Role of Literacy

Study of the Role of Literacy in Economic Development in Contemporary China

Abstract

As a developing country with the longest history in the world, China has a very big population accounting for one fifth of the world total. According to the statistics of the 1% sampling national census released by China National Bureau of Statistics in 2005, there were 1.3 billion people in China, excluding the population of Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province. Of the national total population in China, 51.53% were male and 48.47 were female, with the gender ratio as 106.3:100. As to distribution, 4299% of the population lived in urban areas while 5701 in rural areas. In terms of age group, 20.27% of the population were citizens aging between 0-14, 68.70% between 15-59, and 11.03% above 60.1 China is a unified ethnically plural country. Based on surveys and identification, the Chinese government has ascertained that there are 56 nationalities in China. Compared with the Han nationality, the rest 55 nationalities are much smaller in population size, so they are habitually called "ethnic minorities".

Table of Conents

Abstract2

Chapter I: Introduction1

Chapter II: Literature Review3

Situation of Educational Development3

Basic Policy, System and Development of Adult6

Access to Education: Basic Right of Citizens7

The access to education is the basic right of citizens7

Energetic development of adult education is an important policy for the educational development of China7

The construction of a learning-based society should be promoted actively8

Adult Literacy Education9

Obvious Decrease of Total Number of Illiterates and Illiteracy Rate9

Elimination of Illiteracy Is the Duty of the Government11

Doing a Good Job to Enroll School-aged Children and Consolidate the Result of New Literate People12

Improvement of Literacy Teaching for Enhancing the Quality of Literacy Education13

Close Combination of Literacy Education and Skills of Production and Life15

Training of More Qualified Teachers15

Collection of Funds for Literacy Education Through Diversified Channels16

Formation of an Ideal Social Environment for Literacy Education17

Establishment of the Supervision and Evaluation System of Literacy Education18

Chapter III: Methodology1

Chapter I: Introduction

Accounting for 8.41% of the national total population, the 55 ethnic minorities have more than 80 spoken languages and about 30 written languages. Under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Regional National Autonomy Law, the State Law of Commonly Used Spoken and Written Languages and other laws, the spoken and written languages of different ethnic groups shall co-exist equally and all ethnic groups shall enjoy the freedom to use and develop the spoken and written languages of their own. The State encourages mutual learning and use of different languages among all nationalities.

Ever since the adoption of the opening-up policy in 1978, China has been enjoying a rapid, stable and sustained economic development. Especially in recent years, China has obtained such remarkable achievements as the average growth rate of GDP at about 10%, obvious improvement of economic benefit, continuous sharp increase of financial revenue and basic stability of price. In 2006, China's GDP reached RMB209 trillion yuan, with national income per capita exceeding USD2,000. Along with the fast economic increase, the citizen income also ...