Decision: Reform in Adult Education (1987)

Abstract

Abstract Promoting adult education is a human resources development with short cycles and quick effects and that calls for a certain amount of funds and investment. Starting this year, adult education will be included in the state budget for revenues and expenditures as an additional item. When making arrangement for education expenditures, local financial departments should also incorporate funds needed for adult education in their budgets and allow the funds to increase as the economy moves forward and regular revenues grow. Enterprises should disburse funds needed for employee education according to a prescribed ratio. In addition, shortfalls can be made up in the following ways: Expenses for technological training involving the development of new technology or research on new products may be disbursed directly as a part of the production cost; expenses for staff training may be disbursed from the retained percentage of profit, surplus from block-grant expenditures, and after-tax profit; training expenses for projects of technological development, introduction of foreign technology, and technological innovation, or projects of optimizing the service of certain products (including expenses for sending employees abroad for advanced training) may be disbursed from the project funding itself. Funds for staff education in enterprises should be handled and disposed of by its educational division under the supervision of financial departments. If there is surplus in the funding that cannot be spent in the same year, the surplus can be carried over to the next year. For small-sized enterprises that cannot afford to offer staff education on their own and enterprises that do not run staff education programs efficiently, the departments in charge can set up concentrated staff education facilities and support such facilities with funds taken from respective staff education expenditures. When planning for either urban community construction or newly built enterprises in the future, we should, at the same time, plan for the construction of basic facilities for adult education and incorporate such projects in the investment plan for infrastructure investment projects. The various ministries and regions should set up a few key adult education bases that are better equipped and of a higher quality. In the area of peasant education, expenses that involve eliminating illiteracy, training of teachers, compiling of textbooks, exchange of experience, activities, and so forth, should all be disbursed from educational expenditures by education departments at different levels. Funds for county-run peasants' secondary specialized schools and peasants technical schools of different specialties and types should be raised by the county people's governments under unified arrangements and according to their respective financial strengths. The departments concerned, however, should lend the local governments certain financial aid. Funds for peasants' cultural and technical schools run by townships (towns) can be drawn as a certain percentage from the rural education surcharge, pooling funds from the people, collecting tuition fees, or launching work-study programs.