"Double Reduction" Controversy: Where is the boundary of non-discipline training programs?
The "double reduction" policy divides off-campus training institutions in compulsory education into two categories: discipline and non-discipline. How to accurately distinguish who is who?
"On July 30th, the Ministry of Education issued a document clarifying the scope of two types of training. Even so, the boundary dispute between disciplines and non-disciplines still exists. " The WeChat public account of the Education Bureau of Wucheng District, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province recently published an article saying that most industries and parents are in a wait-and-see and anxious state, fearing that some training institutions will "scratch the ball" and sell dog meat, leading to the "double reduction" work becoming formalism. Jinhua City is the first pilot city of "double reduction" in Zhejiang Province, and Wucheng, as the main city of Jinhua, ran out of the service "acceleration" in the face of the "double reduction" landing problem.
On the morning of September 7th, Wucheng District carried out the first batch of appraisal and audit of non-discipline training projects, and conducted on-site audit of two fuzzy discipline training projects of "Young English Education", which was also the first time in the whole province.
Practice in Wucheng: Fuzzy discipline puzzled the expert group.
Among the disciplinary and non-disciplinary categories, the former is more restricted, and the supervision of financing, access, business and marketing has been tightened in an all-round way.
Wucheng District Education Bureau introduced this time. In the comprehensive investigation of more than 300 off-campus training institutions within its jurisdiction, the bureau found that some discipline training institutions want to seek transformation, but they are trapped in the ambiguity of the concept of non-discipline training programs and are in an embarrassing situation of confusion and anxiety. At the same time, parents also showed a state of hesitation at the beginning of the new semester, trying to expand their children’s comprehensive quality, but worried that they accidentally violated national policies.

To this end, Wucheng District made unified arrangements and took active actions. The Wucheng District Discipline Appraisal Committee was established under the leadership of the District Education Bureau, and an audit expert group was formed by discipline experts, industry experts and legal experts. The Notice on Doing a Good Job in Auditing and Confirming Non-discipline Training Projects of Off-campus Training Institutions in Wucheng District of Jinhua City was issued, and the Appraisal Standard for Non-discipline Training Projects of Off-campus Training Institutions in Compulsory Education in Wucheng District (Trial) was formulated and promulgated.
Wucheng District Discipline Appraisal Working Committee is headed by the Director of Education Bureau, and consists of 9 discipline appraisal expert groups of different classes and disciplines. After the training institution submits a written appraisal application and supporting materials to the District Education Bureau, the corresponding expert group will respond quickly, adhere to the principles of compliance, independence and scientificity, and conduct a comprehensive appraisal and audit of the fuzzy subject training program according to the actual training purpose, content, method and evaluation of the institution by reviewing the application materials, on-the-spot inspection of school running, and random survey of students and parents.
Chuying Education is the first off-campus training institution in Jinhua to apply for appraisal, and the first appraisal form of non-discipline training projects in Jinhua was produced in this appraisal. However, another appraisal application submitted by Chuying Education made the expert group difficult.
According to a report in Zhejiang Daily, Zhuang Zhengbiao, the head of Xiaoying Education Institution, said that after the "double reduction", the institution cancelled all disciplines and set up 18 non-discipline training programs in three categories: art, science and technology and sports. But scientific exploration — Whether the training contents of the two courses "Crazy Doctor" and "Oral Chinese Expression Training" overlap with the national curriculum standards, the team was still not sure after many discussions, so they applied to the Wucheng District Discipline Appraisal Expert Group for appraisal.
"After reviewing and judging, we believe that" Scientific Exploration — Although the knowledge points in the teaching content of Dr. Crazy are related to the textbook, they do not emphasize knowledge orientation and are not offered for exams. This course pays more attention to students’ practical operation, rather than focusing on test questions, explanations of knowledge points and repeated exercises. " Wu Xiangdong, head of the primary school science expert group, said that at the same time, the evaluation of students in this course is mainly based on the phenotypic evaluation mechanism, and it does not involve the contents related to academic and subject test scores.
In the end, three primary school science experts unanimously decided that this course was a non-disciplinary training program, and signed their names on the first appraisal conclusion sheet of non-disciplinary training program in Jinhua.
In contrast, because some of the contents involve subject elements, it is a bit troublesome to judge and judge Oral Chinese Expression Training.
Chen Zheng, head of the primary school Chinese expert group, said that it was still difficult to give an appraisal conclusion after he and two other experts repeatedly discussed and compared the policy documents. With a cautious attitude, the expert group decided to submit the case to the municipal discipline appraisal expert group for further appraisal.

The Paper noted that the Ministry of Education had previously issued the Notice on Further Defining the Scope of Off-campus Training in Compulsory Education, which required that ethics and the rule of law, Chinese, history, geography, mathematics, foreign languages (English, Japanese, Russian), physics, chemistry and biology should be managed according to the disciplines. The off-campus training for the learning content stipulated in the national curriculum standards of the above disciplines is included in the discipline category for management. However, sports (or sports and health), art (or music and fine arts) and comprehensive practical activities (including information technology education, labor and technical education) are managed according to non-disciplinary categories.
Just like the complicated case of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, it is a highly professional job to distinguish between discipline and non-discipline training, which is not simple in practice.
The Ministry of Education has asked all localities to organize relevant experts to make comprehensive judgments on various training programs according to their actual training purposes, training contents and training methods. If the training is essentially a specialized study of the subject-related contents of these nine disciplines, emphasizing the orientation of subject knowledge and serving the entrance examination, and unilaterally strengthening the skills training of listening, speaking, reading, writing and arithmetic in related disciplines, then it should be managed according to the subject category. In the next step, the Ministry of Education will further guide local governments to set up expert groups, conduct audits in strict accordance with national curriculum plans and standards, and strengthen the scientific and normative nature of this work.
Jinzhou, Liaoning Province: Before the results are unknown, you may not run schools according to non-discipline categories.
The Paper noted that in recent days, many areas of the country are promoting the identification of disciplines and non-disciplines.
For example, the news of the WeChat public account "Jinzhou Education" on September 7 showed that the Office of the Leading Group for "Double Reduction" in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province pointed out in the Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Examination and Confirmation of Non-discipline Training Projects of Off-campus Training Institutions in Jinzhou City that individual off-campus training institutions that are not clearly subject or non-discipline can submit the Application Form for Examination and Confirmation of Non-discipline Training of Off-campus Training Institutions and related supporting materials to the local education authorities to apply for examination and confirmation of non-discipline training content. At the city, county (city) and district levels, an off-campus education and training course review expert committee led by the education administrative department and attended by teaching and research personnel, subject experts and industry experts is established.Review the application materials submitted by off-campus training institutions, and if necessary, conduct on-site audit, and the audit results shall give a clear "discipline" or "non-discipline" conclusion.
It is worth mentioning that the "non-discipline scope" divided by Jinzhou City includes: sports (or sports and health), arts (or music and fine arts) and comprehensive practical activities (including information technology education, labor and technical education) which are managed according to non-discipline categories. Other learning contents, which are in line with the requirements of national laws and regulations and the laws of learners’ physical and mental development, are designed to enhance students’ core literacy through training, cultivate students’ hobbies, innovative spirit and practical ability, and serve students’ individualized and all-round development. Such training items are recognized as non-disciplinary training.
Jinzhou City "Double Reduction" Work Leading Group Office also stated that all training institutions should implement the main responsibility, review and judge the types of training services they implement, and actively carry out training activities in accordance with the relevant management requirements of disciplines or non-disciplines to ensure that external publicity is consistent with the actual training services.Before the results of the examination and confirmation of the training programs are not clear, the applicant institution may not run schools according to non-discipline categories.
On September 2nd, Tianjin Binhai New Area held a policy conference for off-campus education and training institutions. At the meeting, it was introduced that composition, reading, Chinese studies, new concepts, English stage plays and English picture books belong to one-sided strengthening of skills training in listening, speaking, reading, writing and calculation in related disciplines, so they belong to disciplines; Street dance, drama performance and speech eloquence belong to the non-disciplinary category of culture and art; Lego, programming and computer software belong to science and technology non-discipline category; Higher vocational education, postgraduate postgraduate entrance examination training, adult English and other training targets are people above the high school stage, which are not within the scope of the "double reduction" for primary and secondary school students and preschool children aged 3-6.
For others that are difficult to judge at the moment, the New District Education and Sports Bureau will organize relevant experts to make comprehensive judgments according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education.
In addition, the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, the Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the Civil Affairs Bureau recently jointly issued the Notice on Further Reducing the Off-campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education. This notice clarifies that all districts and counties have established an expert group to review and identify the training content of off-campus training institutions, and assist the district and county education administrative departments to carry out the identification of disciplinary and non-disciplinary institutions, the filing and supervision of training content. When disciplinary and non-disciplinary institutions are established, the expert group will identify the categories of off-campus training services in accordance with the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Further Defining the Scope of Disciplinary and Non-disciplinary Training in Compulsory Education, the Curriculum Guidelines for Comprehensive Practical Activities in Primary and Secondary Schools, and the national curriculum plan and curriculum standards for basic education.
In order to accurately distinguish the scope of off-campus training between disciplines and non-disciplines, Zhenjiang Education Bureau of Jiangsu Province also held a seminar on category identification of off-campus training projects on September 3.
Wang Jian, the leader in charge of the Education Bureau, put forward three requirements for the category identification of off-campus training programs: First, "study and study". Category identification requires in-depth study and study of policy documents, and a refined plan is formulated, which reflects the characteristics and highlights of Zhenjiang as a pilot city; The second is "knowing difficulties and not being afraid of difficulties." The responsible departments in all regions should stick to their original intentions, stick to the bottom line, dare to gnaw at the hard bones in the work of "double reduction", objectively and fairly implement the appraisal standards for off-campus training categories, and strengthen normalized supervision; The third is "think carefully and do it". The responsible departments in all regions should make scientific arrangements and steadily and orderly promote the examination, acceptance and transformation of training institutions.
























































