02/18/2003
China Daily: Guo zi

The first Report on China's Education and Human Resources was issued by the Ministry of Education on Thursday. Giving insightful analysis of the country's education and human-resources situation and providing foresighted strategic suggestions for future development, the report is significant as China speeds up its progress towards modernization course and builds a xiaokang or overall well-off society.

China is the most populous country in the world. How its heavy population burden can be turned into an advantageous human-resources situation has been a vital issue that has attracted widespread attention.

Yet the current situation of China's human resources is still not a cause for optimism: the overall quality of its people is relatively low and there is a lack of high-level specialized personnel. The quality of its labour force cannot meet the need of rapid industrial development and productivity improvements. And there is a big gap in the education received by the urban and rural populations.

To turn the populous country to a powerful nation rich in human resources, experts working on the report proposed a series of measures, such as implementing the nine-year compulsory education nationwide to improve the people's overall quality, strengthening senior secondary school education and vocational school education to upgrade the quality of the labour force, developing higher education to cultivate a great number of top-notch innovative personnel and building up a national system of lifelong education to improve the people's quality in a sustainable way.

The report is also the first to introduce education and human-resources development indexes.

At a time when most countries regard the development of education and human resources as a major part of the economy's sustainable growth and a key element of strengthening the nation's comprehensive strength, the introduction of the index system in China is timely.

Coming shortly before the 10th National People's Congress due to be held in March, the report will surely give the State's lawmakers a comprehensive understanding of the country's education and human-resources situation.