipline competitions and examination certificates shall not be used as a reference or basis for enrollment, but in fact, this situation has not been completely reversed.
Niu Nansen, associate researcher of the Institute of Basic Education, Chinese Academy of Education Sciences: In reality, in some places and individual schools, we found that there are still illegal "pinching enrollment", such as using training certificates and subject competition results as a reference or basis for enrollment, which is also the difficulty of this special action.
Tang Jiangpeng, vice chairman of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education: In the compulsory education stage of primary schools, the "pinching of the top" in some places has intensified competition and become an unbearable burden in the development of young people.
In mid-May, the reporter learned again through a training institution that a middle school was about to hold an open day on campus. Although the school repeatedly emphasized that the open day was only for junior high school graduates, when the reporter entered the campus, he found that the school had opened a designated channel for parents of primary school students. Following the road sign, the reporter walked to the primary school consultation office and saw that many parents were submitting their children's resumes to the staff.
"Pinching" method three: screening resumes
Parents make their children's competition results and examination results into resumes and submit them to the school, and the school screens resumes to become the third means for the school to "point and pinch the tip" in addition to the selection examination and cup competition. Before the double reduction, most of this kind of resume is placed directly at the school gate or security room, after the double reduction, the control is strict, and the means are more hidden, either like this in the campus open day to the resume directly to the teacher, or to send the resume to the school email, and providing mailbox information has also become a new way for individual institutions to make money.
Bu Yuhua, a professor at the Institute of Basic Education Reform and Development, East China Normal University: Why do schools adopt various methods, whether it is parents or counseling institutions, to recruit high-quality students, because you care about the admission rate, the rate of famous schools, and the key rate, then the school will care, and the dark comparison between schools is still very severe, and the comparison between regions is also very serious.
In the interview, experts believe that at present, many local education administrative departments still stay in the assessment and evaluation orientation of schools only in grades and promotions, which is one of the important reasons for the repeated prohibition of enrollment chaos.
The reporter learned that some children who were successfully "recruited" had to continue to "roll" and strive to enter the fast class in order to enter a better class. The school has set up fast and slow classes in various names, which is also listed as one of the seven illegal enrollment behaviors to be resolutely corrected in this Sunshine Enrollment Special Action.
Tang Jiangpeng, Vice Chairman of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education: I think that when an educational phenomenon develops to the point where it needs to be dealt with in the form of special actions, it must be curbed through special actions. But at the same time, it is necessary to truly establish a long-term mechanism, so that every child can have a wonderful life presentation and development at different links and different junctures.
The reporter was informed that the Ministry of Education is currently setting up a special action working group for sunshine enrollment, and will participate in the cross-provincial cross-inspection work nationwide, and promptly report on violations and investigations such as "black-box operation" and "pinching enrollment". The General Office of the Ministry of Education recently issued a notice on the launch of the "Year of Standardized Management" of basic education, strictly prohibiting schools in the compulsory education stage from organizing all kinds of examinations for the purpose of selecting students, or using all kinds of competition certificates, social training results, examination certificates, etc. as the basis for enrollment. We hope that through the rectification, we can make the enrollment of compulsory education schools more fair, sunny and convenient. (CCTV News Client)