On February 28, a netizen reported that an elementary school in Xinhua County, Loudi, Hunan Province, asked teachers to persuade parents to pay for their students’ medical insurance. A mobile phone screenshot circulating online showed that the notice required, “If it is not cleared by next Monday, please teachers pay in advance and then visit the parents and then pay.”
Screenshot of the elementary school notice circulating online.
The local education bureau responded to the incident by saying that the medical insurance was voluntary and for the students’ health. “The teacher’s working method is wrong, and we will investigate.” However, more netizens are questioning why the medical insurance collection work was transferred to the teachers?
In recent years, the problem of excessive burden and pressure on teachers has been attracting attention. For this reason, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council specifically issued a document in 2019. However, due to various reasons, many teachers in reality still bear heavy non-teaching tasks. At this year’s National “Two Sessions”, Liu Lin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a national inspector, and the president of Beijing City University, will submit a proposal on this issue, “Proposal on Effectively Reducing the Excessive Burden of Primary and Secondary School Teachers”.
Liu Lin suggested in the proposal that the number of teachers in primary and secondary schools in large and medium-sized cities should be increased to solve the problem of insufficient staffing. At the same time, the tasks and matters assigned to primary and secondary schools should be coordinated and optimized again to prevent the superposition effect. Nandu reporters noted that previously, the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party also released a party proposal, suggesting that the content of the teacher’s burden reduction list should be refined, the operability of the implementation should be enhanced, and the scope of teachers’ work responsibilities should be clarified.
Liu Lin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a national inspector, and the president of Beijing City University. Photo by Nandu reporter Mo Qianru
Filling out forms, checking in, and organizing activities, teachers are still troubled by non-teaching tasks
As early as December 2019, in response to the problems of many inspection, examination, and evaluation projects in primary and secondary schools, the proliferation of social affairs in schools, and the cumbersome filling of various forms, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the “Several Opinions on Reducing the Burden of Primary and Secondary School Teachers and Further Creating a Good Environment for Education and Teaching”, which is known as the “20 Articles on Teacher Burden Reduction”.
However, Liu Lin found in a recent survey that affected by factors such as the epidemic, the above-mentioned “Opinions” have not been fully implemented. In addition, the emergence of some new situations, a considerable number of primary and secondary school teachers reflected that their burden is still increasing.
Liu Lin introduced that on the one hand, in a considerable number of schools, the various assessments, various forms, and various social affairs proposed in the 20 articles have not been significantly reduced, while on the other hand, new tasks are constantly being put forward. For example, a recent regulation requires that primary and secondary school homeroom teachers visit their students’ homes at least once a year. This means that in large cities such as Beijing, homeroom teachers have to spend 15 to 20 days of public holidays to complete the above requirements. Liu Lin believes that all kinds of new requirements are reasonable and legitimate when viewed separately, but the pressure after superposition makes front-line teachers, especially homeroom teachers, overwhelmed.
The proposal submitted by the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party on “Further Reducing the Burden of Teachers in Compulsory Education” also pointed out that in reality, it is not uncommon for various activities such as tourism promotion, legal publicity, and the creation of civilized cities to be concentrated and continuous in schools, all of which require teachers to fully cooperate and participate.
In addition to various written regulations, some places will also “add extra weight” to teachers, such as requiring teachers to pay attention to different public accounts, WeChat groups, and resource platforms, and complete various likes, check-ins, and forwarding tasks.
Teachers’ working hours are extended, and they also have to deal with parents’ anxiety
In addition to daily work, the content of teachers’ work is also significantly affected by the epidemic, education policies, and other factors.
During the epidemic prevention and control period, in addition to online teaching, primary and secondary school teachers, homeroom teachers are also responsible for collecting information on students and their parents’ nucleic acid tests, etc., and filling out forms to report, and some also have to urge parents to get vaccinated.
Liu Lin found in the survey that in recent years, with the improvement of moral education, aesthetic education, labor education, sports education, and the introduction of new tasks such as “five management” and “double reduction”, most primary and secondary schools have been short of staff, and the teachers on duty feel overwhelmed. It has become the norm to come earlier and leave later. Many teachers, especially homeroom teachers, are in a state of full load and overload for a long time. Young teachers with both the elderly and the young are under increasing pressure.
The Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party also mentioned in the proposal that since the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, after-school services have led to an extension of teachers’ working hours. The “double reduction” policy has also put forward higher requirements for teachers’ professional teaching ability, requiring them to organize students to help each other and learn together, carry out hierarchical guidance; dynamically adjust the total amount of homework, differentiate and assign homework, and carry out thematic practical activities; and offer various interest courses. Moreover, the reduction of off-campus training in subject areas has caused parents’ psychological anxiety and panic, and teachers have to spend a lot of time and energy to deal with questions, anxiety, and incomprehension from parents.
It is recommended that new tasks should be assigned from the perspective of primary and secondary school teachers
In order to effectively reduce the excessive burden of primary and secondary school teachers, Liu Lin suggested that the education administrative management department should strengthen the overall coordination mechanism of the workload and job tasks of primary and secondary school teachers, not only to control the “entry gate” of social affairs into schools, but also to coordinate and optimize the tasks and matters assigned to primary and secondary schools within the education system, to prevent the superposition effect. The assignment of new tasks should be considered from the perspective of primary and secondary school teachers, and become a true “family member”.
The Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party also suggested that the content of the teacher’s burden reduction list should be refined, the operability of the implementation should be enhanced, the scope of teachers’ work responsibilities should be clarified, the scope of activities prohibited from entering the school should be clarified, and the rights and guarantee system for schools to refuse interference from non-teaching affairs should be clarified; at the same time, a complaint hotline can be set up, a complaint network platform module can be added, and the relevant situation of the implementation of the “reducing the burden of primary and secondary school teachers” policy documents by municipal and county party and government organs and schools should be supervised and inspected regularly.
In addition, Liu Lin pointed out that the problem of insufficient staffing and shortage of personnel in primary and secondary schools in large and medium-sized cities has not been fundamentally solved. The current personnel establishment standards for primary and secondary schools are based on the national standards of 2001. The small adjustments in 2009 and 2014 were mainly for towns and counties. The adjustment in 2019 was also an internal structural micro-adjustment, which did not fundamentally change the situation that the establishment standards lag behind the actual development. The shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools in large and medium-sized cities has become a very common problem.
Therefore, he suggested that according to the actual development and future needs of primary and secondary school education at this stage, the national standards for primary and secondary school establishment should be re-examined, and local governments should coordinate the establishment indicators of local public institutions according to the re-examined standards, and use various forms such as the quota system and service purchase to meet the needs of primary and secondary schools for personnel, and solve the problem of insufficient staffing in primary and secondary schools in large and medium-sized cities.
Liu Lin also suggested that the training of educational technology capabilities in primary and secondary schools can be strengthened, the ability to use artificial intelligence, big data and other advanced technologies can be improved, the knowledge literacy of smart education can be enhanced, and education can be empowered by technology to reduce the burden on primary and secondary school teachers.
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