Research On The "Empty Nest" Phenomenon In Rural Primary And Secondary Schools

Rural education is an important part of China’s education,and it is very important to do a good job in rural education.Although the state has issued various policies to support the development of compulsory education in rural areas,the loss of students,teachers and the shrinking of school scale is still an irreversible trend in many rural areas,resulting in the phenomenon of "empty-nest".Deep understanding and coping with this phenomenon is the key to effectively reform the development of rural schools,dissolve the unfavorable situation of rural compulsory education and improve the overall quality of national compulsory education.Taking Z town compulsory education school in central and southern Hebei province as the case study object,this study presents the "empty-nest" phenomenon of primary and secondary schools in Z town from three aspects by means of interview,questionnaire survey,text analysis,participatory observation and other methods.One is to exacerbate the loss of students.The overall loss rate of students was over 50%,among which county public schools were the first choice for losing students,accounting for 52.78%.County private schools ranked second,accounting for 25 percent;6.11% of students chose public schools and 11.11% of students chose private schools.Five percent attend their parents’ construction schools.The second is the increasing loss of teachers.There are three types: professional development loss,family migration loss and conflict rage loss.Teachers in special posts are supposed to supplement teachers in rural schools,but most of them come and go.Third,the weakening of teaching quality and school culture.In the context of the loss of both students and teachers,the teaching quality of rural schools is also trapped in a bad cycle,which leads to the lack of vitality of schools.There are many reasons for the phenomenon of "empty-nest" in rural schools.At the school level,it is related to the relative shortage of teaching resources,weak faculty,low teaching quality,low school management level and poor boarding conditions.At the family level,it is related to the improvement of educational needs after economic conditions,more emphasis on children’s education and the psychology of conformity and comparison.At the social level,it is closely related to the continuous intensification of urbanization and the relative advantages of private schools in this context.The "empty-nest" of rural schools has led to a series of adverse effects.First,it aggravates the gap between urban and rural compulsory education.Second,it hinders the advancement of educational equity.Third,it causes the waste of educational and teaching resources.Fourth,it is not conducive to the sustainable and healthy development of rural schools;Five is to increase the county school pressure;Sixth,increased the rural student family’s economic burden.The research suggests that we should deal with the problem of "empty-nest" in rural schools from two aspects.On the one hand is to prevent the phenomenon of "empty nest" further aggravation.This requires revitalizing rural economic and social development at a larger level and resolving the dual structure of urban and rural society and education.The other is dealing with the reality of "empty-nest".This is mainly concerned with rural teaching and small-scale school construction.We must not blindly remove and merge,but vigorously strengthen development.