Twenty-one years into his job as a village official, Jiang
Quanzhong said he is somewhat bewildered about how to lead the
villagers in the building of "new socialist countryside", a pillar
scheme in the country's blueprint for the coming five years.
Jiang is about to find the answer soon, as he has become one of
the first 400 village officials in southwest China's Sichuan Province to receive a systematic
training this week on village administration, Party building and
modern farming expertise.
The week-long training, given by university professors, senior
agronomists and exemplary village officials who have become role
models for their counterparts, is designed to qualify Jiang and
many other grassroots officials as bellwethers in a nationwide
campaign to lead the 900 million farmers toward wealth.
"I have never expected to enter a classroom again at age of 50,"
said Jiang, who only finished junior high school but works as
secretary of the Longwangmiao Village Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party (CPC). "It's come just in time to improve
myself and hopefully to be a help to my fellow villagers."
Jiang has chosen to study village planning, rural infrastructure
construction as well as modern expertise on livestock and poultry
breeding which he thinks necessary and effective means to help his
villagers become richer.
Altogether 50,000 grassroots officials in the province will
receive the week-long free training programs in the coming two
years, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Sichuan
Provincial Committee.
"Each session includes 40 hours of theoretical training and 16
hours of field work and discussion," said Wang Chuan, deputy head
of the department. "This is the first time for the province to
organize such a large-scale systematic training for village
officials."
Tang Yilu, a village official from Anyue County, has chosen to
study fruits planting because his village is known for its sweet
and juicy peaches, lemons and grapefruits. "I value this
opportunity and I hope I can learn some practical skills," he
said.
Amid nationwide efforts to build a new socialist countryside,
China's No. 1 village, Huaxi Village in the East China's Jiangsu
Province, has offered a free training program to grassroots
officials from across the country since April.
According to Wu Xie'en, secretary of CPC Huaxi village
committee, his village will spend 25 million yuan (US$3.1 million)
on training 10,000 village officials from other provinces and
regions in the coming five years, an effort to share with them
Huaxi's experience in getting rich.
"We will pay for all the trainees' accommodation and training
expenses. Our goal is to help more Chinese peasants get rich," said
Wu, whose fellow villagers gained an annual per capita income of
US$10,000 in 2005.
A latest survey of the Organization Department of the Sichuan
Provincial CPC committee shows about 62 percent of the village
heads in the province never went to college: 46 percent of them
received secondary education and 16 percent only finished study in
primary school.
"Many young and able people have been elected village officials
in recent years, but their poor education background often hinders
them from playing their role properly," said Li Ling, an associate
researcher with Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
"Adequate training will hopefully help them become able bellwethers
to lead the villagers toward wealth."
China's 900 million farmers living in 680,000 villages report an
average per capita annual income of 3,255 yuan (US$407) in 2005.
This is less than one third of the per capita disposable income for
the urban residents, which hit 10,493 yuan (US$1,312) last year,
according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The central government launched a campaign of building a "new
socialist countryside" early this year, aiming to help farmers
share in the country's prosperity.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2006)