Fengtai District in Beijing Strengthens Teacher Management, Implements Exit Mechanism
Recently, the 2024 work meeting of the Beijing Fengtai Education Development Council was held to discuss the “Several Measures on Promoting the Management Reform of “District-Managed and School-Recruitment” of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in Fengtai District”. It was proposed at the meeting that the district will be strengthening the management of teachers in 2024, using annual assessments and assessment results to explore the establishment of a teacher exit mechanism.
The main objective of implementing the teacher withdrawal mechanism is to break the “iron rice bowl” of teachers, prevent individual teachers from lying flat, and eliminate irresponsible teachers from the teaching team. However, experts have cautioned that the implementation of this mechanism should be done carefully to avoid increasing teachers’ sense of professional burnout or exacerbating their assessment burden.
The new regulations state that for teachers in Fengtai District who fail the annual assessment during the employment period, the school may not renew their employment, or reduce their job grade or adjust their employment after the end of the employment period. For those who disobey organizational arrangements or still fail the annual assessment after being assigned to a new position, the school may terminate the employment contract according to prescribed procedures.
The exploration of teacher exit mechanisms is not limited to Fengtai District. Several places in China, including Ningxia, Jiangbei New District in Nanjing, and Guiyang, have established their own teacher withdrawal mechanisms with varying approaches, including job change, on-the-job training, and dismissal as the main channels.
Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, has emphasized the importance of taking into account the potential consequences of implementing this exit mechanism. He highlighted the need to avoid increasing teachers’ professional burnout, exacerbating their assessment burden, and making basic education more utilitarian. Xiong Bingqi suggested that the assessment and evaluation system for teachers must be reformed, emphasizing the importance of professional peer evaluation of teachers and the establishment of a teacher committee and a teacher professional community independent of the administrative department to evaluate teachers’ teaching abilities and contributions.
The “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of Teacher Team Construction in the New Era” issued in 2018 clarified the particularly important status of teachers and established the special legal status of teachers in public primary and secondary schools as national public servants.
As Fengtai District moves forward with the implementation of the teacher exit mechanism, it remains to be seen how the careful balance between teacher assessment and professional development will be achieved to ensure the high quality of education and teaching in the district.