Be cautious about "teacher surplus", half month talk: shortage and vacancy coexist in rural areas | quantity | teachers
The new demographic situation has a direct impact on the demand for teachers. A while ago, there was a heated discussion online that "with a decrease in population, there will be a large surplus of teachers.". Is this statement accurate? How to accelerate the construction of a high-quality teacher team and make efforts?
Some have job transfers and job transfers, while others have significant gaps
Half month talk to Xiang Bin: In the future, the possibility of teachers transferring jobs will further increase, but this does not mean a decrease in the absolute number of teachers or an overall surplus. In fact, there is still a structural shortage of teachers in China's compulsory education stage, and there is a significant gap in comprehensive literacy teachers such as music, sports, and art.
Chu Chaohui: The impact of population changes on the teaching staff is mainly in terms of iteration and replacement, not in terms of quantity. In the future, the number of new teachers may decrease, and this phenomenon will be more prominent in schools in remote rural areas. At present, the age structure of teachers in rural schools is generally older, and there is a shortage of teachers in terms of sound, physical, and aesthetic education. If the number of new teachers decreases, the problem of intergenerational teacher gaps will become more prominent.
Zhang Zhiyong: The urban population in China is tending to shift towards developed and economically active areas, and the school-age population is also doing the same. There has been a phenomenon of a shortage of teaching resources in areas with population inflows and a shortage of teaching resources in areas with population outflows.
Bao Rui: In rural schools, the reduction of student sources has a significant impact on the demand for teachers. At present, some cities and counties have transferred some rural school teachers who are not competent in teaching work to non teaching positions. In the next 10 years, some teachers who are not suitable for the current education ecology and digital education prospects will also face job transfer and diversion, and the teaching staff in China will be iteratively updated.
Relieve structural conflicts among teaching staff
Half month Talk with Huang Xiaohua: In order to accelerate the construction of an education strong country and build a high-quality teacher team, it is necessary to plan ahead according to the trend of changes in the school-age population, and make predictions on teacher demand and medium - to long-term planning. In the process of urbanization, when adjusting the relocation and merging of small-scale rural schools and teaching points, it is necessary to fully consider county towns with transportation and location advantages, concentrate high-quality teaching staff, and expand the supply of educational resources. At the same time, we need to increase the overall allocation of teaching staff and cross regional adjustments, deepen the reform of the "county managed school recruitment" management of compulsory education principals and teachers, achieve personnel mobility in larger areas such as cities and provinces, and effectively solve the structural, phased, and regional shortage of teachers.
Hu Yongmei: The education administrative department can alleviate the shortage of teaching staff in some areas in the short term by improving the teaching mode and promoting the construction of educational resource sharing platforms. On the one hand, by constructing nine-year consistent schools, twelve year consistent schools, or fully secondary schools, we can break down the barriers to teacher resources in different stages and alleviate the structural contradictions among primary, middle, and high school teachers during a certain period; On the other hand, by utilizing information technology, we can promote the sharing of high-quality educational resources between urban and rural areas, and enable the transportation of high-quality educational resources from cities to rural areas.
Half month talk with Peng Zeping: By introducing advanced educational technology, digital educational resources, and other methods, teaching efficiency and quality can be improved, the workload of teachers can be reduced, and the structural contradictions of the teaching staff can be alleviated to a certain extent. However, to fundamentally solve the problem, efforts need to be made in promoting the reform of the education evaluation system, innovating teacher appointment and training systems, and improving teacher mobility policies.
Hou Mingfei: Cultivating general subject teachers is one of the ways to alleviate the contradiction between teacher shortage and vacancy. In the future, more emphasis should be placed on the cultivation of interdisciplinary abilities in teacher training, encouraging interdisciplinary collaborative teaching among teachers within schools, and providing appropriate compensation and benefits for general practitioners to increase their motivation and attractiveness in engaging in general education.
Hu Yongmei: In response to the current shortage of music, sports, art, science, and mental health teachers in rural primary schools, it is recommended that some high-quality teacher training colleges adopt a comprehensive teacher training model to alleviate the structural shortage of teachers in rural primary schools.
Accelerate the construction of a high-quality teacher team
Half month Talk with Huang Xiaohua: Based on the strategy of high-quality population development and benchmarking against the world's education powerhouse, in order to adapt to the needs of small class and personalized teaching, we need to optimize the allocation of teacher resources and teacher staffing standards for the future, and ensure that the construction of the teacher team is given priority.
Zhang Zhiyong: Changes in population structure and increased mobility will inevitably have a profound impact on the distribution of school-age population, directly affecting the supply and layout of teacher resources. In response to this situation, it is necessary to continuously optimize the allocation of teacher resources, improve the standards, elasticity, and adaptability of teacher resource supply.
Hu Yongmei: Our research shows that the total size of the primary and secondary school age population in China will continue to decrease from 2023 to 2035, and the age structure of the school age population will gradually shift from a spindle shaped structure with "small ends and large middle" to an inverted pyramid structure with "wide top and narrow bottom". We need to coordinate and grasp the trend of population changes and the goal of building an education strong country, and promote the standardization of the allocation of full-time teacher resources to align with the goal of building an education strong country.
Half month Talk with Huang Xiaohua: On the one hand, we should consider appropriately increasing the teacher-student ratio and reducing class sizes in each stage, especially optimizing the teacher-student ratio and class sizes in middle and high school, so that students can enjoy high-quality teaching staff and development achievements; On the other hand, we need to strengthen the staffing of teachers in scarce and weak disciplines, promote the introduction of teacher staffing standards for small-scale rural schools and boarding schools, fill the gaps in teaching staff, and consolidate the foundation of an education powerhouse.
Hu Yongmei: We need to establish a comprehensive teacher allocation standard based on the ratio of students to teachers and class teachers in urban and rural areas, explore the establishment of a certain proportion of mobile teacher standards, and tilt the teacher allocation standard towards small-scale rural schools, boarding schools, schools in areas with population outflow, etc., to promote the high-quality and balanced development of basic education. In addition, the education administration department should promote the establishment of a warning mechanism for the allocation of urban and rural teachers, innovate the flexible employment system for teachers, and take measures such as "city to city adjustment" to coordinate the staffing of teachers and flexible retirement of senior teachers, in order to timely fill the shortage of teacher supply in areas with population inflows.
