Due to imbalanced social and economic development, education in poverty-stricken rural areas in China is lagging behind that of urban areas. The current study explores the role of the nonprofit organizations (NPOs) involved in rural compulsory education promotion. Results show that the NPOs are providing a variety of programs to promote rural…

Based on one of the most widely used datasets by foreign-based sociologists, this paper examines the rate of returns to education in rural China. Compared with the previous studies that showed rather low rates in rural areas throughout the 1980s, this study finds a considerably higher rate in 1996. A chief contributor is the rapid non-agricultural…

Describes the role of education in the development of the economy of a village in Sichuan province. Uses the planning employed by this village as a model and furnishes examples of specific steps taken to confront multiple problems in providing education for growth and economic development. (NL)

Proposes that education reform serve economic development. Claims that rural education must provide necessary training to meet local economic conditions and further modernization efforts. Calls for policy adjustment, additional investment, and the utilization of new research in science and technology. (NL)

Claims scientific and technical education is the key factor in further development of village enterprises and notes that present "one-directional" education causes migration of rural youth to urban areas. Opposes this system's emphasis on providing students with goals of higher education rather than of agricultural or vocational…

Examines the ongoing rural transformation in China in relation to agricultural reforms and the implementation of changing rural educational policies. Compares the Chinese decentralized approach to rural education, involving two-way rural-urban linkages and other alternative networks, to the American extension system. 21 references. (SV)

China's official history maintains that the radical egalitarianism of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) led to economic disaster. This book challenges that view. Drawing on local interviews and records in rural Jimo County, Shandong Province, this study contends that the Cultural Revolution's political convulsions democratized village political…

Traces the histories of rural education and rural technology in four countries. Suggests that the economic function of education is the transmission of technologically relevant skills, and that technologically appropriate curricula are a necessary part of economic development policy. 30 references. (SV)

This case study examines the interaction between basic education (primary education, adult literacy, and nonformal adult education) and economic development needs in rural Zhuji County, Zhejiang Province, located in southeast China. In Zhuji, parents traditionally have endured hardships to send their children to school and otherwise encouraged…

Claims millions of middle school graduates are unable to assist in meeting the nation's needs in economic development. States that educational and the economic sectors are not working together to solve the urgent task facing rural education. Provides plan for curriculum development with the stress on vocational education. (NL)

In rural China, the reform movement's goal was to universalize basic education by making education more compatible with local needs. This meant decentralizing school authority to increase local governments' involvement in school administration and revising curriculum content to increase schools' relevancy to specific communities' future economic…

This issue of the Courier contains articles loosely connected to each other by the underlying theme of developing people's capacity to improve the quality of their lives. The following articles are included: "Development of Human Resources--A Basic Needs Approach," by Mohiuddin Ahmad; "Rural Poverty," by the United Nations Food…

Begun in the early 1990s, The Skills-Based Literacy Programme for Women aims to improve the lives of rural Chinese women by linking literacy education with skills training in agriculture and other forms of income generation. Xuan Wei County, Yunnan Province, was chosen as the seat of the project because of high female illiteracy rates and the need…

One hundred years of rural development in India is surveyed, tracing the impact of colonial administration up to and including the decades of independence--an administration built on elitism, centralism, and paternalism. Four major rural problems of famine, abuses of land tenure, peasant indebtedness, and rural disaffection and how political…

This report was based on the author's study in China in 1980-81 and on the findings of other observers, Chinese data, and analyses of the post-Mao adult education system (1977-1982). It focuses particularly on the shifts in adult education priorities and programs and on the political and pedagogical debates. (SSH)