Focus interview: Three foot podium, silver age, shining

CCTV News: A chalk, two sleeves of dust, a three foot podium, plowing all year round. Today is the 39th Teacher's Day. First of all, I wish teachers a happy holiday!Teachers are the foundation of education and the source of promoting education. Recently, the Ministry of Education and ten other departments issued the National Action Plan for Silver Age Teachers, which comprehensively promotes the participation of retired teachers in various levels and types of education work. So, which schools will benefit from the Silver Age Plan? How will implementation be promoted in the future? How will the relevant departments do a good job in ensuring the service of silver age teachers?

A morality and rule of law class is currently taking place at Xixi School in Xiaochang County, Hubei Province. The teacher vividly explained, and the students spoke enthusiastically, creating a very harmonious classroom atmosphere.

Teacher Zhang Baojun is very popular among children, and her identity is very special. She is a 68 year old silver age teacher. When it comes to silver aged teachers, they generally refer to retired teachers over 60 years old. Zhang Baojun retired from the Wuhan Municipal Party School in 2015 and was a professor at the school before her retirement. So, why did she become a primary school teacher again? This also starts with the difficulties encountered by West China School.

Chen Zongqiang, Vice Principal of Jiaoxi School in Xiaochang County, Hubei Province, said, "Jiaoxi School is a school located on the outskirts of the urban area. Currently, there are more than 70 teachers, which is relatively short of teachers."

Xiaochang County, Hubei Province is located at the southern foothills of the Dabie Mountains. Xixi School is a local nine-year consistent school, which faces practical difficulties due to the large number of students and heavy burden on teachers. And this situation exists to varying degrees in many regions of the central and western regions.

Ren Youqun, Director of the Teacher Work Department of the Ministry of Education, said, "After winning the battle against poverty, we have found that the hardware conditions of schools have greatly improved, but the gap in the level of the teaching staff is still severe. In some areas, traditional new teachers have been added, and the results are very slow. In some areas that are temporarily difficult or relatively remote, it is difficult to supplement a large number of excellent teachers in a short period of time. The imbalance between the east, west, and central regions is a very practical problem."

On the one hand, education needs to develop in a balanced manner, requiring more and more excellent teachers; On the other hand, many experienced teachers have left their teaching positions due to reaching retirement age, making it difficult for them to have room to fully utilize their abilities.

Ren Youqun said, "There are already a large number of experienced and good teachers. Some teachers actually want to make use of their surplus energy, just because they have reached retirement age. If given an opportunity, they should be willing to make use of their surplus energy."

To this end, starting from 2018, the Ministry of Education has successively launched the implementation of the Silver Age Lecture Program for Primary and Secondary Schools and the Western Support Program for Silver Age Teachers in Universities. In 2019, Zhang Baojun, who had just retired for a few years, and her lover Yu Xiaochen, a retired professor at the Party School of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, both registered and after assessment, were assigned to work as silver age teachers at Xiaoxi School and Xiaochang Experimental Middle School in Xiaochang County, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province. Zhang Baojun, who had previously conducted research in philosophy and psychology, began conducting research as soon as she arrived at school.

Zhang Baojun said, "When I first came here, what I learned was that nearly 75% of left behind children in school have problems. The first one is that they are tired of learning, and the second one is that it doesn't matter whether they learn or not, and they have a mentality of inferiority."

So, Zhang Baojun established a psychological counseling room in the school, and added sand tables, relaxation chairs, venting sandbags, and group counseling tools to the 50 square meter classroom. Several pots of flowers were also placed on the windowsill. This has become a relaxation cabin for students and a psychological station for teachers to relieve stress from work. Not only did Zhang Baojun provide psychological counseling, but he also took on the teaching work of courses such as morality and the rule of law, and hard calligraphy. Gradually, Zhang Baojun's attitude towards work and students also infected and inspired many teachers.

Hu Hong, a teacher at Xixi School in Xiaochang County, Hubei Province, said, "I think the national silver age plan should be a timely rain, especially for rural schools. For children in rural schools, the arrival of silver age teachers can open up a new world for them. For us teachers, we can ask her for advice on various subject problems. She brings some strength, making us feel that even if we retire, one person, one teacher can shine and be enthusiastic."

Since 2018, more than 20000 retired teachers from primary and secondary schools, and nearly 1000 retired teachers from universities, have carried out teaching and research support. Silver aged teachers have not only utilized the surplus energy of retired teachers, but also improved the level of education development in recipient schools and areas, forming a win-win situation.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposes to implement the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, and build a learning society and a learning country with lifelong learning for all.

Based on the new mission and requirements proposed by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and on the basis of the pilot exploration of the Silver Age Lecture Program for Primary and Secondary Schools and the Western Plan for Supporting Silver Age Teachers in Universities, in July 2023, the Ministry of Education and ten other departments jointly issued the National Silver Age Teacher Action Plan, building a broad platform at the national level for the elderly to make progress and providing strong teacher support for the construction of an education strong country. This has comprehensively improved compared to previous pilot explorations.

Compared to before, the National Action Plan for Silver Age Teachers has not only expanded its scale, but also expanded its fields. In addition to the original general higher education and basic education, it also covers five major areas: vocational education, lifelong education, and private education. In the first item of the target task, it is proposed to focus on serving the national strategic needs, focus on supporting ordinary higher education institutions with development potential and advantageous disciplines, and ordinary higher education institutions newly built or urgently needed to improve their development level in ethnic areas, and carry out actions for silver age teachers to support ordinary higher education.

Ren Youqun said, "The teachers we send out also need to play a more important role in helping and guiding young teachers, so that they can grow quickly and form a 'hematopoietic' mechanism. Sometimes, it also involves how to build new school disciplines. Without the guidance of the old teachers, there can be a big bend. These old teachers not only serve as teachers, but also help the central and western regions narrow the gap with the relatively developed areas in the east, which is a good policy of getting more with one action."

Dianxi University of Applied Technology is one of the first national applied technology universities approved by the Ministry of Education in April 2015. In May 2017, the school was officially established with the approval of the Ministry of Education. As a new school, the school not only has a very urgent demand for teachers, but also has various needs such as how to improve the subject level, enhance the teaching and research level of young teachers.

Sun Xianlin is a retired professor at the School of Accounting at Central South University of Economics and Law. In February 2022, he went to the School of Management at Dianxi University of Applied Technology as a silver aged teacher to teach. The first thing he did when he put down his luggage was to attend courses taught by young teachers.

Sun Xianlin said, "I have listened to about 50 classes, and I have almost listened to all the young teachers. I feel that the teachers here are still very energetic, but lack experience. After listening to the class, I wrote a summary of the advantages, shortcomings, and many technical methods of the young teachers during the teaching process, and gave them many practical countermeasures, which they all adopted."

Not only do they provide teaching guidance, but many silver aged teachers come from well-known universities in the Middle East, which is also of great help to the research level of universities in the West.

Li Jiacheng, Executive Vice Dean of Shanghai Lifelong Education Research Institute at East China Normal University: After arriving at the supported school, silver aged teachers can bring these experiences, thinking on how to conduct scientific research, and related literacy to this school, cultivate a local research team, directly guide young teachers, and enhance the local attention, understanding, and participation level in scientific research.

At Dianxi University of Applied Technology, more than 30 universities have sent over 100 silver aged teachers to support the school. The arrival of silver aged teachers has provided great support to the school.

In the National Action Plan for Silver Age Teachers, schools of all levels and types, as well as elderly education and open education institutions, are also included in the implementation scope. Each of the five major areas has its own focus and is given targeted support. Expanding, improving quality, and increasing efficiency are also what many vocational schools and elderly schools urgently need.

For silver age teachers, not retiring can make a positive contribution to the development of education. However, due to the older age of silver age teachers, many of them travel far to carry out teaching and research support, and also face some objective difficulties. In this National Action Plan for Silver Age Teachers, a special chapter has been made on how to organize guarantees, emphasizing "strengthening funding guarantees," "improving policy support," and "improving service guarantees.". For many silver age teachers, volunteer teaching not only allows them to play a greater role, but it is actually a rewarding two-way journey.

A silver aged teacher, with a candlelight in his heart and a sky full of afterglow, not only illuminates the future of young people, but also enables young teachers to grow rapidly. The National Action Plan for Silver Age Teachers will play a demonstrative and leading role for outstanding retired teachers, and build a broad platform to achieve retirement goals. After about three years, the total number of silver age teachers in China will reach about 120000, playing a significant role in promoting the construction of an education strong country, actively responding to population aging, building a learning society for lifelong learning for all, and a learning oriented country.