"The draft preschool education law once again clarifies the identity of preschool education in the whole school education system, which is really gratifying." When reading the report that "People’s Republic of China (PRC) Preschool Education Law (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as "Draft") was submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) for deliberation, the stone in Yan Hong’s heart finally fell to the ground. She described her feelings at that time, "It was like running a marathon, and it was finally coming to the end".
Engaged in preschool education for more than 20 years, Yan Hong has witnessed the rapid development of preschool education and has been paying attention to the legislative process of preschool education.
"Almost every two sessions, we can see suggestions for preschool education legislation. We often pay attention to and discuss preschool education together." This time, Yan Hong believes that this shows that the whole society attaches great importance to preschool education, and it is also a milestone in the improvement of national education literacy.
Preschool education is accelerating into a new era of "laws to follow". What are the expectations of parents, kindergarten teachers, principals and preschool education experts?
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When the income of kindergarten teachers increases, more enthusiasm will be devoted to education.
"The biggest obstacle before preschool education is the problem of money." Gao Bingcheng is the director and associate researcher of the Preschool Education Research Office of China Academy of Educational Sciences, and the deputy secretary-general of China Preschool Education Research Association. He has been engaged in preschool education research all the year round.
"Kindergarten teachers have low salaries and it is difficult to attract outstanding talents to teach." Through investigation, Gao Bingcheng found that in kindergartens, there is a big wage difference between non-editing teachers and editing teachers, and the phenomenon of different pay for equal work is serious.
Article 25 of the Teachers’ Law stipulates that the average salary level of teachers should not be lower than or higher than the average salary level of national civil servants, and gradually increase. This should include kindergarten teachers.
Nowadays, all localities have clearly stipulated the highest charging standard for inclusive private parks, but most areas have not scientifically calculated the average cost per student for inclusive private parks. The subsidy standard for inclusive private parks is too low, the subsidy is weak, and the incentive effect is not obvious. Parents have to bear more school costs.
To this end, he expects that after the legislation of preschool education, the mechanism of funding input and cost sharing can be improved to ensure the priority development of preschool education. Ensure the continuous improvement of the financial input level of preschool education, and form a more sound financial input and cost-sharing mechanism for preschool education.
Talking about the issue of funding guarantee, Yan Hong hopes that preschool education can realize the rule of law in funding guarantee like compulsory education and higher education.
She learned that most of the funds related to preschool education are now managed by local finance. If the local finance is good, there will be more investment in preschool education, and vice versa. As a result, the financial investment in preschool education fluctuates greatly.
Yan Hong said that the funding guarantee for pre-school education is now flexible, and some places adopt the project system, and the amount of funds is greatly influenced by the project authorities. She expects to pass preschool education legislation and become more rigid in terms of funding guarantee.
"I hope that education funds should be institutionalized and increase the proportion and importance of investment in preschool education." She said.
Huang Qi, who works in Hainan, is the mother of two children. In the kindergarten stage, she has dealt with many teachers. She learned that the income of kindergarten teachers is generally not high, and their work enthusiasm needs to be improved. She hopes that the income level of kindergarten teachers can be improved. "When the income of kindergarten teachers is improved, more enthusiasm can be invested in preschool education."
What is gratifying is that the draft clearly proposes to improve the investment mechanism and strengthen the funding guarantee.
Ensure that the knowledge mastered by kindergarten teachers is scientific and keeps pace with the times.
Xu Yuanfeng, a teacher of Dingxin Kindergarten in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, has been engaged in preschool education since she graduated from undergraduate course in 2016. Although her college major is preschool education, in recent years, with the development of preschool education and the acceleration of knowledge updating iteration, she found that the concepts and methods she had learned before could not meet the needs of her work.
In the teaching work, she found that some children have behavior problems, and she didn’t have enough educational and psychological knowledge as theoretical support, so she couldn’t scientifically and objectively analyze the causes of children’s behavior, which led to the bottleneck in the education of these children.
Xu Yuanfeng once encountered that some children walked into the kindergarten without talking, but they could talk naturally when they walked out of the kindergarten gate. This behavior lasted almost the whole kindergarten stage. At that time, she checked the relevant literature and thought that this may be "selective silence" and may be caused by serious separation anxiety. "But as a front-line teacher, I tried various ways such as encouragement and guidance, but it still didn’t work, which made me feel that my knowledge and methods still need to be improved."
She told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that as a front-line teacher, it is necessary to constantly improve their professional quality, see the individual differences of different children in practical activities, master scientific physical and mental laws and age characteristics, match different educational methods, and teach students in accordance with their aptitude.
"I look forward to allowing more teachers to receive continuing education and learn more scientific and advanced educational knowledge." What makes Xu Yuanfeng happy is that she saw what she expected in the draft. The draft stipulates that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of teaching staff and improve the quality of teachers. Kindergartens should scientifically carry out conservation and education activities according to the physical and mental development laws and age characteristics of preschool children, and should not teach the curriculum content in primary schools or adopt primary education methods.
Huang Qi was very happy when she saw the draft that "kindergartens should scientifically implement conservation and education activities according to the physical and mental development laws and age characteristics of preschool children", because her children had encountered similar problems.
Her eldest son has graduated from kindergarten and attended two private kindergartens, and the quality of the teachers he met is uneven. Individual teachers don’t understand the law of preschool children’s physical and mental development, don’t teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and only stay at the goal level of ensuring children’s personal safety, and can’t carefully guide children’s physical and mental healthy development.
She recalled that when the eldest son entered the new kindergarten as a transfer student, he had separation anxiety and it was difficult to adapt to the new group. Once after Huang Qi left the kindergarten, the child hid under the table and sobbed softly. The teacher turned a blind eye and did not give any comfort. "I was very disappointed when other parents saw it when they sent their children to the kindergarten."
In the news reports, Huang Qi saw that there were many kindergartens, especially private ones. In order to meet the psychological needs of some parents, the middle class began to practice writing and learn addition and subtraction. "This obviously does not conform to the law of children’s physical and mental development. Children’s finger muscles are more mature after the kindergarten class, and they can skillfully hold the pen. "
Zou Lina, director of the Kindergarten Mental Health Center of China Academy of Sciences and a doctor majoring in student development and education, found in teaching and scientific research that teachers’ mastery of children’s psychological laws is the basis for implementing all education, but in reality, many teachers have not paid due attention to it. "I found that many kindergartens are carrying out ineffective courses and activities and cannot take care of the individual needs of young children."
She found that some kindergarten teachers take their children to do manual work, painting and scientific experiments, but because they are not based on understanding the children’s growth level, they just follow the steps and simply repeat them, which does not encourage children to think deeply and explore. "This kind of activity design itself is not to promote children’s effective learning, but to simply imitate and mechanically operate."
She expects that kindergartens pay more attention to the individualized development needs of children and provide appropriate education for children from the perspective of the development of children’s psychological science. "Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the training and guidance of preschool educators to ensure that the knowledge they have mastered is scientific and keeps pace with the times."
Create a good atmosphere for the whole society to care for and support the reform and development of preschool education.
Zou Lina believes that when the draft enters the deliberation stage for the first time, we should solicit more opinions from the public, gather the expectations and demands of all parties, and more benefit the people’s livelihood and public opinion. She suggested that parents, education administrators, preschool education practitioners, legal professionals and child psychologists should put forward more opinions and suggestions based on their own experiences and reach a consensus, so that the law can be enriched and improved.
Gao Bingcheng said that in the process of reviewing the law, the education department should make full use of TV channels, newspapers and magazines, online media and other channels, and publicize it to kindergarten teachers, parents and the public through feature films, brochures, series of articles and other forms, so that more people can understand the legislative process and care about preschool education.
He suggested that kindergartens, families and even the whole society should be guided to establish a scientific concept of protecting education and vigorously create a good atmosphere for the whole society to care for and support the reform and development of preschool education.
"Now when it comes to preschool education, it is generally considered to be a matter of kindergarten." Yan Hong said that at present, there are misunderstandings about the concept and orientation of preschool education in the whole society. Most of the people who take the initiative to understand preschool education are kindergarten teachers and parents don’t know enough.
She believes that since preschool education legislation has entered the preliminary examination procedure, it is necessary to carry out publicity and collect more opinions and feedback from everyone.
Ding Ling, who works in Beijing, has a son in kindergarten. Knowing that the draft has entered the deliberation stage, she said that parents should also understand the legislative process and make more suggestions, "expecting to solve more practical problems through legislation."
Ding Ling believes that parents can improve their legal literacy, have a more standardized and clear understanding of kindergarten management, and have a better understanding of children’s physical and mental development by understanding the relevant process of preschool education legislation and learning the specific contents in the draft. In addition, from the national level, better protection of children’s educational environment will play a very good role in alleviating parents’ educational anxiety.
Zhongqingbao Zhongqingwang reporter Li Huaxi Source: China Youth Daily