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Experts Say Rural People Need More Training
China should intensify effort to train its rural population in the coming years, said experts who were participating in an international seminar on the results of the recent agricultural centers.
There is a surplus of rural labor, but the number of highly skilled rural laborers is very small, they said.
The nationwide census on agriculture, which began in 1997 and concluded recently, says that 14 percent of the countryside population was found to be illiterate or semi-literate, while those who had graduated from senior high school and special secondary school accounted for only 5.9 percent, according to Wednesday's Chinadaily.
By the end of 1996, the total number of rural laborers had reached 561.5 million, a number that represents 64.3 percent of the total rural population, the paper said.
"Although most employed people in rural areas were engaged in agricultural activities, people engaged in non-agricultural activities took up 24.3 percent of the total," said Zhu Xiangdong, an official with the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Chinese Government has been paying attention to the issue of surplus rural laborers, Zhu said.
"The development of small towns has been considered by government officials and experts as an important measure to solve the issue of this large population of rural laborers," Zhu said.
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