The Paper's reporter Qiu Haihong
The Ming Dynasty thinker Wang Geng founded the Taizhou School in Taizhou. This group of pictures is from Taizhou published WeChat public account
"What's the hottest topic in taizhou this year?"
"There is no doubt that it is education."
In Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, the people have inadvertently found that the appearance rate of "education" has refreshed the historical record this year, and everyone always has to talk about education after tea and dinner.
Taizhou's emphasis on education can be seen from the city's "First Meeting of the New Year" this year. Unlike other cities that use "investment promotion" and "business environment" as the theme words, the keyword of the First Meeting of the New Year in Taizhou is "education", which has caused many ripples since then.
The Surging News (www.thepaper.cn) interview learned that at this conference, Taizhou, in the name of the municipal party committee and the municipal government, issued 18 "dry goods" policies to support the development of education, for example, taking out "real money and silver" to run education. According to official estimates, Taizhou adds more than 1 billion yuan of new funds every year to increase teachers' income. At the same time, in the next five years, more than 10 billion yuan will be spent on new schools.
In order to prevent the policy from staying on paper, after the end of the conference, Shi Lijun, secretary of the Taizhou Municipal Party Committee, went to the 6 districts and counties under his jurisdiction to conduct special research on education work for six consecutive weeks, visited various schools, and frequently held discussions with principals and teachers in various places.
Taizhou is so "obsessed" with education, in the eyes of the outside world, behind it shows that a medium-sized city with unfavorable location conditions is reshaping its competitiveness in the increasingly fierce regional competition - accelerating the cultivation of local talents in the "talent war", trying to achieve a breakthrough and counterattack from the "east-west pinch, north-south squeeze" of a number of strong opponents in the Yangtze River Delta.
The Northern Song Dynasty master of science, Hu Yan, founded the Anding Academy in Taizhou.
Off the beaten path
The Northern Song Dynasty master of science, Hu Yan, founded the Anding Academy in Taizhou, which was one of the earliest academies in Jiangsu. Wang Geng, a student of the Ming Dynasty thinker Wang Yangming, founded the Taizhou School here, and for a time opened up the customs of commoner Confucianism...
The tradition and gene of "Chongwen Re-education" nourished, nurtured and achieved the reputation of Taizhou's "Hometown of Education" in the future. Taizhou Qintong Li clan successively walked out of li deren, Li Deyi, Li Dequn three academicians.
In fact, the basic education of The Three Tai (another name for Tai County, Taixing, and Taizhou before the establishment of the prefecture-level Taizhou City) area has become famous as early as the 1980s. At that time, under the spring breeze of reform and opening up, a number of famous teachers, principals and famous schools emerged in Taizhou.
However, at the turn of the new century, with the acceleration of the economic take-off of southern Jiangsu, cities in southern Jiangsu have invested heavily in basic education. The advantages of Taizhou education are slowly dissipating, and even in some aspects have been surpassed by southern Jiangsu and some surrounding sister cities.
Judging only by the salary level of teachers, according to official sources in Taizhou, the overall and average level of Taizhou in recent years has been significantly lower than that of the surrounding areas. Some contradictions and problems plaguing the field of education have also emerged one after another. According to the Taizhou Municipal Party Committee, in just one year, Shi Lijun, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, gave as many as 29 instructions on education, most of which were criticism and reflection.
This year, when most cities in the country have focused on economic work, focusing on topics such as investment promotion and business environment, Taizhou is unique, and the theme and keywords of the "First Meeting of the Chinese New Year" have been determined as "education".
Not only that, the 6 districts and counties under the jurisdiction of Taizhou have also listed education as a "top-leading" project, of which Jiangyan District has especially established the "education district" as a development strategy, with the goal of building the district into an educational highland with "national fame, first-class in the province, and satisfaction of the people".
Taizhou cityscape.
An additional 1 billion yuan will be added to increase teachers' income
"Taizhou education in the province and even the whole country, is a position, has an impact. However, compared with the glorious history of Taizhou education, compared with the surrounding advanced areas, and compared with the expectations of the people, there is still a big gap in the supply of high-quality school resources, the construction of the teaching team, and the education management mechanism system. Talking about why education is listed as the city's "number one project", Shi Lijun, secretary of the Taizhou Municipal Party Committee, replied.
Shi Lijun once openly exclaimed, "If we do not pay much attention to education, education, and education, we will be widened by the advanced regions, and we will lose strong talent support in future regional competition."
How big is the gap? A set of data may explain the problem: the total gap in basic education in Taizhou is 65,700, the total gap of schools is 90, and the total shortage of teachers is at least 3,000. It is precisely because of the large gap in related resources that the problem of "large class size" in various schools is prominent.
In addition, taizhou accounts for only 58% of the four-star high schools that represent high-quality levels, which is lower than the average level of Jiangsu Province. In addition, the average annual income of teachers in the compulsory education stage and high school stage in Taizhou is also much lower than that in surrounding cities. Taking the income treatment of teachers, it may directly affect whether teachers can teach with peace of mind, and then affect the cultivation of students.
After facing up to its own shortcomings, Taizhou did not rush into action. According to the relevant person in charge of the Taizhou Municipal Party Committee Office, before the Spring Festival in 2021, the Municipal Party Committee also invited the parents, principals and teacher representatives of the students to the compound of the Municipal Party Committee to hold a symposium to listen to the opinions and suggestions of all parties on education.
During the discussion, a junior high school teacher spoke his mind. She said that many teachers now get up early and greedily every day, but their income is not high, they cannot take care of their families, the pressure of work and life is high, and the sense of professional honor is not strong. These words made many leaders present feel sad after listening to them.
On February 20 this year, Taizhou put the "Education Conference" to the end, and teachers of all types of schools at all levels in the city can watch it online. At this conference, a teacher and a principal were also specially arranged to sit on the rostrum, which was actually a signal to the outside world that "the status of teachers should be improved".
The "18 Articles" policy of Taizhou education issued at the meeting released dividends for the local teacher team.
The policy states that the city will increase funding guarantees, especially to ensure the income level of teachers. According to the principle of "current affordability and long-term sustainability", it is estimated that Taizhou will add more than 1 billion yuan per year to improve the income of teachers.
On April 28, the Taizhou School Construction Project Centralized Construction Site Promotion Meeting was held.
Reverse the exploration of the "inner volume" of education
Like most cities in the country, issues related to education are of paramount concern to the population.
The recent hit TV series "Little Shed" vividly shows the anxiety of parents under the "education volume". In order to improve their children's grades, parents desperately apply for various off-campus tutoring classes, English improvement classes, language development classes, Olympic mathematics classes, piano classes, dance classes... Parents not only want to supplement cultural knowledge for their children, but also want to cultivate talents. As a result, not only parents have emptied their wallets, but more children are seriously sleep deprived and physically and mentally stressed.
Under the "chicken baby education", the off-campus training structure came into being, and problems such as "super-program teaching", "early teaching" and "peddling anxiety" emerged in an endless stream.
Wan Yongliang, director of the Taizhou Municipal Education Bureau, introduced that Taizhou implements a "combination of dredging and blocking" for the rectification of off-campus training institutions. On the one hand, it is necessary to suspend the examination and approval of off-campus training institutions in primary and secondary school disciplines, and rectify the existing problems within a time limit. On the other hand, the teachers of the school are strengthened, providing after-school delay services to students in need, tutoring children in schoolwork, and solving parents' worries.
As a "model area" for taizhou education, Jiangyan District took the lead in exploring it as early as a few years ago. According to the guidelines of the secretary of the Jiangyan District Party Committee, the district has opened after-school extended courses to 54 urban and rural primary and secondary schools, benefiting more than 40,000 students. These students are tutored by teachers to complete homework at school, and the rest of the time can participate in club activities such as calligraphy, football, and instrumental music, which "not only reduces the financial burden of the family, but also promotes the healthy development of students."
Behind a big game
As mentioned above, the "18 Articles" policy of Taizhou education is clear, and the overall planning and detailed planning of the city must give priority to the planning of schools, and reserve space for new schools in advance.
In this regard, Taizhou Mayor Zhu Lifan has held many meetings to study the layout and planning and construction of the "14th Five-Year Plan" school. He said: It is necessary to truly give priority to the development of education and high quality, break through rules and regulations, come up with real money and silver, and speed up the construction of schools.
Under the strong promotion of the party committee and government and the rigid constraints of planning, Taizhou also listed the "task table" - in the next 5 years, Taizhou will build 200 new (reform, expansion) schools at all stages to ensure that the degree supply level of the counties and municipalities under its jurisdiction meets the requirements of the provincial education modernization construction on average.
According to official sources, in the next five years, the cumulative investment in new schools in Taizhou will reach more than 10 billion yuan. Among them, on April 28 this year, Taizhou suddenly started construction of 86 schools at the same time, with a total investment of 7.5 billion yuan.
By 2025, the proportion of primary and secondary schools (kindergartens) participating in group-run schools in the city will reach 85%, and the proportion of four-star high schools will reach 75%, so the characteristics of high-quality and balanced basic education will become more and more obvious.
"Education determines Taizhou's today, and it also determines the future of Taizhou. The municipal party committee and the municipal government proposed to strengthen the industry and the city, first of all, to do strong education, which is the foundation and the key. High-level and vigorous education investment produces talents, the future, and hope, which is incomparable to any industry. The main leaders of Taizhou City said in a public speech.
In fact, Taizhou, located in central Jiangsu and north of the Yangtze River, is not near the sea, not along the border, not close to the provincial capital, and far from the Yangtze River Delta dragon head city of Shanghai, and the geographical location advantage is lackluster. For such a city, in the face of an increasingly fierce "talent war", self-reliance and training of local talents may be the best solution. Because these students who have received many years of education in Taizhou are most likely to "feed" their hometowns after becoming talents.
"Education is a golden signboard in Taizhou, education is not only to cultivate talents for the city, but also to attract the biggest resources for talents." The main leaders of Taizhou City said.
Li Qiangqiang, an associate professor at HIT, is one of the entrepreneurs who was "impressed" by Taizhou education. In 2017, he came to Jiangyan District, Taizhou, and served as the president of HIT Robot Taizhou Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute. He learned that Jiangyan has a high level of basic education, and the promotion rate of famous schools in the college entrance examination is leading the country. In the second half of 2020, he resolutely decided to settle the children who were about to enter the second grade in Taizhou to go to school and enroll in Jiangyan Experimental Primary School. Today, not only is the family of three reunited in Taizhou, he has also established a new intelligent equipment company called Huapu.
"For a catch-up city like Taizhou, if you fight with other cities for policies, subsidies, and use money to attract talents, many times it does not have strong competitiveness." In the view of Taizhou's decision-making level, Taizhou has comprehensive advantages in attracting talents, which are embodied in high education level and livable life. Now high-level talents attach more importance to their children's education and living environment, and Taizhou can just use this to create characteristics and attract more outstanding talents to innovate and start a business.
From "strong industry" and "strong city" to "strong education", with these preparations, Taizhou recently announced to join the "robbery war" and organized into Shenzhen and other cities to attract industrial projects, and to attract high-end elements such as talents, science and technology, and capital.
Editor-in-Charge: Li Kecheng
Proofreader: Yan Zhang