Elderly education faces a gap and "lifelong education" has unlimited potential
2021-12-08
[practical challenges] the "new and old" group is willing to increase investment in cultivating interests and cultivating sentiment. The University for the elderly is often "hard to find", and the education for the elderly is facing a gap [countermeasures] the State Council proposed to build a National University for the elderly, which is expected to carry out online education; Promote the opening of "internal" universities for the elderly to the society Recently, the opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on strengthening the work on aging in the new era was released, which proposed to prepare for the establishment of a National University for the elderly, and promote the opening of universities for the elderly organized by departments, industry enterprises and universities to the society. As soon as the news came out, the discussion on the social networking platform exploded: there are young people who are looking forward to sending their parents to school, and there are old friends who are looking forward to going to school themselves; The post-90s also come to join the fun, hoping to prepare for the life of the elderly in advance; There are also old friends who look forward to continuing to shine and heat after retirement, so as to add fun to the lives of other old friends. National University for the elderly is expected to develop online courses Today, more and more elderly friends have become "new elderly" groups with money and leisure. They are no longer simply satisfied with "having a sense of security for the elderly", but pursue "learning for the elderly" and "having fun for the elderly". The opinions issued in November attracted special attention in "promoting the social participation of the elderly": integrate the elderly education into the lifelong education system, and encourage qualified colleges and universities to set up majors and courses related to elderly education; Relying on the National Open University to build a National University for the elderly and build a national platform for the sharing of elderly education resources and public services; We will promote the opening up of universities for the elderly run by government departments to the society. It is understood that the National Open University is a new type of higher education institution directly under the Ministry of education, which is based on lifelong learning, supported by modern information technology, characterized by "Internet plus", and is open to the whole country. The predecessor of the National Open University is the Central Radio and Television University initiated and approved by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. In 2012, it was renamed the National Open University. In 2020, the Party group of the Ministry of education deliberated and approved the comprehensive reform plan of the National Open University, requiring it to build the main platform for lifelong education, online education, flexible education and foreign cooperation in China. "Lifelong education" has become the key word of this university. In recent years, with the development of online education, the Internet has become a new way for elderly friends to learn. In the future, the learning classroom of the University for the elderly will not be limited to offline. What do universities for the elderly teach? The curriculum is far more rich than imagination Many people have the impression that China's elderly friends should enjoy their grandchildren, raise dogs, tease cats and dance square dance... But now Chinese elderly friends have learned a variety of new skills in the blooming universities for the elderly, from "technical residence" to "fashion style", belly dance classes, accordion classes and smart phone training classes... They have passed various characteristic courses, Have a cool old life. In 1983, China founded the first university for the elderly - Shandong Red Cross University for the elderly. Since then, Harbin University for the elderly has been established one after another, and universities for the elderly began to rise everywhere. The curriculum of universities for the elderly is becoming more and more colorful, and there are far more teaching projects than expected. For example, Huai'an senior university in Jiangsu Province, which was founded in 1989, now has 10 colleges and offers 55 courses: Piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, playing, singing, playing with smart phones, being able to speak tourism English... These senior university courses are all over the Internet. A senior university in Xi'an opened a makeup class, attracting many aunts to sign up. The oldest student in the class is in his 70s. A university for the elderly in Nanjing offers smart phone courses. The oldest old man is 94 years old. Students are very ignorant of mobile phones at the beginning, and now they can basically operate them. In November this year, Shanghai also announced that it would launch the "doubling plan" of universities for the elderly, encourage each district to build a new university for the elderly with the goal of "digitization and characterization", build 100 elderly smart learning scenes, create 100 elderly smart learning brands, and carry out the training of 1000 backbone teachers of helping the elderly smart learning by 2025. In addition, the rise of community elderly education services has also improved the accessibility of elderly friends to educational resources. The education department has determined 180 national community education experimental and demonstration areas in stages and batches, of which four-level education networks have been established in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. Today's elderly education is diversified oriented, and the content has changed from the past mainly focusing on leisure and entertainment such as painting, photography, opera and fitness to knowledge and skills such as financial management, digital technology and computer network. After the epidemic, elderly friends gradually learn to use wechat and other apps. These changes make online elderly education a new favorite. A large number of start-ups such as elderly housekeepers have concentrated in the field of online elderly education to enrich the elderly education market. Insufficient financial resources, there is still a gap in elderly education Nowadays, the pension consumption of Chinese people has changed from life necessity to development, participation and enjoyment. The "new elderly" group is willing to increase investment in cultivating interests and hobbies and cultivating sentiment, resulting in "a difficult University for the elderly". There are often old friends who can't be listed, and there is an urgent need for the participation of love forces from all walks of life to meet the education supply of old friends. According to the data of the seventh national census, China's population aged 60 and over is 264.02 million, accounting for 18.7% of the total population, of which the population aged 65 and over is 190.64 million, accounting for 13.5% of the total population. According to the statistics of the national office for aging, there are 70951 universities for the elderly in China (excluding distance education institutions), with 10.882 million elderly students (excluding online students). Compared with the large-scale elderly population and the vigorous demand for elderly education, the education and training courses in Universities for the elderly are still in short supply. So what are the main reasons for the gap in Universities for the elderly? The person in charge of a university for the elderly in Beijing once said that half of the expenses of the university depend on financial allocation, and the tuition of 300 yuan a semester for a course is not enough to cover the cost. Many neighborhood universities for the elderly are tuition free and belong to public welfare undertakings. In addition to the problem of funds, there are still some problems in China's elderly education, such as insufficient supply of resources, imperfect policy system, backward concept of lifelong education, lack of professionals in elderly education, unbalanced development between urban and rural areas, imperfect fund guarantee mechanism, insufficient coordination of departments, insufficient participation of social forces and so on. Therefore, the elderly education needs to change from relying solely on the investment of government departments to the joint construction of government departments, social organizations and market institutions. At present, some cities have begun new exploration. For example, Jiangbei District of Ningbo explored to expand the supply of elderly education, issued the implementation measures on the development of elderly education in Jiangbei, and established a District Street (town) - Community (Village) three-level elderly education network system. For another example, Shanxi University for the elderly has jointly established five branches and one teaching point with government departments, communities and colleges and universities. I believe that with the promotion of relevant policies, more cities and social loving forces will participate in the construction of elderly education, develop the silver economy, help "provide for the elderly" and "enjoy the elderly", and create a new picture of digital life for the elderly. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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