Worried about teachers falling into "defensive teaching", all middle school teachers call for the abolition of school meetings

The Ministry of Education held a discussion meeting on the reform of the school council system today (3rd). Shi Meihuan, chairman of the National Senior Secondary School Education Industry Union (All-China Education), said that the current system has long generated procedural imbalances and disputes that cannot be solved by partial law revision. If the trust of front-line teachers cannot be gained, school meetings should be abolished and a teacher incident handling mechanism that complies with the principle of proportionality and procedural justice should be re-established.

Shi Meihuan emphasized that teachers should accept reasonable supervision. Any violation of laws, inappropriate discipline, bullying, sexual equality or other major violations should be investigated in accordance with the law and held accountable. However, teachers should be supervised, which does not mean that the school meeting system is irreplaceable. From teaching methods, class management, parent-teacher communication to major violations, the nature is different and should not be handled with a high degree of investigative procedures.

Shi Meihuan pointed out that even if the case is not established in the final investigation, teachers may still go through a long investigation and waiting, and their professional dignity and trust between teachers and students may also be damaged. If teachers become more conservative in discipline, counseling and communication because they are worried about being reported, and form a defensive teaching style of "do less, make fewer mistakes, and do less well", in the end, students' rights to receive education and the quality of education will be affected.

Regarding the third-party mechanism, Quanzhong Education believes that cases should be assisted in the reasonable diversion of cases according to clear standards, rather than conducting substantive investigations or pre-determining teacher violations at the diversion stage. External investigators are responsible for interviews, fact-finding and investigation reports, and the results affect teachers' rights and interests. Once identification errors or procedural disputes occur, subsequent relief and litigation costs are mainly borne by the school and teachers, and powers and responsibilities should be consistent.

Quanzhong Education also believes that the reduction in the number of school council cases cannot mean that system problems have been improved. More attention should be paid to whether teachers have changed their teaching and discipline methods because of fear of being reported.

Shi Meihuan said that the Ministry of Education affirms that the Ministry of Education has provided a full exchange of opinions from different positions today. Although all parties have not reached a consensus on the existence of the school council meeting, they still hope that the Ministry of Education will incorporate the opinions on case diversion, procedural guarantees, parent-teacher communication and third-party mechanisms into subsequent revisions of the law, so that major violations can be held accountable in accordance with the law, general education disputes can be reasonably diverted, and education issues can be returned to the education profession.