Adult Education in China: Policies and Practice in the 1980s

Since the beginning of the 1980s, a comprehensive system of adult education has been established in China to meet the requirements of rapid socioeconomic development. This article gives a description of this system. The main measures taken by governments at various levels were making elementary education available in all rural areas to stem the number of new illiterates; focusing adult literacy work on the 12 to 45 age group; and utilizing various methods, including vocational training, to consolidate the newly literate. Experience has shown that, in rural areas, the most effective way to promote adult education is that the three major components of rural education—elementary, vocational, and adult—be conducted in a coordinated manner. In urban areas, emphasis was given to providing on‐the‐job training designed to improve professional knowledge and skills of those employees in industries experiencing fast technological advancement. Retraining for those whose jobs were eliminated by poorly performing public enterprises has become an urgent need. Although there were great achievements during the 1980s, many problems still exist. Improving quality of teaching, modifying curriculum to meet the needs of local development, providing short‐term agricultural‐technical training in rural areas, offering retraining for the unemployed, and mobilizing financial resources from all sectors of the society are among the measures which the Chinese government has taken in the 1990s to further develop its adult education system.