This final report contains the proceedings and other materials from a workshop to provide training experience in literacy follow-up materials development to participants from UNESCO member states in the Asia and Pacific region. Focus is on practical agricultural training for adults. The proceedings discuss the objectives of the workshop and…

This paper describes a new program in the Western provinces of China (Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia) that is designed to integrate 20,000 children with low-vision into general education classrooms. The Golden Key Research Center of Education for Visually Impaired has been working with the…

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…

Stressing the application of progressive thought as a possible innovation toward development in developing countries, the paper discusses three major educational philosophies: romanticism, cultural transmission, and progressivisim (emphasizing the cognitive-developmental theory). Educational innovation and strategies for reform in the Soviet Union…

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 report addresses the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) goals for activities related to the development of education in rural areas. Studies were conducted in China, the Philippines, Tanzania, Yugoslavia, Botswana, and Sierra Leone. The first section deals with the analytical study of information on…

A study examining the role of metropolitan and rural medical schools in the provision of rural physicians surveyed 12 metropolitan and 10 rural medical schools in China. All rural medical schools produced rural physicians; one rural school reported 88 graduates entered rural practice. Two metropolitan medical schools produced 73 rural physicians,…

Analyzes household and school survey data from poor counties in six Chinese provinces to examine the effects of poverty, intra-household decision-making, and school quality on educational investments and learning outcomes. Finds, for example, that being poor and credit-constrained does not significantly affect learning in school (as measured by…

Examines the social construction of literacy in China after the Communist revolution, demonstrating that official literacy ideologies contributed to the formation and reproduction of rural-urban differences in Chinese society. Suggests that the spread of literacy potentially can contribute to greater and more elaborate social divisions. (24…

The population of migrants moving within China's borders has reached some 80 million, including 2-3 million school-aged children. As migrant workers flock to cities, their children strain urban school systems or receive no education. But independent schools for migrants are illegal and substandard. In some rural provinces, vocational training may…

Describes the Chinese plan for eliminating adult illiteracy in rural areas. Program planning, implementation and evaluation procedures, as well as administrative organization, program funding, and teacher training are discussed. (AM)

Through a case study of China (Guangdong Province) the author examines the problem of "diploma disease" in developing nations. "Diploma disease" is the students' desire for the paper credentials of academic education that insure employability. This desire can frustrate government efforts to promote alternate vocational…

Paper illustrates how a prominent Chinese educator (and former student of John Dewey) experimented with Dewey's philosophy in Chinese teacher education, creating a normal school in rural China that prepared rural teachers, enhanced village renewal, encouraged school-community relationships, and met China's unique challenges and needs. (SM)

Against a backdrop of educational decentralization and market transition, China demonstrates how local community resources condition educational inequality. Analysis of 1992 national survey data on 7,550 villages and nearly 78,000 rural children aged 12-14 revealed that household income, village income, and village provision of junior high schools…