1, primary and secondary school dropout problem has not been well resolved
According to the survey, in recent years, the proportion of rural primary and secondary school dropout has been on the rise. Dongkou County reflects the rising trend of primary and secondary school dropout in some places, especially in junior high school students dropout is more serious, of which the dropout rate of elementary school students in about 1%, junior high school students dropout rate of about 8%. In Baojing County, the number of rural middle school junior high school students reported in 2004 was 15,082, and the actual number in the spring of 2005 was 13,940; the dropout rate for the half-year period from the fall of 2004 to the spring of 2005 was 7.57%, which was 2 percentage points higher than the dropout rate for the half-year period from the fall of 2003 to the spring of 2004, which was 5.57%. The dropout rate in rural primary and secondary schools in Zhijiang County is relatively low, with 0.3 % in elementary school and 3.3 % in junior high schools, but the dropout rate is higher in some remote schools. Such as Zhijiang County LengshuiXi Township Center Primary School at the end of 2004 there are 441 students, and in the spring of 2005 in the school students only 435 people, dropout 6 people, dropout rate of 1.36%; the township secondary school at the end of 2004 **** there are 362 students, in the spring of 2005 in the school students only 330 people, dropout 32 people, dropout rate of as high as 8.8%, of which only the school's junior year 81 class Six students dropped out of school, a dropout rate of 17.1%. According to teachers at the school, nearly 30 percent of the students dropped out in the three years from their first year of junior high school to the end of junior high school, with an average of 10 percent dropping out each year.
The main reasons for these students dropping out:
One is the asymmetry between farmers' investment in education and their expectation of income. The driving force for farmers to invest in education is to enhance the skills of laborers and to meet the expectation of a better income increase. Currently, education is a test-based education, and there is only one way for students to go to college. The current high school and university advancement rate is still very low, and junior high school, high school serious neglect of learning to use, graduating students do not have labor skills, not much help in choosing a career, employment, and finish junior high school, high school is still home to farm or go out to work. Simple homogeneous labor in agricultural production, the gains illiterate and elementary school, junior high school, high school students, still to higher education is not a big difference; go out to work in high school education below the level of income, at the same minimum level. A county average of only two to three hundred students a year to be able to enter the reality of the university, so that poor grades as well as the average student has lost the goal of life, parents have also lost hope. "Can't afford college, useless!" A new "theory of the uselessness of studying" is spreading among students and their parents.
The second is the asymmetry between farmers' education expenditure and income level. According to the survey, in 2004, the province's farmers spent 194.56 yuan per capita on school fees and miscellaneous expenses, which is the first major expenditure in the farmers' life consumption other than food and housing consumption. Specifically for families with students, the annual tuition and miscellaneous fees for a junior high school student is 1,200 yuan, and for a high school student (including tuition and miscellaneous fees and boarding and living expenses) is 4,000-6,000 yuan, which is not commensurate with the level of annual income of the vast majority of farmers.In 2004, the per capita net income of farmers in the province was only 2,838 yuan, and the per capita net income of farmers in poor counties such as Baojing and Zhijiang was only 1,508 yuan respectively, 2241 yuan. A middle-income family can barely afford a high school student. If there are two high school students, or a college student, most families will be heavily indebted. In our random survey of 25 families of college students in nine villages, 20 families had difficulties in their family life because of their students' studies, and 10 families became poor as a result. Studying is one of the heaviest burdens on farmers in poor areas, and also one of the biggest poverty-causing factors for farmers. Students in rural areas who drop out of school because they cannot afford to pay tuition fees account for about 50 percent of the dropout rate, especially in elementary school. For example, Yang Yang, a student from Ridge Kouping Village, Lengshuixi Township, Zhijiang County, was usually a good student, but due to the death of his father and the loss of his family's labor force, his family was in a difficult situation and he could not afford to pay the tuition fee, so he had to drop out of school and return home when he was in the second year of his junior high school education. Another example is Peng Mingfa, a villager from Shunxi Pavilion, Gongping Township, Zhijiang County, who spent 4335 yuan on school fees in 2004, accounting for 43.5% of the household's net income; Peng Hua, a villager from the same village, who spent 439 yuan on school fees in 2004, accounting for 13% of the household's net income; Tang Chengjun, a villager from Caojiaoping Village, Luolao Township, who spent 1,242 yuan on school fees in 2004, accounting for 17.5% of the household's net income; and Zhang Maochen, a villager from Shaojiaotian Village, Tuqiao Township, who spent 1,396 yuan on school fees in 2004. Zhang Maozhen, a villager from Xiaojiatian Village in Tuqiao Township, spent 1,396 yuan on school fees in 2004, accounting for 21% of the household's net income. As a result of the excessive burden of school fees, some farmers can not afford the excessive school fee expenses, had to let their children drop out of school.
Third is the asymmetry between the quality and effectiveness of teaching and the expectations of students. The biggest expectation of students is that they can successfully complete their studies and grow their talents. Due to the scarcity of school resources and the differences in the distribution of educational resources, it is difficult for students in rural areas to have good learning conditions. 3,426 junior high school graduates in 2003, high school enrollment of 1,205, accounting for only 35.17% of the number of junior high school graduates. Rural junior high school students are even lower in senior high school. in early 2004, the relevant departments to carry out the "sunshine project" labor training, the county has 72 school junior high school students to participate in the training. After the county government to stop, some parents students can not figure out, they asked: read high school is hopeless, read the university is more difficult to participate in the training directly to work, what is wrong?
Fourth, the community's efforts to help poor students, although increasing year by year, but still not enough. Last year, the county's "two reductions and one subsidy" funds reached a million dollars. Still can only solve part of the special hardship students' tuition and fees, basically can not solve the living expenses. And student living expenses for some families, is a big expense, especially our county rural family planning to implement the two-child system, most families at the same time the burden of two children study, to the difficult families caused by the pressure is even greater. The large difference in student life while in school, in turn, makes some students have a strong sense of inferiority and abandon school. According to the principal of Shuitianhe Middle School, 50% of the school's students are poor, 33% of the school fees are waived, and some students' diets are difficult to manage due to the lack of living allowances. For example, an orphan in the 63rd class of the second year of junior high school, every week by the poor relatives to give 2 yuan, bring their own sauerkraut or soy sauce in the school to soak rice to eat, meals so. It takes a lot of determination and perseverance for such a student to finish school. The school has about 30 dropouts each semester because of the call for fees before the vacation.
Fifth, the proportion of "left-behind children" dropping out of school is large. Due to the parents work outside for many years, many children feed each other from generation to generation, do not get normal family education, and developed a bad habit of arrogance and indulgence. Schools can not control, no one at home. Some children in the school gangs, mutual influence, *** with truancy, trouble. Finally evolved into anorexia and dropout. Shuitianhe Middle School in Baojing County, "left-behind children" accounted for 30% of the students, is one of the largest groups of dropouts. In addition, this part of the students because their parents are working outside, not interested in learning, follow their parents to go out to work more.
Sixth, some students drop out of school due to anorexia. There is a psychological anorexia is mainly a poor academic performance of students, they are in the school reading and learning is very hard, no desire to study, prefer to do labor at home. For example, Wu Qingyu, a student from the Wang Jichong group in Tongyouping Village, Lengshuixi Township, Zhijiang County, whose parents had already prepared the tuition and miscellaneous fees for the last semester of 2005 and asked him to enroll in the school, refused to do so, preferring to do farm work at home. It is understood that among dropouts, about 20 percent have an aversion to school.
2, the lack of rural compulsory education inputs increased
Rural tax reform, the lack of compulsory education inputs is getting bigger and bigger, the province's gap has reached 900 million yuan, and there is no effective way to make up for this gap. The province's rural primary and secondary education liabilities amounted to 2.53 billion yuan, accounting for 79.7% of the province's education liabilities. For example, in the national-level poverty-stricken county of Baojing, the finances are still at the stage of guaranteeing salaries, and there is no ability to guarantee public funds for education. The implementation of the "one-fee system", according to the ratio of 5:2:3 subsidies, the county finances can not be implemented, the shortfall amounted to 2.1 million yuan. "Two exemptions and one subsidy", the county burden of the cost of living subsidies are not yet in place. Since the "two bases" attack, the county debt amounted to more than 19 million yuan, resulting in the county's primary and secondary schools are very difficult to operate. Another example is Xinning County *** there are 6,835 teaching staff, of which 1,501 are retired, requiring 85.5 million yuan in personnel costs. Among them, the basic salary needs 71.12 million yuan, policy subsidies and welfare needs 14.38 million yuan. 2004 local financial actual allocation of 63.8 million yuan, even the basic salary can not guarantee that the policy subsidies and welfare costs all rely on the school to solve their own. In addition, due to the poverty of the students' families, some rural schools even have difficulties in collecting the normal tuition and miscellaneous fees. For example, Shuitianhe Middle School in Baoding County has about 20,000 yuan of normal fees that cannot be collected each semester. Funding is so tight that teachers have to pay for their own training, which infringes on their interests. In addition, rural schools operate on a small scale, and the cost of education is much higher than in towns, with travel and infrastructure costs much higher than in towns. Even the cost of water and electricity is higher than in towns, and in 2004, the average price of water in primary and secondary schools in Baojing County amounted to 1.205 yuan, and the cost of electricity amounted to 0.80 yuan.
3, rural primary and secondary school fees still exist
Because of the serious lack of financial input, in order to maintain the operation of the school, will have to find ways to get money. According to the Zhijiang County in the fall of 2004 and the spring of 2005 rural primary and secondary school fees survey, at present, Zhijiang County, rural primary and secondary school fees still exist, the main problems are: First, the school charges are not standardized. Such as part of the rural primary and secondary schools in addition to tuition fees, but also charge class fees, information technology fees, final paper fees, through the boarding students to collect boarding fees, etc., teacher incentive funds and optional textbook fees have been included in the scope of the school fees. Some primary and secondary schools do not issue bills or have incomplete elements of bills for fees. Secondly, the management of canteens is not standardized, which increases the burden of students in disguise. Such as Zhijiang County Lengshuixi Township, part of the villagers complained that students in the school cafeteria meals are "four two rice, four two rice, not enough to eat, how to do?" The serious impact on the physical and mental health of students, while the cafeteria will be a large car large car of rice to the market to sell. Third, a variety of fees in lieu of more items, the amount of money. The survey found that this year, students pay a variety of fees in lieu of more items, the amount of money is particularly large, a variety of fees in lieu of the sum greatly exceeded a fee system must be paid in part, and some even up to a few times. This year, the generality of the collection of items are: 5 yuan per student "epidemic prevention fee", 2 yuan per student "Teachers' Incentive Fund", 25-35 yuan per student "pure water fee ", student hospitalization medical insurance fee of 20 yuan per year, bicycle storage fee of 15 yuan per period, breakfast fee of 100 to 180 yuan, as well as newspapers and magazines, milk, soybean milk, a variety of names of the teaching materials fee, are a lot of money. Fourthly, it is difficult for parents and students to pay for "voluntary" items on their own volition. According to our survey, the rate of "voluntary" payment of these voluntary programs is surprisingly high, but schools and parents have very different explanations. Many parents of students reflect, breakfast, pure water, teaching aids, insurance premiums, vaccination fees are not voluntary, some schools provide that students are not willing to pay the above items, to be signed by the class teacher in order to be exempted, in order to receive the book, most of the parents and students taking into account the future of the relationship between teachers and students to deal with, that is, unwilling to have to be forced to pay. Some schools are simply across-the-board, through all to collect. South County, a parent said, the economic conditions of rural students are very poor, but the school hard to pay 30 yuan of pure water, which is equivalent to half a year of electricity, do not pay it, but also afraid of the children in the school is aggrieved, the school this approach is hard to be. Parents of students in some schools reflect that students enroll in the beginning of the school year, regardless of whether you live near or far, regardless of whether it is voluntary, you have to pay the breakfast fee for the semester. There are many schools in the beginning of the school year has been selected for the students a variety of newspapers and teaching aids, you just go to pay for books. Nowadays, teachers do not assign homework on the blackboard every day, but to do homework on the "basic training", which costs a junior high school student about 30 yuan per issue. Fifth, for the students subscribed to many textbooks that are not scheduled courses, increasing the economic burden on students and causing a waste of social resources. Such as a middle school in the county, the second year of "labor technology", "comprehensive practice", the third year of "physical education and health", "art", "music", "writing", these books are not arranged for school lectures, students did not go to self-study, and some students received these books soon after the direct delivery to the scrap buyers, a student to waste 10 to 30 yuan per period. Sixthly, the cost of various school cards and uniforms is a heavy burden. Such as a secondary school meal card to 15 yuan, the school badge to 2 yuan a, and very easy to break; students pay fees with a bank card, card to 10 yuan, six semesters of junior high school need to pay the annual bank fee of 40 yuan, which is a big cost for students from rural areas, some parents say, with a bank card to pay the fees than directly pay money for three years to use more than 50 yuan, this way to engage in the school bank to benefit from the parents of students to pay the bill. A set of poor-quality school uniforms cost dozens of dollars.
4, varying degrees of dangerous buildings threaten the lives of students and staff
At present, Zhijiang County, there are 64 schools in the existence of 95 dangerous buildings (all brick and wood structure), the area of the dangerous buildings 29,848 square meters, including toilets, classrooms, dormitories, cafeterias, auditoriums exist in a large area of varying degrees of the phenomenon of dangerous buildings. Among them: C-class dangerous houses 17,048 square meters, accounting for 57% of the total area of dangerous houses; D-class dangerous houses 12,800 square meters, accounting for 43% of the area of dangerous houses. Large area, the degree of the phenomenon of dangerous buildings mainly exist in remote areas of the school, for example: Muyexi Middle School dangerous buildings area of 565 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings; Tuqiao Central Primary School dangerous buildings area of 400 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings; on the Ping school dangerous buildings area of 481 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings; Bichong Central Primary School there is a dangerous buildings area of 405 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings; board the mountain school dangerous buildings area of 686 square meters, for the C-class dangerous rooms 686 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings; Lengshuixi Xiangjia Yuan village primary dangerous building area of 598 square meters, for the C-class dangerous buildings. Nearer to the county school also has rock bridge central elementary school, dangerous building area of 562 square meters, for the D-class dangerous building; water wide secondary school dangerous building area of 459 square meters, C-class dangerous building; Wulangxi school dangerous building area of 604 square meters, for the D-class dangerous building. These dangerous houses are brick and wood structure houses built in the sixties and seventies. At present, there are nearly 15,000 students in dangerous buildings, and dangerous buildings seriously threaten the life safety of students and staff. In Xinning County, there are still 26,000 square meters of dangerous buildings in primary and secondary schools, and 12,000 square meters of D-grade dangerous buildings. Part of the village elementary school still rent private rooms for classes, the old dangerous buildings have not been eliminated, but the new dangerous buildings continue to increase. 2004 and the new dangerous buildings area of 1418 square meters. After the tax reform, dangerous house reconstruction funds chain break, coupled with poor school conditions in poor counties, the bottom line is thin, the task of dangerous house reconstruction is becoming increasingly difficult.
5, school infrastructure is weak
Baojing county at the end of 2004, the total value of fixed assets of primary and secondary schools 64,394,300 yuan, students per capita 1417.37 yuan, of which: books, instruments and equipment worth 8,250,000 yuan, per capita 182 yuan. The area of dangerous buildings in the county reached 25,720 square meters in 2004. The infrastructure of schools in the county is uneven, and some schools are so simple that they can no longer be simple. Shuitianhe Middle School was opened in 1958, and now only one classroom has complete facilities. The school has 560 students, only 24 rooms, according to the standard can only live in 384 people, still owed 11; library, reading room, physical and chemical laboratories, distance education room, voice room, music room, physical education room and so on do not have; 790 teachers and students only a basketball court, two table tennis table, a 156-meter runway; 750 sets of degrees, the rate of wear and tear up to 30%; teaching aids are outdated and worn out, blackboards 28 15 medium-earth blackboards; teachers' dormitories are dangerous.
6, rural teachers need to improve
According to statistics, the province's rural elementary school, secondary school teachers with college education accounted for only 26.68% and 37.31%, while in urban elementary school, secondary schools reached 61.12% and 98.39% respectively. Rural teachers are weak, especially in remote and impoverished areas where the loss of excellent teachers is serious, the quality of education declines, and the attractiveness of schools to students slips. Baojing County Shuitianhe Township Middle School because it is in a poor area, poor school conditions, no attraction to teachers, the whole school nucleus of 40 teachers, two years to transfer out 14 people, accounting for 35%, 2 teachers due to illness can not substitute, transfer teachers 9 people, a difference of 5 people, the whole school also improve the use of teachers 7 people, including the main course of the language, math teachers 5 people, in addition to substitutes for the teacher 3 people, and now there is no one subject in the school Leader. The principal said: transfer teachers in the suburban schools do not want more, most of the poor business ability, responsibility is not strong. How can such a team run a good school! How can students get a good education! The survey of Zhijiang County general secondary school teachers qualification rate of only 86.8%, while the rural secondary school teachers qualification rate is even lower. According to a survey of teachers in a township primary and secondary schools, the school high school, junior college education teachers accounted for 60%, 35% of junior college, undergraduate only 5%, and 30% of the teachers of the seniority, teaching style is old-fashioned, it is difficult to adapt to the requirements of modern teaching.
Two, to solve the current problems of rural compulsory education a few suggestions
1, awareness-raising, to ensure that the source and power of the development of compulsory education
Human capital is a kind of capital is more important than the land, capital, the number of labor force and other physical capital. The return on investment in human capital is much greater than the return on investment in physical capital. Therefore, capital accumulation should shift from physical capital accumulation to human capital accumulation. Especially with the arrival of the information age, the competition in the 21st century mainly lies in the competition of talents. And talents are formed through human capital investment, and education is the most important form of human capital investment. Therefore, the sustained, stable and powerful development of the economy is ultimately determined by education and thus by the amount of human capital stock. All countries in the world attach great importance to education, and the most fundamental experience of the world's three successful economic transcendence (the United States versus the United Kingdom, Japan versus the United States, and the Four Little Dragons of Asia versus Western Europe) lies in the fact that, by developing human resources ahead of time and at an accelerated pace and improving the quality of the workforce, they accumulated a large amount of human capital for economic development, thus contributing to the rapid growth of the economy. Many developing countries have implemented 12-year free compulsory education, China to accelerate the pace of economic and social development, we must accelerate the training of human resources, improve the quality of labor, it is necessary to increase the investment in education, especially in rural compulsory education, as soon as possible to implement the 12-year compulsory education.
2, further improve the school management system
In accordance with the State Council hierarchical management, county-based requirements, focusing on solving the current outstanding basic, universal, comprehensive aspects of several problems. First, we must establish a county-based, township, school responsibilities are clear, and the smooth flow of government and education management network. After the abolition of the township (township) educational institutions, the county and township management responsibilities should be scientifically divided to prevent the emergence of new management faults due to unclear responsibilities. Second, a benign operating mechanism for the renovation, repair and construction of primary and secondary school buildings should be established, with the county as the main focus. Third, a county-based financial management system for basic education should be established that conforms to the laws and characteristics of education, is compatible with the various reforms in rural areas, and formulates financial management methods for primary and secondary schools to go along with it. In accordance with the requirements of education laws and regulations, to achieve the unification of education's authority and financial authority, and to explore the establishment of an education funding clearinghouse centered on the county with the management of the education administrative department as the main focus and the supervision of the financial department. Fourth, to establish a constraint mechanism for the use of public funds in primary and secondary schools. For the per pupil public funds do not reach the provincial standard, the local financial department to make up. Finance shall not be used to balance the budget and pay teachers' salaries by the miscellaneous fees collected by schools. Fifth, standardize educational behavior. On the one hand, to strengthen the construction of the teaching force. Through vigorously carry out teacher training, the implementation of urban teachers to the rural areas or weak school teaching service system and teacher appointment system, strengthen the professional ethics of teachers, improve the quality of teachers, and establish a good image as a teacher. On the other hand, the standardization of education fees. Strictly implement the "one-fee" charging method, will charge the standard and the telephone number of the complaint to the public, and actively accept the supervision of students, parents and the society, to increase the transparency of the work. At the same time, the strict implementation of the education fee inspection system, the problems found in a timely manner to rectify and effectively prevent arbitrary fees. Sixth, optimize the environment for educational development. The establishment of school inspection access system, to eliminate the department of education, "three chaotic" behavior and interference in school autonomy. Increase the school surrounding environment management efforts, regularly carry out school security environment comprehensive rectification action, create a safe and orderly learning environment.
3, the establishment of a stable financial investment guarantee mechanism
The government is the main body of investment in the development of compulsory education. The responsibilities of the central government, provinces and counties in the development of compulsory education should be further clarified. Financial departments at all levels should adjust the expenditure structure, prioritize the arrangement of compulsory education funding budget, to ensure that the compulsory education funds in place in a timely manner normal distribution:
One is to recommend that the central and provincial financial co-ordination of teacher's salaries and benefits, tuition and miscellaneous fees, municipal and county finances are responsible for the school's capital construction, the purchase and construction of teaching equipment and maintenance. This is mainly based on the long-term development of education, human resources are the resources of society as a whole, the rural labor force resources in addition to agricultural production to provide reserve forces, more for industrialization, urbanization to provide human resources, therefore, the rural labor force training and education can not rely solely on agriculture and farmers to bear, should be achieved in urban and rural areas, by the central and provincial financial commitment.
The second is that fees do not go out of school and taxes do not go into school. School tuition and fees income should be left entirely to the school as public funds, can not offset the allocation of education, can not be used to pay teachers' salaries or infrastructure, to ensure that the school miscellaneous fees earmarked for the purpose. Departmental inspections of schools should have a legal basis, and even fines should be fully utilized for education. In short, to ensure that fees do not go out of schools. To introduce preferential policies, education, school-related tax exemptions and reductions, and strive to tax does not enter the school, to create a relaxed environment for education.
Third, the implementation of rural education and poverty alleviation project, and further promote the system of helping rural areas in poor areas and help farmers' families in need of students. In order to solve the urgent need of the current shortage of funds for compulsory education in rural areas of poor areas as soon as possible, before the reform of the education input system, the implementation of the "one-fee system" in the region, at this stage, respectively, in accordance with the main expenditure items of education funds, divided into the daily operation of the school funds, the cost of textbooks for students and teaching staff salaries, to take the following measures "County-level inputs to ensure school operations, provincial inputs to ensure the distribution of free textbooks to students, and central inputs to ensure teachers' salaries" measures, itemized and graded, to ensure the survival and development of rural compulsory education in impoverished areas after the tax and fee reforms.
Fourth, it is recommended that the central and provincial finances allocate special funds to help rural areas in poor areas to solve the problem of "universal nine" debts left over from history. Or issue national bonds, specializing in the settlement of "universal nine" debt. Other counties, cities and townships with the economic capacity to do so should assume responsibility for transferring the debt, make plans, and take vigorous measures to repay it within a time limit. Rural schools should not be allowed to continue to carry a heavy historical burden.
4, focusing on strengthening the construction of weak schools
Through the "universal nine" standard activities, Hunan primary and secondary school construction has improved greatly, but on the whole, the standard is still relatively low. To optimize educational resources by adjusting the layout, increase the support for the construction of weak rural schools, increase the construction of primary and secondary schools in rural areas. To take a variety of measures to support the construction of weak rural schools, and strive to use a few years to achieve the standardization of rural primary and secondary school conditions, promote the balanced development of basic education, so that the majority of farmers' children to fully enjoy high-quality education, and maximize the reduction of the gap between the rural areas and the city and county in the conditions of education, and to achieve the fairness of education