Study On The Implementation Of The Policy Of "Private To Public" In Compulsory Junior High School In Shandong Province

The "public schools participate in organising private schools" form of schooling has,during a specific historical period,expanded quality educational resources,eased the pressure on local finances,developed special education and made a historic contribution to the rapid development of education.However,at the same time,it also induced conflicts and problems that aggravated educational injustice,increased the financial burden of parents and caused new social anxiety.In July 2021,the Ministry of Education and eight other departments jointly issued the"Notice on Improving the Form of Such Schools",which proposed three paths for how such schools could be rectified:"convert to public schools","achieve independence in six areas"and terminate the operation of schools This study first explains the reasons for the policy.This study begins by describing the background to the policy and analyses the types and characteristics of schools in which "public schools are involved in organising private schools"and the social problems they cause.Based on the Smith Model of Policy Implementation and Educational Equity Theory,this study focuses on the current status of policy implementation at the junior secondary level of compulsory education in Shandong Province.As well as the initial results of the pilot implementation of the policy,the management of teacher staffing in the converted schools has become more standardised,and the burden and anxiety of parents has been reduced,which in turn has contributed to the equity of compulsory education.At the same time,the implementation process of the policy in Shandong Province has faced some problems that cannot be ignored.The policy aims to take about two years to rationalise the mechanism and system and to achieve a smooth transition for the converted schools.However,it involves the coordination and cooperation of the government,schools,society and parents,and in the process there are problems such as the uneven distribution of teacher staffing and teacher turnover,the financial pressure caused by the reduction of tuition fees,and the difficulty of balancing the interests of all parties due to the incompatibility of public and private school policies.This study analyses several types of problems in the implementation of the policy on the conversion of private schools into public schools in Shandong Province,and analyses the causes of the problems in the implementation of the policy in terms of the idealised policy,the implementing agency,the target group and the environmental factors,in conjunction with the Smith Policy Implementation Model.The target groups’ inaction due to economic interests,the implementing agencies’ deviations in policy implementation weakened policy implementation,the public opinion trend influenced the environmental factors of policy implementation,and the pressure of local financial resources affected the effectiveness of policy implementation.Finally,in view of the problems that have arisen in the implementation of the current policy of "transferring private schools to public schools" at the compulsory junior high school level in Shandong Province,the policy recommendations of this study are:on the one hand,to improve the policy of teacher protection internally and strengthen the government’s purchase of services.On the other hand,the grouping of schools to ensure the quality of teaching and learning,the strict control of the interface between public and private schools,and the optimisation of the implementation environment to protect the legitimate interests of all parties.