According to Beijing Evening News, three highlights in the recent ‘Opinions on deepening educational system reform’ (The opinions) are
- preventing preschool education from teaching primary school content
- having schools explore ways to allow students to leave school later (so that parents do not have to leave work early to pick them up)
- calling for the average pay of teachers to be at least equal to that of local civil servants
Delegating power, streamlining administration and optimising government services and implementation at all levels will be key to achieving the goals of the guidance, says Xiong Bingqi 熊丙奇 21st Century Education Research Institute vice director.
To help relieve the admission cost burden for kindergartens, says Xiong, government should increase the proportion of public kindergartens to have them account for more than 50 percent of all kindergartens, while further increasing subsidies for private ones.
Safety, cost and after-school courses remain the key challenges in allowing students to leave school at a flexible time, says Xiong, where schools, government and parents all need to take responsibility.
Making sure that average pay for teachers should be no less than that of local civil servants appeared in the 1994 Teachers’ Law, says Xiong. The key is implementation, he adds.