Recently, after 26 years, the newly revised vocational education law was voted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and officially implemented on May 1.
On April 25, the news of “canceling the diversion of general posts after graduating from junior high school” was widely reprinted and posted on microblog hot search. Two days later, Chen Ziji, director of the Department of vocational education and adult education of the Ministry of education, clarified that the new vocational education law was intended to promote the “coordinated development of general vocational education” and that the statement “Abolishing the diversion of general vocational education after junior high school” was a misreading.
Experts interviewed said that “coordinated development” is actually to enable all localities to reasonably determine the proportion of general posts in combination with reality.
Generally speaking, from the policy texts in the field of Vocational Education in recent years, we can basically find the basis of the new vocational education law. The problems and achievements summarized in practice have been fed back in this revision and transformed into legal norms. Insiders believe that the new vocational education law has laid a solid legal foundation for building a modern vocational education system.
“Abolishing general employment diversion” is a misreading
The new vocational education law stipulates: “the state optimizes the educational structure, scientifically allocates educational resources, and promotes the coordinated development of vocational education and general education according to local conditions at different stages after compulsory education.”
On April 27, Chen Ziji clarified at the press conference that some media and experts interpreted the “coordinated development of general posts” as “Abolishing the diversion of general posts after junior high school”, which is a misreading. He said that at different stages after compulsory education, vocational education and general education should develop in harmony.
The implementation of the policy of “diversion of general posts after graduating from junior high school” began with the decision of the CPC Central Committee on the reform of the education system in 1985. At that time, China’s education was in the “technical secondary school” training system. Technical secondary school graduates could enjoy the treatment of transferring household registration and guaranteed distribution, and its gold content was self-evident. In the late 1990s, with the expansion of enrollment in Colleges and universities, the bonus of technical secondary school students disappeared, and secondary vocational schools became the destination of students who failed in the secondary school entrance examination, so they fell into the dilemma of enrollment.
With the promulgation of two documents of the State Council on vigorously developing vocational education in 2002 and 2005, secondary vocational enrollment began to rebound. However, the awareness of “poor students going to vocational schools” has been gradually rooted in the hearts of the public.
By 2014, the notice of the general office of the Ministry of education on doing a good job in the enrollment of high school schools in 2014 clearly stated: “we should orderly divert the fresh junior middle school graduates to ordinary high schools and secondary vocational schools, and in principle, we should guide the fresh junior middle school graduates to divert to secondary vocational schools according to the proportion of 50%
In fact, the implementation of the policy of “general employment ratio is roughly the same” varies from place to place. According to Chen Xiangyang, deputy director of the Institute of vocational education and lifelong education of Jiangsu Academy of Educational Sciences, polarization has formed between economically developed cities and remote areas. For example, Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities have a ratio close to or even more than 7:3, while Jiangsu and other regions with relatively perfect vocational education system have a ratio close to 5:5 “Because the channels of Vocational Education in these areas are more unobstructed, some students and parents have the willingness to take the initiative to choose vocational education.”
The reporter inquired about the national statistical bulletin on the development of education from 2010 to 2020. From 2010 to 2018, the proportion of secondary vocational education enrollment in China decreased from 50.94% to 41.27% year by year. It began to rise in 2019 and accounted for 42.38% in 2020.
In the process of law revision, the expression of general employment diversion has experienced adjustment and change from “diversion” to “classification” and then to “coordination”. The Vocational Education Law promulgated in 1996 stipulates that “the State implements different stages of educational diversion focusing on post junior high school education according to the level of economic development and the popularity of education in different regions.”
During the second review of the revised draft of the vocational education law in December 2021, some members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress suggested to study the abolition of the diversion policy after the high school entrance examination. They believed that this policy was not in line with the local educational development, and led to the rigid implementation of “one size fits all”, especially under the reality that there was a large gap between the development quality and employment prospects of vocational education and general education, which further aroused the anxiety of parents and students of primary and secondary school students, It even produces the consequences of “changing the middle school entrance examination into the college entrance examination”, which has a offsetting effect with the policy orientation of “double reduction”. According to the opinions and suggestions reviewed, the second review draft of the draft is changed to “implement the classified development of vocational education and general education at different stages after compulsory education”.
Zhou Hongyu, member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and professor of the school of education of central China Normal University, has twice participated in the deliberation of the first and second drafts of the revised draft of the vocational education law.
“It can be seen that from ‘diversion’ to ‘classification’ and then to ‘coordination’, the meaning of ‘compulsion’ on the whole is indeed getting weaker and weaker.” In an exclusive interview with the education online weekly of the CPPCC, Zhou Hongyu pointed out that, however, in view of the different conditions of each student and the different needs of development, education itself also has the role of diversion and stratification, especially the great supporting role of vocational education for economic and social development. The overall consideration of the state for the development of vocational education, the relevant policies will continue to be implemented, but the implementation will pay more attention to the reality, Pay attention to ways and methods, and pay attention to coordinated development.
Wang Yanan, an associate researcher of Zhejiang Modern Vocational Education Research Center, told reporters that he could understand the voice of Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) and wanted to cancel the diversion of general vocational education and reduce the “inner volume” of compulsory education, so the news would cause such a heated discussion. “Social disapproval and even discrimination against vocational education have always existed, and public opinion will be taken into account in policy-making.”
Chen Xiangyang told reporters: “first, diversion has a derogatory color, and coordinated development looks at this problem more from a positive perspective; secondly, such an expression can leave enough space for the development of vocational education.” But he said that no matter what kind of expression, it can not change the current situation: the current conditions and resources of ordinary high schools can not accommodate all graduates at the current stage of compulsory education.
Chen Xiangyang illustrates that there are Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) junior middle school graduates in Jiangsu Province every year, while the capacity of local ordinary high schools is only more than 300000. By 2028, the number of junior middle school graduates will reach 1.02 million. Chen Xiangyang predicted that Jiangsu secondary vocational education schools will have “no worries about the source of students” within 5 to 10 years: “population growth determines that even if the government continues to build ordinary high schools every year, it can not accommodate all students.”
new vocational education law generally continues the policy experience of recent years
China’s first vocational education law was promulgated in 1996. It has been 14 years since it was first proposed and revised in 2008. Due to historical reasons, China’s vocational education and training system is in the charge of the education department and the human resources and social security department, which has increased the difficulty of coordination to a certain extent in the revision of the law.
In terms of style, the new vocational education law is revised from 40 articles in the previous 5 chapters to 69 articles in 8 chapters, adding three chapters: “vocational schools and vocational training institutions”, “teachers and educatees of vocational education” and “legal responsibility”, which is expanded from more than 3400 words to more than 10000 words.
In recent years, under the background that the manufacturing industry urgently needs to supplement high-quality technical and skilled talents, the state has vigorously promoted the development of vocational education and intensively issued policy documents to update the field of vocational education.
In 2019, the State Council issued the national vocational education reform implementation plan, which is known as the “20 articles on Vocational Education” in the industry, and defined the positioning of Vocational Education: “vocational education and general education are two different types of education and have the same important position.” In the new vocational education law, this position has obtained legal basis.
At the National Vocational Education Conference in April 2021, Xi Jinping general secretary made important instructions on vocational education, emphasizing accelerating the construction of modern vocational education system and cultivating more high-quality technical and skilled talents, skilled craftsmen and craftsmen from large countries.
In October of the same year, the general office of the CPC Central Committee and the general office of the State Council issued the “opinions on promoting the high-quality development of modern vocational education”, which, as a supporting document of the national vocational education conference, defined the development objectives for China’s vocational education, and mentioned for the first time to encourage listed companies to hold vocational education and encourage industry leading enterprises to lead the establishment of national and industrial vocational education groups.
The new vocational education law emphasizes: “the state gives play to the important role of enterprises as the main body of running schools, promotes enterprises to deeply participate in vocational education, and encourages enterprises to hold high-quality vocational education.” And further clarify: “relevant industry competent departments, trade unions, China Vocational Education Society and other mass organizations, industry organizations, enterprises and institutions shall fulfill their obligations to implement vocational education according to law and participate in, support or carry out vocational education.”
In 2019, at the policy level, vocational education has broken through the undergraduate restriction. By the end of 2021, the Ministry of education has approved 32 undergraduate vocational schools. In December 2021, the office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council issued the opinions on doing a good job in the authorization and awarding of bachelor’s degrees in undergraduate vocational schools, and undergraduate vocational education was included in the bachelor’s degree system.
The new “Vocational Education Law” stipulates: “higher vocational school education shall be implemented by higher vocational schools and ordinary institutions of higher learning at junior college, undergraduate and above education levels. According to the provisions of the establishment system of higher vocational schools, qualified technician colleges shall be included in the sequence of higher vocational schools.”
Wang Yanan told reporters: “the new” Vocational Education Law “legally breaks the ceiling of vocational education, that is, now the law allows vocational education to run undergraduate courses and even graduate students in the future.”
“The new vocational education law is very contemporary and basically continues the policy experience in recent years.” Chen Xiangyang said.
As for why the new vocational education law was introduced at this time point, Chen Xiangyang believes that it may be because the direction of Vocational Education in the future has been relatively clear through the introduction of the National Vocational Education Conference and several previous important documents of the State Council.
“The existing national policies and successful practical experience, including the attention to the existing core issues, have basically been fully reflected in the new vocational education law. In this sense, it should be said to be very valuable. In this way, there will be laws to follow in the formulation of specific policies and specific implementation of vocational education in the future.” Chen Xiangyang said.
However, there is still a long way to go from the introduction of a law to its real implementation. “It’s not that we can see immediate results after the implementation of the new vocational education law on May 1. All aspects need coordination and cooperation.” Chen Xiangyang mentioned that in 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress decided to conduct law enforcement inspection on the implementation of the vocational education law, and the state will adopt similar measures to make the law truly transmitted to the “peripheral nerve”; For another example, if we really want to promote the main role of enterprises, we need to deeply study the operation mechanism and introduce a series of supporting measures in the future.
Wang Yanan believes that outside the law, the core of the high-quality development of vocational education is reflected in three aspects. The core is the development of students’ professional ability. The main position to realize the development of students’ professional ability is classroom teaching, and the focus of classroom teaching depends on the national vocational education system.
He said that at present, the teaching standard system of vocational education at the national level, the ability evaluation system of students and the external student quality supervision system need to be established and improved.
