Toward Balance

The limits of economic and social development conditions in somemajor cities cause the disequilibrium between the development ofprimary and junior middle schools. Since many schools failed to attractattentions, both the conditions and levels of education there have failedbeing improved, and final1y those schools get the reputation of being"weak schools". The existence of these schools, especially the weakjunior middle schools among them, has ilot only influenced theimplication of compulsory education, but also impeded theadvancement of quality education.The concept of weak junior middle school is a relatively speakingone--against the deve1opment level of the local economics, culture,and education. In a particular time, the strictly speaking weak juniormiddle schools are those failed meeting the local education standards.Those meeting the basic education standards, while lagging behind theschools with high education quality are relatively weak junior middleschool. Thus, there should be a explicit standard to define a weakjunior middle school. The reasons for the existence of weak juniormiddle school are one the one hand, the economic strength can notguarantee the education quality; on the other hand, the implementationof key school policy causes the malnutrition of some schools.Generally, there are three types of weak schools: those with a badcondition, rising from primary school or from junior middle schoolsrun by local people, and those with all unsteady scale and direction.The government has decided to strengthen the policy of the weakschools, based on the consideration of political, legal, ideologicalfactors and on the reality of education development and reform.The short-term and direct goal of policy strengthening is to solvethe problem of entrance of a school in the neighborhood. However,the long-term and basic goal is to improve the junior middle schooleducation quality as a whole, and to implement quality educationpolicy in an all-round way. As to the working process, there are twostages: urgent blood transmission stage (l985-1995) and healthimprovement stage(l995-2000); as to the working content, it mainlyincludes strengthening the government conduct, increasing theinvestment of staff finance, and materials. Shanghai has done a goodjob through establishing the system of principal titles, integrating thepolicy strengthening into the whole city planning, cooperating withuniversities, and stressing scientific research. However, the way ofusing the school transformation is proved to be diffcult, and evenne gative.The problem of entering a school in the neighborhood, choosing aschool, high-fee are the main concern. Thus, attention should also go tothe school entrar.ce policy. This policy is fiercely against by somestudents and parznts for the reasons of employment pressure, thereform of labor and income distribution system, the increasing ofcitizen income, improvement of public utilities. It is illegal and unfairto force students to enter a school nearby, because it is the students'rights to choose a school. If the conditions in two schools are greatlydifferent, to force students to enter one of them is to force them toreceive unfair education conditions. The standardization, balancing ofcompulsory education is possib1y a way-out, and the special setting offoreign countries are not Suitable to the situations in our country.The present situation of junior middle school education andeconomic development of some major cities like Shanghai indicatesthe existence of weak schools and the necessity of improvement. Thisis the government's duty, though this duty is main1y limited toproviding funds, teaching staff and related material facilitates andequipment, constantly improving the investment levels and rationallyplaning, to accelerate the balanced improvement. Correspondent to thisduty, the content of balanced deveIopment is mainIy that the...