Shenzhen: Take off with the wings of education

With a loud bang and smoke rising, the "first shot" of the Shenzhen Shekou Industrial Zone was like a spring thunder, sounding the horn of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. "The New York Times" exclaimed at the time: "The indicators of China's great change are booming."

　　 Shekou Industrial Zone is the first "test tube" of China's reform and opening up. Standing on the construction site of the Shekou beach, Yuan Geng, the founder of Shekou Industrial Zone, said loudly: "No matter how hard it is, you can't suffer the child!" The Yucai School was the first building to stand in Shekou. At that time, the Shekou Headquarters was still in a simple work shed. On August 26, 1980, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established. Over the past 40 years, the priority of education development has been guaranteed. In the past five years, Shenzhen has invested 280 billion yuan in financial education, with an average annual growth rate of 20%. The total amount and rate of increase rank first in the province.

　　 The Shekou builders were the first to give the best buildings to the school, and they also passed the Shekou spirit torch to education. As the first full-school education group established by the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Yucai Group has the courage to "eat crabs", becoming the first school to open to the outside world, the first school to open a "course supermarket", and the first group school to establish a party committee.

　　 In the past 40 years, Shenzhen education has been bravely moving forward and standing at the forefront. It has completed a historic leap from rural education to urban education, and then to modern education, helping Shenzhen from catching up with the era to leading the era. What are the reasons for past achievements? How to open up the road in the future? The answer is reform, opening up, and innovation. Shenzhen education emancipates the mind, dares to experiment, and serves as a test platform to drive reform and development; Shenzhen education opens up exchanges and opens doors to run schools as an important window to attract resources and cohesion; Shenzhen education takes the lead in experimentation and innovation Lead, dare to be a pioneer, seek the future with innovation, and be a demonstration.

　　 From daring to dare to try to be a pioneer of reform

　　 In 1981, it took less than two months for a building of more than 7,000 square meters in Hongling Middle School, Futian District, Shenzhen, from the design drawings to the top of the building. The school was completed three months ahead of schedule and became the first public high school built after the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. A principal of a mainland university was deeply impressed during the visit: "Our school's 10,000 square meter library has been built for 10 years, and the 100,000 square meter campus here took less than half a year. It is a world of difference!"

"If the traditional path cannot solve the difficulties, some people may give up. But the people of Shenzhen are searching up and down, looking for breakthroughs from left and right, and if there is a little hope, they will fight for and try. Because of this, Shenzhen can make full use of the policy dividends given by the state. Turning the impossible into possibility." Chen Qiuming, Secretary of the Education Working Committee of Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Municipal Education Bureau, said that only reformers break the road to lead the way, Shenzhen education dares to dare to try, pre-school education and basic education have been popularized and standardized. , High-quality and balanced development stages, higher education, vocational education, and special education have realized the leap from nothing to excellence.

　　 After the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, hundreds of thousands of people with dreams poured in. However, Shenzhen’s educational foundation is weak. In 1979, there were only 24 ordinary middle schools and 238 primary schools in Shenzhen. With the rapid increase in school-age children and the demand for places in short supply, some students have to crowd in the corridors to attend classes. At that time, Shenzhen's economy had rushed to the fast track of "introducing foreign capital and implementing market economy as the mainstay", and education was still based on planning mechanisms. New schools are imminent, and according to the traditional planning mechanism, the vast school infrastructure projects may not be completed in three to five years. Zhang Bigong, the former president of Shenzhen University, once compared the market economy of Shenzhen economy and the planned economy of Shenzhen education to “trains” and “horses” respectively. The carriage chased the train, but the gap widened.

　　 How can education find better solutions in the market and plans? In the early spring of 1983, the main leaders of Shenzhen requested to break the old school infrastructure mechanism and explore the implementation of a new mechanism of six unifications of planning, site selection, land acquisition, relocation, design, and construction. In 6 months, Shenzhen built 12 primary and secondary schools. Shenzhen has also faced the problem that education does not meet the needs of economic and social development in six aspects, including the structure, and made it clear that education must develop simultaneously with the economy of the special zone.

　　 A wire fence once divided Shenzhen into a special economic zone and Baoan county. In the 1980s, 80% of the school buildings in Baoan County's primary and secondary schools were pine and mixed timber structures. In 1984, the enrollment rate of Baoan primary school and junior high school graduates was 65.9% and 34.6% respectively. Relying on the county-level government's overall management system, it is difficult to solve the problem of weak education foundation in the short term. In the mid to late 1980s, many regions across the country, such as Shenzhen, fell into development difficulties such as insufficient education funds, weak rural education, and low teacher salaries. Change it. Bao'an County is developing towards reforms, exploring hierarchical education and hierarchical management, and soon a new situation in which counties, towns, villages and other parties raise funds for education is formed. The county's education expenditure has increased by 2.6 times, and 80% of primary and secondary school buildings have been converted from brick cottages to new buildings.

After realizing the transformation from rural education to urban education, in the 1990s, Shenzhen proposed and implemented the "appropriate advancement of education", striving to achieve priority planning for education development, priority arrangements for education investment, priority protection for school land, and priority introduction of education talents , Teachers’ remuneration are given priority to implement the "six priorities". Ma Ruixiong, the principal of Longcheng High School in Longgang District, Shenzhen, as a university graduate who came to work in Shenzhen, benefited from preferential policies such as doubling the salary of teachers and bonus points for teachers applying for housing. Loving talents and gathering talents and making the best use of their talents, Shenzhen’s strategy of “revitalizing the city through science and education” and “strengthening the city through talents” has blossomed, creating a strong education city and promoting education modernization on the fast lane. In 2004, Shenzhen Education created five firsts in the province, including the first education strong town, the first education strong district, and the first education strong city.

　　 After entering the new century, due to the different financial resources of towns, streets and villages, uneven investment has affected the balanced development of education. Since 2005, Shenzhen has firmly grasped the key words of education fairness and characteristic development, reformed basic education investment and management system, and worked hard to run every school and teach every student well. Longgang and other districts have gradually realized the "five unifications" of school education investment, equipment allocation, and teacher allocation. The standardization rate of public schools in the city's compulsory education quickly reached 100%, and the level of integrated education development continued to improve. Shenzhen has also upgraded the original village-run primary schools, and 63% of the city’s compulsory education degrees are provided to students who are not registered in the city. Shenzhen Education faces the weakest point and the most difficult point in reforming. Major breakthroughs have been made in the battle for academic degrees. Now the number of primary and secondary schools and kindergartens has increased by 801% when the district was established.

After Shenzhen became one of the first pilot cities for comprehensive education reform in the country in 2010, it paid more attention to making good use of the heirloom of reform to promote the development of educational content. "Entering the house is like Europe, and out of the house is like Africa" was a vivid metaphor for the difference between the north and the south in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Piecemeal reforms are difficult to resolve systemic contradictions, what should be done? Liu Genping, vice chairman of the Shenzhen Nanshan District Political Consultative Conference and director of the District Education Bureau, said that since 2013, Nanshan has focused on reforming system integration and has a strong advantage in making up for shortcomings. The district has innovated the school-running mechanism, prepared to build new schools such as the Southern Surgery Hua School in the northern area at a high starting point, with high-quality increments; through groups, alliances, paired assistance, etc., the quality of the stock is improved with the help of informatization and new technology. And other variables, to promote the school to strive for first-class in different tracks. Nowadays, education in Nanshan and North is flying together.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, reform has entered a deep water zone, and the traditional path has been difficult to resolve deep-seated contradictions and problems. Shenzhen not only takes precedence, but also pays more attention to good practice, and promotes reforms in the driving force, efficiency and quality of educational development. Chen Qiuming introduced that Shenzhen Education plans to launch a number of creative and leading reform projects, highlighting the systematic, integrated, and synergistic nature of the reform. Shenzhen has been selected as one of the first batch of reform pilot areas for comprehensive evaluation of education quality in primary and secondary schools in the country, and national youth campus football reforms. It continues to promote reforms such as the classification of private education and the level system of primary and secondary school principals. Reforms such as the personnel system and the training of skilled personnel in colleges and universities are leading the country , The "multiplier effect" of the reform is getting bigger and bigger, and the people's sense of education gains stronger and stronger.

An open window from talent introduction to cross-border integration

In the recently released 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities, Shenzhen University ranked 263 in the world. Shenzhen University ranks second among mainland universities in the rankings of young universities in the world such as Times Higher Education. How did a university that has only been established for 37 years quickly rise? Building from a high starting point is an important reason. In 1983, Shenzhen introduced well-known universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Renmin University of China to assist in the establishment of Shenzhen University. Among them, Tsinghua University mainly assisted in the construction of architecture and electronics disciplines, and Peking University mainly assisted in the construction of Chinese and foreign language disciplines.

The foundation of higher education in Shenzhen is poor and white. In 1979, not only did Shenzhen not have a single university, but even the number of people who could enter junior college or above in middle school did not achieve a zero breakthrough until 1980. How to quickly build a nest to attract phoenixes and make up for shortcomings such as high-level scientific research and development talents? Shenzhen has taken the courage to "build Shenzhen University when you lose your pants". It has also joined hands with 66 well-known universities in 14 countries and regions such as Peking University and Tsinghua University to introduce well-known universities to run schools and co-organize specialty colleges. .

"Shenzhen, as a post-educational developed region, to achieve leapfrog development from catching up to catching up, it must gradually move towards independent development on the basis of open introduction and inclusiveness." Chen Qiuming said, Shenzhen is based on the reality of different development stages of local education. We will actively introduce high-quality educational resources such as talents, educational brands, and school-running models from home and abroad, and actively play the role of an important window for open education exchanges.

The introduction of Shenzhen is not a simple "use doctrine", but a focus on serving me. "We first do a top-level design, figure out what to introduce and how to introduce, and then make up for what is lacking and accurately introduce." Xu Jianling, deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, for example, in the "Shenzhen City" released in March 2013 In the "Opinions of the People's Government on Accelerating the Construction and Development of Characteristic Colleges", Shenzhen clarified the needs, majors, and opening orientation, and required the discipline and professional setting of characteristic colleges to match talent training, economic and social development, and market demand.

In order to introduce first-class “players” at home and abroad to featured colleges, the "Opinions" set a special threshold. Domestic universities should be ranked in the top 30 national comprehensive rankings or top 5 professional rankings, and overseas universities should be ranked in the top 100 comprehensive global rankings or professional rankings. Top 20.

"The colleges and universities we introduced are not a copy of the school headquarters in Shenzhen, but a customized version required by the school director and Shenzhen. At the same time, we encourage the Shenzhen campus to be used as a school reform test field." Xu Jianling emphasized, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) is focusing on the needs of Shenzhen's economic and social development, focusing on information and artificial intelligence, new materials, advanced manufacturing and other fields, and developing in a dislocation.

Academicians and other experts come to the school to do science popularization, and 39 doctors and researchers serve as school science tutors... As a public school that introduces resources from national scientific research institutions, the Nanshan District Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen Advanced Institute Experimental School relies on the abundant scientific research resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , And strive to create "science + characteristics." Nanshan District also invested 6 million yuan to build 6 high-end science laboratories in the school and share them with surrounding schools.

"Education must not only do a good job in open communication within the system, and create a good internal cycle, but also in-depth cooperation with surrounding scientific research institutes, colleges and universities, and innovative companies, collaborative education, and create a good external cycle." Chen Qiuming said, Shenzhen guided All schools opened their doors and turned Shenzhen's first-class science and innovation resources into first-class education resources.

Southern LABS is a leader in vocational schools in South Africa. The founder of the school led a team to learn from world-renowned vocational schools. They went to Germany and Canada in the first two stops, and Shenzhen and Shenzhen Vocational and Technical College were the third. As one of the global contact centers of the UNESCO International Vocational Education Center, Shenzhen Vocational and Technical College has joined hands with leading companies such as Huawei to jointly build and share the new standards and models of Chinese vocational education. It has now cooperated with 160 colleges and universities in 32 countries and regions. , Institutions have established exchanges and cooperation relations.

China’s opening to the outside world is opening wider and wider. Shenzhen’s education is placed in the “One Belt, One Road”, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other major patterns. It is “bringing in” and “going out” with greater efforts, playing an educational symphony. . Teachers and students in Shenzhen worked hard to tell the Chinese story when they were studying and communicating abroad, and passed China's new era, new ideas and new things to the world. At present, Shenzhen has established different forms of educational exchange and cooperation relations with dozens of countries, and more than 400 primary and secondary schools have established friendly relations with foreign schools.

Innovative pioneers from following imitation to first demonstration

Not long ago, Cao Yuan, a post-95 post-95 doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, published Nature twice a day as the first author for the second time. Cao Yuan primary and secondary schools are all studying in Futian District, Shenzhen. More "back waves" are coming. Recently, after fierce competition, 10 works will represent Guangdong to participate in the "Internet +" University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Budding Track National Finals, 5 of which are from Shenzhen middle school students.

As early as 1997, Futian District learned from the advanced experience at home and abroad, and focused on promoting innovation education. Tian Hongming, Secretary of the Education Working Committee of the Futian District Committee and Director of the District Education Bureau, said that the district's primary and secondary schools have joined forces with innovative companies and scientific research institutes such as the University of Science and Technology of China to create a dream-making space and offer a variety of science and technology courses and activities.

Innovation is the first driving force leading Shenzhen from China’s Silicon Valley to the world’s new Silicon Valley. In recent years, Shenzhen has played a combination of selecting and developing "good courses" for innovative education, reporting and reviewing exploratory small topics, and building innovative experience centers between schools and enterprises, and has focused on training millions of primary and middle school students in the city into a reserve army of top-notch innovative talents.

Innovative education not only cultivates innovative talents, but also helps Shenzhen education to overcome difficulties and turn crises into opportunities. Faced with the challenges of land shortage and population explosion, if the traditional education development model is followed, Shenzhen’s education "ceiling" is obvious. How to do? Chen Qiuming gave Shenzhen Education’s answer: “It’s life is renewed. Whoever takes the first step in innovation will be the first to open a new game in the change.” Shenzhen education is relying on innovation, time after time. Break through the predicament and change from "following" and "running" to "leading".

Since the establishment of the special zone, Shenzhen has bravely played a role in the national curriculum reform and other education and teaching innovation waves, from vigorously promoting modern teaching methods to curriculum and evaluation system reforms. In 2001, Nanshan District was selected as the only first batch of national-level curriculum reform experimental areas in Guangdong Province. It has continued to cultivate for more than 10 years, and has successively used comprehensive courses, elective courses, transformation of teaching methods, and future classrooms as innovative breakthroughs. It is precisely because of Shenzhen’s continuous innovation in curriculum reform and smart education. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Shenzhen handed in a high-quality “answer sheet” for online teaching and was selected as a national demonstration zone for the implementation of new curriculum and new textbooks for ordinary high schools. Informatization teaching experimental area.

Relying on innovation, Shenzhen vocational education changed lanes to overtake on the basis of almost nothing. In the 1980s, many vocational colleges planned to run schools with a unified enrollment and distribution. However, since Shenzhen's enterprises had earlier ownership autonomy, Shenzhen vocational colleges changed planning training to market-driven at the beginning of their establishment, using the labor market demand status as the baton for professional establishment. At that time, the original Shenzhen Electronic School, etc.