The new vocational education law in the context of re-talking about the secondary education

Re-talking about secondary education in the context of the new vocational education law

Foundation Status and New Mission

Li Zhen, Senior Lecturer, Director of Theory Department, Yantai Vocational Education Research Office

The Vocational Education Law, which has been re-revised after 26 years, was released amidst great expectations. The status of secondary vocational education has been questioned once again, some people proposed: With the gradual opening of the channel for secondary vocational students in recent years, the level of vocational education has moved up, since secondary vocational and general high school graduates eventually embarked on the road to higher education, then secondary vocational education can be completely abolished, and the time of vocational and general diversion is changed from junior high school to general high school, and the scale of general high school is expanded, so that all children can go to general high school, thus alleviating social anxiety about vocational and general diversion. The anxiety about the diversion of vocational and universal education.

Is there still a need for secondary vocational education? If it exists, what will happen to its status? What kind of new mission should secondary vocational education have in the future? In the important historical turning period, secondary vocational education needs to face and think about the above questions and make accurate judgments and answers.

I. Secondary vocational schools should not be the source of social anxiety

Since the founding of New China, secondary vocational education has played an irreplaceable role. Especially since the reform and opening up, China's economic development has made world-renowned achievements, and the "employment-oriented" secondary vocational education has made remarkable contributions, cultivating hundreds of millions of high-quality workers and technically skilled talents, making great contributions to expanding employment, promoting regional economic development, improving people's livelihood and popularizing high school education. It has made great contributions to expanding employment, promoting regional economic development, improving people's livelihoods and popularizing high school education, providing important manpower support for rapid economic development.

However, the function of any type of education is different at different times. In the rolling wheel of historical development, as the economic and social development and people's living standards continue to improve, the age of initial employment of social groups shifts later, the education level of enterprises recruiting talents moves up, and people's demand for high-quality senior secondary education also increases, the function of secondary vocational education directly oriented to employment at the front line of production becomes weaker and weaker, and the function of training students with professional and skill base for higher education becomes stronger and stronger. Since 2019, China has implemented the policy of expanding the enrollment of higher vocational education by 3 million in three years and abolished the restriction on the proportion of secondary school students going on to higher education, so the proportion of secondary school graduates going on to higher education has increased significantly, and the proportion of employment in the sample survey of nearly 20,000 secondary school graduates in 2020 is only 35%, and the proportion of secondary school graduates going on to higher education in Shandong Province has long exceeded 70%.

In this situation, secondary vocational education is still discriminated against, which has deep historical roots, on the one hand, it is influenced by the "learning is superior"; on the other hand, there is a long-standing defect in the design of China's education system, that is, "emphasizing academics rather than technology", in In terms of system, funding, and teachers, vocational education has been unable to maintain coordination with general education, especially after the implementation of the expansion policy of colleges and universities in 1999, the state proposed to focus on the development of general high schools, secondary vocational schools have seriously shrunk and declined, and only students eliminated by general education go to vocational schools, which eventually led to the situation of "difficult enrollment and poor student source". The situation of "difficult enrollment and poor student source". For decades, secondary vocational education has become a synonym for "failed education", and this concept is deeply rooted in people's minds. It was not until the "skilled labor shortage" affected the development of China's manufacturing industry that we felt the lack of vocational education and repeatedly held national vocational education work conferences to vigorously develop vocational education. However, the image of secondary education in people's minds cannot be changed overnight, so the anxiety caused by the diversion of vocational and general education should not be taken by secondary education. This is mainly due to the lack of systematic design of the education system for a long time and the artificial stratification of education caused by the diversion of vocational and universal education based on academic performance.

The best education is the suitable one. The focus of the conflict does not lie in whether to abolish the vocational-university stream, but in what kind of education is good education. Some people like to study theories and are suitable for academic research, while others are good at technical operations and have strong hands-on skills. a school that suits them. However, the current situation is that most people's choice does not come from their true will and talent, and the one-sided concept of "vocational education is inferior" makes many families ignore the differences of students themselves and passively accept education that is not suitable for them.

The road of secondary school development under the orientation of "equal emphasis on employment and further education

The new Vocational Education Law systematically builds the legal system and guarantee system of vocational education and improves the management system of vocational education, not only does the basic status of secondary vocational education remain unchanged, but also the new connotation and new responsibilities and missions in the new era. "The new vocational education law has broken the barrier between vocational and general education on the outside, broken the ceiling of vocational education on the inside, and opened up the upward path for vocational students from the legal level. Director Chen Ziji of the Ministry of Education mentioned that "the revised vocational education law takes secondary vocational education as the basic education of the application-oriented talent training system, focuses on sending students with solid technical skills and qualified cultural foundation for higher vocational education, highlights the educational function of secondary vocational education, enhances the recognition, and makes vocational education become a type of education with the ability of employment, advantage of further education and channel of development. type of education." As early as 2012, the Opinions of the People's Government of Shandong Province on Accelerating the Construction of a Modern Vocational Education System to Adapt to Economic and Social Development proposed that secondary vocational education mainly aims at training high-quality basic workers and skilled talents for the front line of production and service, and providing qualified students with certain professional skills for higher education. As a result, the direction of secondary vocational education, which is completely "employment-oriented", has been shifted. With the economic and social development, by 2020, the "Opinions of the Ministry of Education and the People's Government of Shandong Province on Building a Highland of Innovative Development of Vocational Education by Promoting Quality and Excellence of the Whole Province" further proposed to support Shandong to establish secondary vocational education as the foundation of the modern vocational education system, cultivate basic workers and general technical skill talents, and provide qualified students with certain technical skill base for higher vocational education. At this point, the function of secondary vocational education has been changed to match the upgrading of the industry.

At the national level, the top-level design of the integration of vocational and general education has been built up. The first is to reform the guiding standard of the coordinated development of vocational and universal education, change the previous classification method based on academic level test results, and explore a more socially acceptable and coordinated way of vocational and universal education that can guide students to choose the type of education according to their innate endowment. Second, improve the quality of secondary vocational education and establish a teaching system that is more adapted to the new orientation of secondary vocational education, which should cultivate a solid foundation of technical skills for students on the one hand, and build a solid foundation of qualified culture for students on the other. Third, adhere to morality first, secondary school students are still minors, and secondary school moral education should focus on cultivating good moral behavior habits, combined with the characteristics of secondary school curriculum to carry out secondary school "curriculum moral education", shaping the spirit of craftsmen, cultivating young craftsmen.