The "Chongming Action" of Quality and Balance in Compulsory Education: Doing a Good Job at HomeEvery school

On September 1st, Teacher Yuan, an art teacher at the Experimental Primary School in Chongming District, left the century old school in the city center where he had worked for many years and exchanged ideas to teach at the Jiangkou Campus in Miaozhen, alleviating the shortage of art teachers in rural schools.

In the new academic year, like Teacher Yuan, nearly 100 teachers in Chongming District have joined the exchange and rotation of compulsory education teachers.

The Chongming Three Islands have a large geographical area and a high degree of school dispersion, with more small-scale rural schools. In order to make every school a "good school at the doorstep" that satisfies the people, Chongming has carried out a series of explorations and practices in recent years, promoting the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas.

Scientific allocation of resources to narrow the urban-rural gap

In 2016, the Education Bureau of Jing'an District and the Education Bureau of Chongming District signed an education cooperation agreement, and newly built Chongming District Nanxi New City Kindergarten and Chongming District Jiangfan Primary School in Chengqiao Town, Chongming District. They were respectively entrusted by Jing'an Nanxi Kindergarten and First Normal Affiliated Primary School, thus opening the prelude to promoting high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas in Chongming.

Over the past seven years, Chongming has signed multiple rounds of educational cooperation agreements with districts such as Huangpu and Jing'an, introducing more high-quality educational resources through close cooperation. At the same time, Chongming District is also constantly exploring different modes of group education, breaking down barriers to education levels and forming a tightly knit education group. Through closer organization, resources, management, and education, efforts are being made to narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas, regions, and schools, promote scientific connections between education levels, accelerate the filling of educational development gaps, and enhance the level of high-quality and balanced development of regional education.

Jiangfan Elementary School Art Classroom

According to the "Supervision and Evaluation Measures for the High Quality and Balanced Development of Compulsory Education in Counties", Chongming District has invested a large amount of financial funds this summer to make up for shortcomings, such as toilet renovation, air conditioning installation, and barrier free facility construction. In particular, the construction goal of "providing at least one music and art dedicated classroom for every 12 classes in primary and middle schools, with each music classroom area not less than 96 square meters and each art dedicated classroom not less than 90 square meters" has been achieved. At this point, all seven indicators of compulsory education resource allocation in Chongming District have met the standards, and the difference in resource allocation between urban and rural schools has significantly narrowed.

Strengthening Reform Support and Building a Strong Teacher Team

While retaining excellent teachers on the island, Chongming also attracts more outstanding fresh "blood" and allows remote rural schools to have excellent teachers stationed on campus. In recent years, through a series of policy support, Chongming has ensured the balanced development of high-quality educational resources.

In the past, due to differences in economic and social development between urban and rural areas, Chongming did not have an advantage in teacher recruitment. In the past three years, in line with the requirement that the average salary income level of teachers in compulsory education schools in the entire region should not be lower than the average salary income level of local civil servants, the performance-based salary of teachers in Chongming primary and secondary schools has continued to rise, attracting many excellent teachers to come and teach. Zhang Xiuli, the former principal of Chongming Experimental Primary School, told a story that this year, the school recruited a primary subject teacher, which attracted 13 applicants. "This lively scene is really exciting." The reporter learned that due to the adequate treatment of teachers on the island, many excellent teachers were attracted to return from the city and the excellent teaching team was strengthened.

This year, Chongming also promoted the inter school exchange and rotation of nearly 100 teachers in compulsory education schools. In the first half of the year, according to the Management Measures for Teacher Exchange and Rotation in Chongming District Compulsory Education Schools, teachers who have served continuously in the same school for compulsory education for at least 10 years, retired for more than 5 years, and hold intermediate professional titles should participate in teacher exchange and rotation. The principle of mobility is to be carried out within the school district. Unlike in the past, this mobility is coordinated by the district heads of Chongxi, Chongzhong, Chongdong, and Changheng. Each primary and secondary school proposes their own teacher positions, which are coordinated and allocated by the district heads to better achieve job matching. Gong Yaofei, Secretary of the Party Committee of the District Education Work, said that this is the most standardized and vigorous teacher exchange in Chongming in recent years, with a mobility ratio exceeding 10% of eligible teachers, including 20% of backbone teachers. This will happen every year in the future.

In addition, in recent years, Chongming has also vigorously recruited educational talents, introducing about 150 teachers each year, and the proportion of graduate and normal students continues to increase. The recruitment methods are also constantly innovating, in addition to open recruitment, there are also introductions, cross regional transfers, etc., which effectively attract excellent teachers to follow and teach. After efforts, all 15 performance indicators of the Chongming District Compulsory Education Government have also been met.

Adapting to local conditions and implementing innovative measures to improve the quality of education

In the new semester, the "evening self-study" at Miaozhen School has started again. Accompanied by their teachers, the 40 children boarding at school spent a peaceful and fulfilling night doing homework and previewing. In 2017, Miaozhen School became the first pilot township boarding school for compulsory education in the city. Now, Chongming has established five boarding schools for compulsory education in three school districts across the island, providing over 200 left behind children and special family students with their own "warm homes".

Volunteer teachers from Temple Town School and boarding students organize dormitories together.

Due to its location in the outskirts of Shanghai, many parents of children in Chongming work in the city and only return to the island on weekends. The special geographical environment has led to many left behind youths in Chongming. In addition, there are also many children from single parents, divorced parents, low-income families, and psychological disorders, with children from special families accounting for about 14.5%. The establishment of five boarding schools has given these children who lack warmth and love a complete childhood, giving them a healthy and happy harbor. The step taken by Chongming has broken the original principle of nearby enrollment, allowing children who lack family education to enjoy high-quality and fair education. In terms of boarding forms, it has successfully explored a management model of segmented teaching and integrated accommodation for primary and secondary schools, ensuring the quality of student learning and campus safety.

The reporter learned that in order to promote the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, Chongming is still making many high-quality innovations and attempts. Small scale schools with less than 200 students have been allocated public funds based on 200 students, and all schools have achieved information technology in teaching and management. Urban and rural compulsory education schools have implemented "five unifications". It is worth mentioning that this year, a total of 3100 primary school graduates in the entire region have entered preparatory classes to start junior high school studies. Among them, 80% of the students are concentrated in relevant schools in Chongming Chengqiao, Bao Town, Chenjia Town, and Changxing Town, with a very uneven distribution of students. In this regard, Chongming will develop educational resource layout standards that are in line with the actual situation of the Chongming region based on the population distribution, quantity, and structural characteristics of the entire region. Chongming is also providing comprehensive training for young and middle-aged teachers in small-scale rural schools. It is hoped that in the near future, a "package class" teaching system will be piloted in such schools to further optimize teacher allocation, reduce employment intensity, and improve the comprehensive education ability of teachers, enabling students to achieve better comprehensive development.

Huang Zongkui, Director of the Education Bureau of Chongming District, said that education is the foundation of people's livelihood. "In the future, we will also explore more innovative practices based on the actual situation of Chongming, so that Chongming children can attend good school at their doorstep and the people can have a practical sense of achievement.".