How to promote the modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity

How to promote the modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity? A few days ago, the Education Department of Beijing Normal University and China Education News jointly held a forum, where experts, principals and principals of primary and secondary schools had in-depth exchanges.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly stated that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform is to improve and develop the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, which put forward clear requirements for deepening the comprehensive reform in the field of education.

From educational management to educational governance, what kind of connotation has been conveyed? What are the disadvantages of the current education management system? How to realize the modernization of educational governance system? What kind of new relationship should the government, schools and society build? A few days ago, experts, directors of education, principals of primary and secondary schools, etc. participated in the discussion and exchange around this topic at the seminar on modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity jointly organized by the Education Department of Beijing Normal University and China Education News.

How to understand the transformation from educational management to educational governance

Educational governance is an advanced form of educational management, which can embody the modern spirit and the modernity of education, and its characteristics are embodied in democracy.

At the beginning of 20 14, Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education, made a report entitled "Deepening the Comprehensive Reform in Education and Accelerating the Modernization of Education Governance System and Governance Capacity" at the National Education Work Conference, pointing out that we should consciously focus on this general goal, implement this general requirement, start from the education department itself, improve the scientific and standardized education governance system, and form a high-level education governance capacity. Accelerating the modernization of education governance system and governance capacity has been written into the main points of education work in 20 14.

From long-term education management to today's education governance, what kind of connotation change does the word difference convey? At the symposium, experts expressed their opinions.

Chu Hongqi, vice president of Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, said: "Educational governance is an advanced form of educational management, which can embody the modern spirit and the modernity of education. Its characteristics focus on democracy, governance is multi-participation, and multi-participation is sometimes very slow. Some people say that multi-party participation is inefficient. I think short-term efficiency may be related to long-term efficiency. We are pursuing long-term efficiency and a relatively long-term governance framework. "

Meng Fanhua, vice president of Capital Normal University, also believes that governance is a new management paradigm under the background of informationization, globalization and democratization. It has become an important concept and value pursuit of modern management, which embodies the basic characteristics of modern society and emphasizes the transformation of public management. It has brought about the following changes: from paying attention to public projects and government agencies to paying attention to government governance tools, from hierarchy to networking, from public-private opposition to public-private cooperation, from command and control to negotiation.

"On the one hand, the diversification of governance subjects is not only undertaken by the government, but also includes a large number of non-governmental organizations, as well as society, parents and schools. Also participated in the process of education management. On the other hand, the governance mechanism is compound, consisting of three sub-governance mechanisms: government, society and school, which are unified and complementary. In addition, the means of governance will become diversified, and in addition to administrative means, more emphasis will be placed on voluntary and equal cooperation among all subjects. This can best adjust the educational ecology. " Meng Fanhua said.

Li Yongrui, an associate professor at the School of Government Administration of Beijing Normal University, believes that from the perspective of management, governance is to integrate the leadership role with the management role, and at the same time solve the problem of temporary solution and permanent cure. "This is different from governance. Governance is to put out the fire after a problem occurs, while governance emphasizes source control, flood control and waterlogging control."

Then, what is the necessity and practical significance of proposing educational governance?

20 13 ronald coase, the winner of the nobel prize in economics, and his students wrote the book "China in Change", which mentioned that one of the biggest limitations of the development of enterprises in China is the lack of high-end talents, and the quality and composition of talents are the decisive factors of economic productivity.

"A very important purpose of educational governance is to improve the quality of education, promote the development of students and promote the development of talents." Chu Hongqi said, "We generally talk about all-round development, individual development, independent development and sustainable development. All-round development and personality development are at the goal level, independent development is at the process level, and sustainable development faces the future. "

"As for the ability of educational governance, I think the key issue is the relationship between power and rights. Dealing with the relationship between them is one of the themes in the process of educational modernization. Whether educational management is modern management or not, whether it has reached the realm of educational governance depends on how to deal with the relationship between power and right, as well as their realistic state and future trend. Our so-called modern school system construction, the adjustment of the relationship between the government and the school, and the improvement of the internal governance structure are actually all around the game of power and rights. " Yan Hongqi said.

What are the disadvantages of the current allocation of educational administrative power?

There are many imbalances in the allocation of educational administrative power, such as ultra vires management, extended power management, cross management, centralized management and replacing local and school management. Generally speaking, the governance system is not smooth.

At the end of February, the smog that lasted for a week enveloped Beijing, and the high school attached to Peking University suspended classes for this purpose. Under the strict prohibition of the Haidian District Education Committee in Beijing, the affiliated middle school of Peking University still insists on suspending classes. This incident has triggered a wide-ranging discussion in education and society about whether schools have the right to suspend classes.

"From the bottom of our hearts, we are all willing to suspend classes." Beijing 10 1 Guo Han, the headmaster of a middle school, said, "Forty or fifty children are crowded in a room of sixty or seventy square meters, and 4,000 students are squatting in dozens of classrooms. They couldn't get out, the window couldn't be opened, and it was foggy all week. How to treat students? But we are organized and disciplined, and the school has no right to suspend classes. "

Whether to suspend classes can't be decided by the school, the problem of professional title treatment can't help teachers solve it effectively, and the housing treatment of teachers is not guaranteed ... Although he has been a middle school principal in 15, Guo Han often feels that his heart is willing but unable to do so. For a school, many things are often decided by the administrative department of education and the departments of personnel and finance, leaving too little power for the school.

Zhang Zhiyong, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Education and deputy to the National People's Congress, has been in the education administrative department all the year round, and he is deeply touched by all kinds of imbalances in the allocation of educational administrative power.

"The imbalance of power allocation is manifested in five aspects," Zhang Zhiyong said. "First, management of education beyond authority. Some national administrative departments do not have the function of managing education, but indirectly extend to the management right of private education and social education because of administrative examination and approval. This phenomenon is very many, which is also the main reason for the confusion of private education and social education management. The second is to expand management education. Some national administrative departments should be responsible for the macro-management of professional and technical personnel, but in the process of power implementation, they have infiltrated macro-management into the micro-field of professional and technical education, and even directly engaged in the professional title evaluation and continuing education of teachers' professional and technical personnel, which is completely unfounded. The third is cross-management education. In the macro-management of vocational and technical education, there has been a long-standing phenomenon that the education department is in charge of vocational education and the human resources department is in charge of technical education in China, forming two systems, which is a great waste of the allocation of local vocational education resources, and the disadvantages brought by this division of management are increasingly apparent. Fourth, centralized management education. For example, the education department has long focused on the management, operation and evaluation of education, and there is no corresponding balance mechanism among decision-making, implementation and supervision. The fifth is to replace local and school management education. For example, the enrollment department replaces the school enrollment, and the personnel department replaces the school to recruit teachers. In this case, what power do universities, primary and secondary schools have? "

"We used to have a city that recruited teachers, and the human and social departments openly recruited and assigned teachers who got scores to schools. When they try to teach at school, they actually stutter. If the school recruits itself, it is definitely impossible for teachers in this school to enter the examination process. " Zhang Zhiyong said helplessly.

Professor Shi Zhongying, director of the Education Department of Beijing Normal University, is also deeply touched by this. "There are many colleges in the university, and the disciplines of each college are different. Cultivating mathematical talents is very different from cultivating educational talents. The requirements for cultivating managerial talents and artistic talents are different. But at present, universities have unified standards in selecting talents and evaluating professional titles. Why should these powers be concentrated at the university level rather than the college level? In a university, the discipline is in the college, the main body of talent training is the college, the main body of scientific research is the college, and the main body of international exchange and cooperation is also the college, but human rights, administrative power and financial power are not in the college, and a college has to face all departments of the school. Throughout the year, there are countless things that need to be reported by the college. Universities must really take the lead in establishing a benign internal governance structure. While striving for the autonomy of running a school from the government, it is necessary to expand the autonomy of secondary colleges and let them run schools in accordance with the laws of discipline construction and personnel training. " Shi Zhongying said.

From primary and secondary schools to colleges and universities, and then to the administrative department of education, everyone is troubled by various offside, absence and imbalance of power. "Overall, the governance system is not smooth." Zhang Zhiyong said.

What are the reasons for the unsmooth educational governance system?

In the vertical division of powers, the decentralization of powers from the central government to the local government and the decentralization of powers from the local government to the schools are not enough. From the perspective of horizontal allocation, the education administrative department has the right to handle affairs, but the financial power and human rights are relatively insufficient, which restricts the education reform.

Why is the education governance system not smooth?

Zhang Zhiyong studied the evolution of public governance in western developed countries. "It can be said that in the process of establishing public service systems in many countries, with the implementation of public finance and public service projects, public power has moved from expansion to restriction." Zhang Zhiyong said.

"The allocation of educational administrative power includes two directions, vertical allocation and horizontal allocation. Vertical distribution refers to the division of power between administrative organs at all levels and between educational administrative organs and schools. Horizontal distribution refers to the division of power between the education administrative department and the administrative department at the same level. " Qi Hongqi said, "In the vertical division of powers, there is not enough decentralization, and the central government has not decentralized the local government, and the local government has not decentralized the school, which has inhibited the vitality. From the perspective of horizontal allocation, the education administrative department has the right to do things, but the financial power and human rights are relatively insufficient, which restricts the education reform. "

"There are three levels of education management, one is how teachers manage students, the other is how the government manages schools, and the third is who will manage the government. The problem now is that the school controls the teachers and the government controls the school, but who will control the government is a problem. In fact, administrative power has a tendency of self-expansion. This expansion of administrative power is a historical necessity, and with the phenomenon of administrative ultra vires, the rights of administrative counterparts have been infringed to some extent, thus hindering the development of education, damaging the interests of educating the public and infringing on the rights and interests of citizens and schools. " Yan Hongqi said.

"What we are talking about now is to establish a governance system and improve governance capacity. The main goal is to form a modern education system with government macro-control, independent school running and active social participation, but in fact, social forces are basically excluded from decision-making and management. We mainly cultivate talents for the society, but we never listen to the opinions of the society directly, so we can't cultivate high-level talents with equal emphasis on quantity and quality. " Liu Baocun, dean of the Institute of International and Comparative Education of Beijing Normal University, believes that the problems existing in the education governance system have many relations with the lack of social participation.

Liu Baocun once applied for a project in Finland. "We have an interesting request when applying. Enterprise personnel must participate in university management projects. In the field of education in Europe and America, social participation is very high, and some professional committees, federations and foundations often play a great role. This kind of intermediary organization influences education management through funding, research, evaluation, consultation, coordination and supervision, and plays a huge role. But China basically does not. " Liu Baocun said.

Shi Zhongying believes that this has a lot to do with the long-standing drawbacks of the reform. "For more than 30 years, the reform has gone from top to bottom, and the more it reaches provincial departments, county and city departments and specific schools, the weaker the autonomy, enthusiasm and initiative of the reform, which has formed a wait-and-see mentality of the reform of lower departments and reduced the vitality of grassroots reform. In fact, problems in all fields are at the grassroots level, and comrades who are most sensitive to problems are also at the grassroots level. They also have the most urgent mood to solve the problem. They should be the main body of reform and have the right to speak. It is urgent to change the traditional educational management mode and establish a modern educational governance system in order to stimulate the vitality of grassroots reform and integrate all social forces to promote educational reform. The fundamental task of building an education governance system and improving the ability of education governance is to release the vitality of grassroots reform. " Shi Zhongying said.

How to realize the modernization of educational governance system

We must adopt four measures, such as "confirming the right", "separating the power", "decentralizing the power" and "surrendering the power", scientifically allocate the educational administrative power and establish a complete balance mechanism of public education power.

Many experts said that it is the key to establish a modern education governance system to curb the expanding power of government education functional departments and establish a national public education administrative power allocation mechanism with clear power boundaries, matching powers and responsibilities, mutual restraint, strong implementation and strong supervision.

"To promote the modernization of China's educational governance system and governance capacity in an all-round way, we must adopt four major measures, such as' confirming the right',' decentralizing' and' delegating the right', scientifically allocate educational administrative power, and establish a complete mechanism for balancing public and private educational power." Zhang Zhiyong said.

"'confirming the right' means determining the ownership of educational administrative power and changing the situation that multi-head management leads to mutual wrangling and low management efficiency. This is mainly manifested in the management of vocational education, private education and off-campus institutions. It is suggested that the mechanic education and technician education managed by the labor and personnel department should be managed by the education administrative department, and the education department should manage the whole vocational education as a whole. The labor and personnel department is mainly responsible for formulating industry standards and strictly implementing the vocational qualification system. In addition, the qualification access of private educational institutions and off-campus educational institutions should be handed over to the education administrative department for overall management. " Zhang Zhiyong said.

Zhang Zhiyong proposed to "decentralize" the authority of education, establishment and personnel management as soon as possible. Zhang Zhiyong suggested that in the allocation of education and personnel power, the state must clarify their respective power boundaries and return the right to recruit teachers and the right to evaluate their positions (titles) to the county-level education administrative departments. In the allocation of educational financial power, it is necessary to establish an educational financial management system with clear powers and responsibilities, unified decentralization and mutual checks and balances with relevant government functional departments such as education and finance.

In terms of "decentralization", Zhang Zhiyong believes that the key to activating the vitality of local governments and schools is to speed up the transformation of educational management functions, simplify administration and decentralize power to local governments and schools. On the one hand, the central government should delegate the overall planning power of local education to provincial governments, including the adjustment of educational management functions and the planning of educational undertakings; Decentralize the overall planning power of higher education, including the right to set up colleges and universities and the right to reform college entrance examinations; Decentralize and promote the overall autonomy of education reform, including various educational reform pilots in line with state regulations and central policies. On the other hand, if governments at all levels want to decentralize schools, the key is to ensure the autonomy of running schools according to law, including personnel management, independent enrollment, financial education funds and the right to use education funds raised according to law.

"While returning the autonomy of running a school, schools and colleges must also improve their internal governance mechanisms." Shi Zhongying said that from the perspective of colleges and universities, schools should serve the development of colleges, establish academic committees, take academic power as the axis, make good use of democratic management platforms such as teachers' congresses, students' congresses, and joint meetings of the party and government, so as to stimulate grassroots innovation and promote the connotative development of China University.

For a middle school, Guo Han believes that the school should focus on improving its governance ability from the following aspects: First, it should comprehensively and accurately understand the task of reform, consciously use dialectical thinking, systematic thinking, innovative thinking, strategic thinking and bottom line thinking to think about problems, plan ideas, improve work, and carry out comprehensive reforms. We should not ignore and go astray because of one thing, nor should we take it out of context or apply it mechanically. We should not only give the school some autonomy, but also clarify the educational objectives of the school. Second, we should gather the knowledge of * * * and take responsibility. With the development of the situation, the difficulty and risk of reform are increasing. What used to be reasonable may not meet the needs of reality now. What used to work for a long time may not work now. It is necessary to build a learning school, emancipate the mind, enhance the confidence of reform, and form a joint force of reform. Third, coordinate and promote reform. Within education, it is necessary to promote the reform of curriculum, teaching and examination enrollment system as a whole, starting with what the people and teachers and students are most looking forward to, and starting with the formation of understanding between teachers and students in various departments, all walks of life, so as to promote fairness, grasp reform and speed up the construction of modern school system.

Chang Lu, the principal of Zhongguancun No.1 Primary School in Beijing, also believes that while the government decentralizes power, the school should also speed up the improvement of its internal governance structure, from management to guidance, from norms to individuality, from system to culture, from administration to academics, and from resources to openness. "On the one hand, it is necessary to stimulate teachers' awareness of life and return all kinds of teaching autonomy to teachers; On the other hand, we should stimulate students' enthusiasm and let them take the initiative to participate in school affairs. In addition, parents and communities should be encouraged to participate in school educational activities and build an all-round and three-dimensional educational environment. "

"Decentralization" means changing the situation of centralized management of education by the government and its education administrative departments, and fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of society, including social organizations and individual citizens, to participate in education management and school management. Zhang Zhiyong said: "First of all, we should delegate power to social organizations. Governments at all levels may entrust all kinds of decision-making, professional management, quality management and educational reform projects to qualified educational professional service institutions or industry associations. The second is to hand over power to the society and let the broad masses of the people participate in the decision-making, supervision and management of education at all levels as stakeholders in education. "

"The most important thing now is to adjust the role of the government and change its management style. Committee system should be established to absorb social forces to participate in educational decision-making and internal management of education. It is necessary to truly establish and develop a number of intermediary organizations, especially academic professional organizations, to participate in educational management. We should improve the school system by perfecting legislation and school regulations. We must further promote information disclosure. " Liu Baocun said.

"In addition, administrative power should be strictly restricted by certain means." Chu Hongqi said, firstly, educational administrative power should be restricted by substantive legislation. The government still needs to supervise schools, but it should emphasize service and support, indirect management and macro management. Secondly, government power is restricted by procedural legislation such as information disclosure, administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation and administrative appeal. Third, implement the administrative accountability system. The combination of the three can make power play an important role and be restricted at the same time, which is the characteristic of modern education governance system. (Reporter Yi Xin)