Energetically Developing Vocational and Adult Education to Train a Large Number of Qualified Workers and Skilled personnel with Elementary and Intermediate Qualifications, with Special Emphasis on Rendering Services to Rural and Agricultural Development.

36. In accordance with the provisions of the Education Law and the Vocational Education Law, should strive to establish an education system fitting in with our national conditions to link up pre-service £¨initial£© and in-service £¨post-experience£© training, so that vocational training at the rudimentary, secondary and tertiary levels are dovetailed with each other and effect proper linkages with regular schooling and adult education in a harmonious way. A special fund for promoting and implementing the plan of curricular reforms and teaching material development in vocational education will be instituted. Relying on the support of regular HEIs and tertiary vocational institutions, high priority will be given to the development of 50 bases for training vocational teachers and instructors of practical skills. Local governments should also strengthen the construction of vocational teachers' training bases.

We will continue to divert a significant part of lower secondary school graduates to vocational programs, and accordingly, we will energetically develop secondary vocational education in the light of local conditions. The current ratio between vocational and general education enrollment at the upper secondary level should be kept while striving to attain the goals set by the Guidelines for the Reform and Development of Education in China. In the small number of disadvantaged areas where nine-year compulsory education is yet to be universalized, vocational and technical training should be provided for primary school graduates who cannot continue their education in secondary schools£® In areas where the structure of upper secondary education is basically rational, vocational education should focus its efforts on improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of educational programs. Comprehensive upper secondary schools may be developed in economically developed areas to postpone streaming until the final year £¨Grade 12£©£® Scientific forecasting of manpower needs should be conducted through studying societal demands on secondary vocational training. Vocational education and training of various forms and lengths should be provided to newly employed people in observance of the principle "pre-service training before taking up a job." The structure of curriculum and the provision of education programs £¨specialties£©should be reformed£®A more flexible system of course offerings including electives should be adopted to enable students to become more adaptable to changes in the industrial structure and the labor market. In various localities efforts should be made to run well a selected number of vocational institutions enjoying high credibility in society.

37. Adult education should focus on job-related training and continuing education. Through the institution of the modern enterprise system and the system of vocational qualification certificates more flexible and diverse forms of education and training should be provided , so that people who have been laid off or are to be transferred to other jobs may receive vocational training or regular schooling of various levels and durations to facilitate their reemployment£® Efforts should be made to set up norms and standards for such training, that is, to institutionalize such training. We should actively conduct in-service training for personnel engaged in business administration and financial management of enterprises. We should promote cooperation between enterprises, educational institutions, and sectoral governmental agencies. Pilot projects on community education will be conducted so as to gradually develop a lifelong learning system in an endeavor to enhance the quality of the whole nation.

We should strengthen the continuing education of professional and technical personnel in the light of the trends of development of various fields of study, professions and industrial sectors. We should strive to initiate a system of integrating the functions of education, assessment and utilization of staff, and we will institute a special fund to promote the development of continuing education bases and networks. Besides, the training of civil servants needs be strengthened by developing a sound mechanism for such training so as to develop a contingent of highly qualified and professional administrators of state affairs.

38. We should intensify our efforts in reforming the system of educational provision, the system of management and the mechanism of operation in the fields of vocational and adult education, as well as in reforming the system of enrollment and the system of job placement of graduates. Responding to the institution and development of a socialist market economy, NGOs and individual citizens are encouraged to run institutions of vocational and adult education of diverse forms under the general guidance of the government£®In the further development of vocational and adult education it is desirable to promote collaboration between schools and industry, to adjust the geographical distribution of schools, to optimize the allocation of resources, to strengthen education in entrepreneur ship and in professional ethics, to adopt a more flexible mode of educational delivery , and to strive to develop unique institutional features so as to better serve the needs of local economic and social development.

We should conscientiously act in the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Fifteenth Central Committee of CPC, conduct in-depth rural educational reforms characterized by close colk6oration between departments of agriculture , science and technology and education and by taking an integrated approach to the development of various types of education so as to promote the harmonious and coordinated development of general education, adult education and vocational education in rural areas and to give full scope to the positive role of rural education in rural modernization. The elimination of illiteracy should be combined with the training of practical skills in rural areas in an effort to consolidate the gains of literacy education and to help people get rid of poverty. Steps should be taken in the next 3 to 5 years to enable people who have completed wholly or part of compulsory schooling in most rural areas to have access to certain forms of technical training , including training for the "Green Certificate", before or after they start their careers. Such training hasbeen conceived tO enable the trainees to master one or two practical skills for getting prosperous through production and adapt to the needs of rural economic development£® It is especially desirable to use diverse modes of education and training to prepare an adequate number of appropriately trained technical and managerial personnel for upgrading township enterprises and rural industries.