results.
Henan
is the province with the biggest rural population, where
literacy education has been an important work of every
government. From the early 1990s, the provincial government
has regarded illiteracy elimination among young and middle-aged
people as a basis for implementing the strategy of rejuvenating
Henan through education and progresses in science and
technology and listed it in its plans for social and economic
development. In poverty-stricken counties, the fact that
there is a big illiterate population, of which women constitute
a big proportion, poses the most daunting problem. Local
education departments and women's associations compiled
women-oriented literacy materials covering offspring education,
sanitation and personal health and household management.
For middle-aged women with heavy child-rearing and homemaking
burdens, teaching was provided in their homes. Up to now,
the province has basically eliminated illiteracy among
young and middle-aged people, a goal set by the state.
The anti-illiteracy
campaign sweeping across the country is regarded as a
revolution in China's cultural field. During 1949-1998,
illiteracy was eliminated for a total of 203 million people,
the illiteracy rate among adults dropped from more than
80 percent to below 15 percent, |
|
and
that among young and middle-aged people to below 5 percent.
In the 1990s, anti-illiteracy campaigns were not confined
to bringing simple literacy and arithmetic ability to
the illiterate. Literacy classes also provided training
for practical skills, citizen education and social education.
More than 80 percent of counties and more than 40 percent
of administrative villages throughout the country have
set up rural technical training schools for adults. They
form a three-tier (county, township and village) rural
training network for adults. By the year 2000, illiteracy
rate among young and middle-aged people in 23 provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
central government had dropped below 5 percent, achieving
the state-set goal for the present stage. All-China Women's
Federation and a dozen administrative areas including
Jilin, Heilongjiang, Hunan, Xinjiang and Ningxia have
won international literacy prizes from the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Although
we have made great achievements in illiteracy elimination,
the work is still very tough. By the end of 2002, there
were still 85 million illiterates, and 55 million were
women. The emphasis of illiteracy elimination during the
"Tenth Five-Year Plan" is the illiterate education
in depressed areas, minority areas and to women. |
