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Flocking to adult education
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Han Ximin
FOR most people, February 17 was a very ordinary day. But not for Huang Weilan, secretary of the Xiasha Village Committee of the CPC. He got up early and drove to the headquarters of the Futian District Committee, in the company of 10 men from the village. They made the journey with a special mission in mind: to attend the modern enterprise management training programme provided by the district committee.
On the first day of the new semester in the Futian District Party School last weekend, nearly 1,000 adult students swarmed into the 12 classrooms, abandoning weekend leisure.
Zhao Guirong, a 50-year-old woman, is a manager in Shixia Village. She shared a school desk with her daughter. Considered the most diligent students by their classmates, they will graduate at the end of this semester. Over the past two years, no matter how busy and tired they were, they came to the school on time. Zhao was not good at math and had to hire a tutor to make up for her lessons. Following her example, twelve of her fellow villagers have applied to study in the school.
"I missed my chance for education when I was younger. Hopefully this training will add to my competitiveness in society," said Zhao at an interview yesterday.
According to Ding Jianlin of the school's training department, most attendants have had little formal education. They felt it necessary to acquire degrees in this competitive world. Zhang Mingxi was a graduate from an engineering university. He applied to study economic management. In his view, more skills and a better education background lead to better job opportunities.
The party school attracted villagers, employees from enterprises and institutions not only in Futian District, but also from neighbouring districts. It has offered administration, law, management and accounting academic courses since 1996. It opened postgraduate programmes in co-operation with Jilin University. Over 600 students have graduated in the past five years.
The classes, though, cannot hope to meet the demand for training courses. Qin Guangtao, president of the school, said he is planning to establish Futian TV University this year and strive to turn the spare-time university into a modern community university.
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