Original title:

Dialogue with the parties of "abandoning Peking University to study in technical school": How can vocational education "break the situation"?

Xinhua News Agency reporter Shu Jing

On May 1, the newly revised Vocational Education Law came into force. On May 8, the 2022 Vocational Education Week with the theme of "Skills: Better Life" was launched.

Eleven years ago, Zhou Hao dropped out of Peking University and went to a technical school. It was a sensation and became a landmark event in the history of vocational education.

Eleven years later, in the context of the continuing discussion of vocational education, what kind of "vocational education view" did the "crab eaters" have? Recently, the reporter from "Xinhua Viewpoint" directly talked to Zhou Hao about his thinking on the way of in-service education.

How do you view your choice?

In 2011, Zhou Hao dropped out of Peking University and chose to study at Beijing Institute of Industrial Technicians. After media reports, this choice caused controversy.

Many people consider from the reality that people should go "high": "Peking University diploma is much more valuable than technical school." There is another voice: should play their unique value; It is not worth learning something that is not good at or interesting for the sake of a famous school diploma.

Now, does he regret this life turn?

In Zhou Hao's opinion, this is just a choice more loyal to his heart.

Since kindergarten, he has been fond of making toys and learning seal cutting by himself. Until now, whenever he had time, he would dive into the model for a day. The occasional circle of friends is also a model that took several years to make.

In 2008, Zhou Hao scored more than 660 points in the college entrance examination. He wanted to go to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where there were many practical courses, but under the advice of everyone, in order to "not waste scores", he finally applied to the School of Life Sciences of Peking University.

But in fact, he is not interested in life science. This learning experience brought him more pain, even depression. After that, Zhou Hao tried various ways: to sit in, suspend school, and go south to work, but they failed to solve the problem.

After many twists and turns, he decided to quit school and learn a craft that he liked and could support himself.

Zhou Hao said that although his practice of "abandoning Peking University to study in a technical school" was a bit "shocking", it was quite common for the society to dislike their majors and blindly apply for volunteers - too many children still did not know where their interests were until senior three, nor did they know the situation and future direction of various majors in the university. He put forward early that vocational enlightenment should be introduced into primary and secondary education, so that students can have a clearer understanding of future career development.

Article 19 of the New Vocational Education Law has also responded to this appeal. "Encourage and support ordinary primary and secondary schools, ordinary colleges and universities, increase teaching contents related to vocational education according to actual needs, carry out vocational enlightenment, vocational cognition, vocational experience, career planning guidance, labor education..."

Zhou Hao believes that everyone has different potential, and ideal education should teach students in accordance with their aptitude to help children discover and cultivate their own potential earlier.

Has the phenomenon of "good employment and poor status" of vocational school students changed?

"I would rather go to the worst ordinary high school than to a vocational school." Some parents worry that the quality of enrollment in some vocational schools is poor, and the children will be affected.

According to the data of the Ministry of Education in 2021, the employment rate of vocational school graduates has remained at a high level in the past five years. However, many people believe that although the employment rate of vocational school students is high, it is not easy to find "decent" jobs; Compared with ordinary students, the future development will also face more bottlenecks and higher threshold.

Zhou Hao, who switched from general education to vocational education system, also had his own experience.

In 2014, after graduating from the Technician College, Zhou Hao chose to stay and teach. After standing on the platform, he soon realized that the responsibilities were different. "A word from a teacher may change a person's life."

He found that in the traditional education system and social concepts, technical school students are often discriminated against, and also prone to inferiority. The first thing teachers should do is to help them rebuild their self-confidence.

He told an example: many students may not care whether an ordinary machine can be repaired, but when they learned that the machine tool they repaired would be used for aerospace, their attitude was different. "Let them know that their work is valuable."

But at the same time, the invisible threshold and "ceiling" still exist.

Zhou Hao noted that for a long time, some employers have paid more attention to external education rather than the matching between positions and capabilities. In order to have a better educational background, many secondary vocational students choose to continue to study higher vocational education and master's degree. "Employing agencies need to further change their concepts and improve their professional evaluation capabilities."

After graduation, vocational school students also face a gap in salary and treatment. Some students will directly ask him: "CNC machine tool maintenance is so difficult, so hard, we finally learned, why can only earn thousands of yuan a month?" "As a highly skilled talent, why can't the income reach the level of middle managers?"

Even he himself will encounter the "ceiling" of the workplace - with the development of the school, there are more and more masters and doctors among the teachers. Zhou Hao has no advantage in terms of academic qualifications, whether in terms of professional title evaluation or promotion.

How far is the road to equality?

The new vocational education law clearly states that "vocational school students have equal opportunities with ordinary school students at the same level in terms of entrance, employment, career development, etc."

In Zhou Hao's view, the legal status of equality is a good start, but there is still a long way to go to achieve de facto equality.

How does vocational education break the situation? He has thought about this problem more than once, and also agrees with Tong Huaqiang, the former dean of Beijing Institute of Industrial Technicians, that the urgent task is to make efforts on the "connotation" of the construction of the engineering learning integrated curriculum system and teacher training.

The Beijing Institute of Industrial Technicians is willing to "invest heavily" in teacher training: the school will invest more than 100000 yuan to send teachers to first-class enterprises for off the job training for a few months; Design a "four level gradient" development system, from ordinary teachers, integrated teachers, curriculum leaders to professional leaders, teachers have a clear path of ascension.

In 2017, Tong Huaqiang left the Technician College and founded an education consulting company, hoping to help more vocational schools put forward reform strategies. In 2019, Zhou Hao also joined the company, transforming from a vocational school teacher to a "teacher of vocational school teachers".

By studying domestic and foreign majors, visiting enterprises for research and interviews, and organizing expert interviews, they helped teachers in vocational schools to sort out the key points of work tasks and skills improvement points step by step, and build an integrated curriculum system. "Usually, it takes three years for a major to form a system. A set of plans with millions of words needs to be repeatedly polished."

After carrying out the education consultation project, "some teachers have grown rapidly, and schools have also developed rapidly. As you can see, some vocational schools have begun to" emerge "in recent years." Zhou Hao was gratified by this.

In addition to improving the quality of teaching, the change of social concepts still needs time.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, believes that the low social recognition of vocational education is due to the value orientation, social mechanism and education itself. First, the concept of "all things are inferior, only those who are highly educated" and "people who are light of all kinds of work" is deeply rooted; Second, there is a grade gradient in the social structure; Third, the educational goal is more to cultivate "human beings" than "people among people", focusing on sound personality and creating happiness.

Zhou Hao believes that the high-quality development of vocational education is inseparable from the renewal of the concept of the whole society. Only by changing the selection and employment mechanism at the social level, improving the content and mode at the educational level, and changing the cognitive expectation at the individual level, can vocational education attract and cultivate more talents with all-round development by cultivating a craftsman spirit of respect for practice, encouraging a diversified culture, and changing the overall social cognition

How to make more people realize "vocational education freedom"?

Some experts believe that training too many academic talents will be out of touch with social needs. More universities in China should carry out vocational education to train vocational and technical talents and application-oriented talents.

While working in Shenzhen, Zhou Hao once met a girl who sold software together. Other people feel the same color, and she can see the difference at a glance. Unfortunately, she did not know that she had extraordinary artistic perception, nor did she have the opportunity to receive a good education.

Zhou Hao felt that many children have different potentials like this girl; However, general education emphasizes more on language ability and logical thinking ability. Once you can't learn Chinese and mathematics well, you will be defined as a "loser", and other potential will also be "sealed".

"The ideal education should train talents more according to the nature and potential of children, rather than simply based on the separation of achievements." Zhou Hao said that students should have the possibility to switch freely on different educational tracks, so that general education and vocational education can be truly integrated.

Tong Huaqiang often said that Zhou Hao was also impressed: the essence of education is "human development".

Zhou Hao noted that vocational school students may have more skill advantages at the beginning of their career development, but the more upward they go, the more potential they have for students with strong comprehensive learning ability. Therefore, in the course design, he repeatedly stressed that vocational schools should pay attention to cultivating students' professional development ability.

"Vocational school students should also learn comprehensive knowledge. They should train technical talents for a future full of variables, rather than only training technical workers according to current needs."

Once, in order to add a "start-up course" for cloisonne major in a vocational school, Zhou Hao communicated with the teacher for half a year, and even quarreled many times. At first, the teacher thought that intermediate workers had no design basis and could not create. After the opening of "start-up courses", the design of some students is dazzling, showing a broader possibility.

"Creativity needs to be stimulated, and the earlier the better, which can enable students to have more sense of identity and achievement in their careers." Zhou Hao was excited when presenting these design drawings. This is his most valuable moment.

Zhou Hao believes that everyone has the most suitable path. He also gradually found his own meaning of life and his position in the times on a "road rarely taken".

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 9