1964 to 1968 studied French in the French Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University.

1968 to 1970, exercising on the army farm;

1970 to 1979, Tianjin Branch of China International Travel Service as an interpreter. From 1973 to 1976, he worked in the Embassy of China in Chad;

1979 to 1983, as the third secretary and second secretary in the Cultural Section and Education Section of the French Embassy;

1983 served as director, deputy director, deputy director of the general office, director, deputy director and member of the party group in the State Education Commission and the Ministry of Education from 2005; Deputy Minister of Education and Deputy Secretary of the Party Group;

In June 2005, he was removed from the post of Deputy Minister of Education.

The severe criticism of the vice minister of education who was born in poverty not only made him a news figure, but also made the long-discussed problem of high fees for university education once again become the focus of national attention.

This is a poor student. When he was in high school, in order to save one yuan, he had to walk more than 80 kilometers from school to home every week. After four years in college, he lived on state grants.

He said: "People are not poor."

This is a senior official at the ministerial level. From translator to embassy officials abroad, from director to director, from director to deputy minister, Guanhai has been ups and downs for decades, and its nature has not changed. At the press conference, he violated the normal state of officialdom and criticized local governments, universities and banks by name.

This is also an honest and caring person. Seeing the embarrassment that poor college students have no money to go to school, he burst into tears. He said that there are indeed difficulties that cannot be solved. You can come to me. To this end, his office received two sacks of letters of help from students from all over the world.

However, when he saw a group of "public servants" banquet guests, he angrily wrote a poem: "All the guests in the seat are on the shore, and a group of chic people forced the window porch ... how can you know the blood when you are drunk, and you are chilling when you look at it coldly."

This man is Zhang Baoqing, Vice Minister of Education, who calls himself "about to retire". At 2: 00 p.m. on August 29th, when the new semester of colleges and universities started, the Ministry of Education held the 1 1 th press conference in 2005. Vice Minister Zhang Baoqing introduced the financial assistance for poor students from colleges and universities with the emphasis on national student loans.

One participant said that in the first 15 minutes, everything was no different from the usual press conference. First, Cui Bangyan, director of the Student Loan Center of the Ministry of Education, spoke for less than fifteen minutes, asking questions, stating achievements and encouraging local and relevant departments.

At about two twenty, Zhang Baoqing began to speak. To everyone's surprise, Zhang Taotao spoke for 45 minutes in a row, aiming at some local governments.

"The problem of subsidizing college students with difficulties is an old problem, but it is also a big one, which has not been satisfactorily solved so far ... I was very sad to hear a sentence on the Internet last year, that is, we are shouting empty words, putting on a show and implementing it."

"Some provincial party Committee leaders don't have the concept of excellent academic performance in their minds ... to build a big project, billions have gone out, and students with difficulties have come out for this reason and that reason. At present, eight provinces are inactive. We kept shouting, but he didn't move. Is he that hard to save? I don't think this is the problem. "

At 3: 05, Zhang Baoqing began to answer reporters' questions. Sensitive reporters immediately asked, which eight provinces did they just say?

"I can talk about eight provinces, namely Hainan, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Let me talk about Tianjin here. Their characteristic is that they haven't moved for years. Hainan didn't lend it, nor did Tianjin. It doesn't matter if you don't borrow it. If you have the courage, you can have some. If you don't order, I will order. " Zhang Baoqing said.

A reporter at the meeting said that at this time, Zhang seemed to be wanting more, or felt that he should say more, so the gun was once again aimed at some universities and banks. "I told the bank president that when there were no bad debts in the previous student loans, other bad debts were hundreds of billions of yuan. Why didn't you say so earlier? I said that these people seem to be very responsible for the country. If they really want to be so responsible, China's financial institutions will be great, how can they be today! "

"The result of my investigation is that unreasonable charges in primary and secondary schools are mainly from local governments. Remember this sentence. It is not the school that is charging, but the local government is forcing the school to charge. There is no way, what if you don't invest? "

"Colleges and universities have changed again. Unreasonable charges in colleges and universities are mainly the responsibility of colleges and universities, and college leaders are charging in disguise. " ……

This conversation, which was much longer than the regular press conference, was later interpreted by the media as "Zhang Baoqing was angry" and "the education department was forced to defend the central authority". Zhang himself is also known as "a minister with great personality" and "no official." However, as such a focus, when interviewed by CCTV and describing his feelings, he chose "anger", "anxiety" and "helplessness". He said his feelings were complicated.

Indeed, as the Vice Minister of Education who has been in charge of financial work and directly responsible for student loans for college students in the past six years, he has thought more about education in China, especially the charging of higher education and subsidizing poor students than anyone else.

According to the data, from the implementation of 1999 national student loan to June 2004, only 5.2 billion yuan was actually distributed in five years, and about 800,000 students in the country enjoyed the loan, which was far from the initial expectation of the relevant departments.

Based on this, in July 2004, the State Council forwarded "Several Opinions on Further Improving the Work of National Student Loan" and adjusted the original policy. However, statistics from the Ministry of Education show that in the 2004-2005 school year when the new mechanism was implemented, more than 650,000 students were newly approved for loans, and the approved contract amount was 510.50 billion yuan. Although great progress has been made, it is still far from the basic ideal goal of 65.438+0 billion yuan a year. Zhang Baoqing believes that when some banks undertake student loans for poor college students, there is a serious phenomenon of being too poor and loving the rich, which makes it difficult for some local colleges, especially higher vocational colleges, to solve the bidding problem of national student loans.

During the interview, the reporter learned that the main reason why banks are not enthusiastic about national student loans is that student loans are high in cost, high in risk and low in overall income.

In this regard, Zhang Baoqing has his own set of logic: "Is there a problem with the integrity of college students? Yes But I always see it this way. From a macro point of view, I can't get the answer that college students are dishonest. Because the earliest student loan began in 2000, the loan was 8 years, and the repayment period was 10 years. Repayment will not start until 2008. It's not 2008 yet. How can you say that college students are dishonest? To make an accurate judgment, we must wait until eight years later. Second, although there are problems among college students, on the whole, I don't believe that college students are the most dishonest group. Third, what if there are some bad debts? In the future, the national student loan will form four or five billion bad debts. So what? " Since criticizing eight provinces and cities by name on August 29th, Zhang Baoqing has quickly become the focus of the media and made frequent appearances. In fact, everyone in the education system knows that Zhang has long been known for daring to say and do, and this is his character. In addition, the age of "fast retirement" also makes him unscrupulous.

Zhang has a famous saying: "Students from poor families can find their own high school after receiving the university admission notice;" If high school can't solve it, you can find the local education administrative department; If the education administrative department can't solve it, it can be reflected to colleges and universities by charging; If the university can't solve it again, you can write to me! "

"On average, I receive at least 20 letters every day." Zhang Baoqing said, "I read every letter before I get off work every day." There are three ways to deal with it after reading it. First, for example, he suggested what we should do. We are seriously considering all these correct suggestions. Second, if it is effective after my approval, I will definitely approve it. For example, in some places, students from subordinate colleges or local universities write letters. As long as I know the main leaders of that province and I am familiar with them, I will give them what I can. "

"As for the letter from the students directly under the university, I will grant it to the secretary and principal of that school to reply whether it is possible. There is also a special situation. Some students asked that the letter should never be handed over to the local authorities for fear of retaliation. In this case, I asked my secretary to reply a short message and say, "I received your letter." "

Zhang Baoqing said that he misses these letters because they are the testimony of a difficult history: since the establishment of 1999 national student loan, he has received letters directly sent to him by poor college students almost every day. If he has time, he will choose to sit under the lamp at night and read and reply. Those sad stories and helpless help in the letter often make him cry, sigh and even angry, so that he can't sleep at night.

"We should do it with emotion," he said. "Our colleges and universities are doing ideological work and moral education all day. If the student has difficulties at home and no one takes care of him, he can't go to school. What ideological work can he do? "

"I have worked in the Ministry of Education for 267 years, and we must do things with our conscience."

Perhaps only those who know Zhang Baoqing know that what he said is true. He came from Zhenping, Henan Province, and was born in a poor child. He only finished his four-year education with a monthly grant from the state 18 yuan. 1960, poor Zhang Baoqing became the first high school student in the village-admitted to a county high school 85 miles away from home. In order to save one yuan, he finished two classes on Saturday afternoon and walked home.

"At that time, I was young and walked fast, but it took about five hours to walk 85 miles." Zhang said that as soon as you get home, you will bring enough food for a week.

In his poetry collection Bao, it is recorded that once, Zhang was trapped in school because of the heavy snow in deep winter and could not go home to bring food for next week. Just as he was worried about his life for a week, he saw his father covered in snow and said he had come to deliver sweet potatoes. When Zhang Baoqing heard the tears, his father and son hugged and cried.

Later, after Zhang Fafen was admitted to Beijing Foreign Studies University, he was deeply moved by this incident and wrote a poem: "The house is full of illness, and the white hair is kind to the snow valley."

It was at that time that he began to like ancient physique and calligraphy, two hobbies with traditional literati temperament, which he still enjoys. 200 1 published a collection of poems "Bao Yinqing", and calligraphy was also evaluated as "making the past serve the present, seeking the new and not flattering the vulgar".

Nowadays, Zhang Baoqing, as a vice minister, often recalls the sufferings decades ago, because in his view, sometimes poverty is also a kind of wealth-it inspires his motivation to study and makes him top in high school.

Because of his poor family background and good study, he is very popular with tian teacher, the head teacher, and often gives him some steamed bread, meat and vegetables.

However, a small incident in the last semester of senior three almost made Zhang Baoqing rewrite his life track. There is a simple reason. I lost my wallet at the dinner table with a female classmate. It is said that there is more than RMB 100 in it. Later, when a vice monitor was ordered to investigate this matter, he identified Zhang Baoqing as the culprit, mainly because he was too poor to eat even sweet potato noodles and steamed bread. Recently, I secretly ate steamed bread and meat dishes every Wednesday night (reporter's note: this was given privately by tian teacher).

A scholar can be killed but not humiliated! Angry Zhang Baoqing rushed forward, knocked the vice monitor to the ground and left the school angrily. On the third day of the incident, the female classmate's wallet was found. The school gave Zhang Baoqing a great punishment and agreed to continue his education.

What moved Zhang Baoqing inexplicably was that he was still sleeping on a deep winter night. Tian teacher, whose eyebrows and beard were covered with frosty flowers, came to the door and advised him to go back to school. He survived the setback with his right-wing experience education.

Perhaps, from then on, young Zhang Baoqing began to realize the hardships of this world. Poverty not only gave him motivation, but also made him have a unique feeling for poor students.

"In my mind, student loans are even bigger than the sky." He said.