I. Serving agriculture, rural development, and farmers is the top priority.
Hunan is a province with a large population mainly engaged in agriculture. Of its population numbering 67.372 million, 50.7% are farmers. As far as Hunan’s future is concerned, the focus is on rural development, the foundation is agriculture, and the key is farmers.
To this end, Hunan Open University (Hunan OU) should prioritize the service of agriculture, rural development, and farmers in Hunan’s economic construction and social development. Hunan OU, which has traditionally had limited offerings in science and technology, should make the service of rural talent cultivation its top priority.
II. Trial and implementation in Hunan OU
Since the initiation of the “One College Student for One Village” programme in 2004, Hunan OU has cultivated a total of 59,570 farmer university students for 37,556 administrative villages in Hunan. 50% of them have become members of village Party branch committees and villager committees, 18% of them have been included in reserve cadres, and 10.5% have become local experts or leaders in creating wealth. They have played prominent roles in advancing the construction of new socialist rural areas in Hunan,
In June 2014, Proposal on Accelerating the Cultivation of New Professional Farmers was released by the CPC Hunan Committee and Hunan People’s Government. The strategic goal is to quicken the transformation of traditional farmers into new professional farmers “sufficient in number, rational in structure, and exceptional in quality”. The target is to train 100,000 new professional farmers by 2017, with the total number of 300,000 being achieved by 2020. We should seize the opportunity and step up our efforts in the following two respects.
The first is to study and clarify the definition of "new professional farmer" so as to make clear the target objectives in the formation of future talent cultivation programmes.
According to current understanding, new professional farmers make agriculture their vocation and have some specialized skills. Their income, derived mainly from agricultural production and business, reaches a certain minimum level. Compared with traditional farmers, they are market players with high stability, a strong sense of social responsibility, and a modern outlook. They view farm work as their career and have no lack of successors. All of this serves as the starting point and ultimate goal of our service to agriculture, rural development, and farmers.
The second is to seriously study methods to cultivate this new type of professional farmer.
Preliminary investigation shows that Hunan has 11,020 professional farmers, of whom 2.2% are aged over 60, 13.3% aged 31-40, 44.4% aged 41-55, and 37.8% 50-60; those with an educational background at or above junior college account for 0.69%, those at or above senior high school and technical secondary school account for 12.29%, and those below junior high school account for 87.03%. Professional farmers under 60 years old who leave their hometown to work outside for years at a time and are thus unable to take care of farm production account for 51.37%. Farmers who can remain in the countryside for farm production account for 48.63% and are around 55 years old on the average.
Farmers vary in their educational background. They are scattered and transient. The realities of this life mixed with complicated geographical conditions leads to great variety in learning needs between different individuals. We hold that the effective cultivation of professional farmers has to meet four criteria.
First, methods of teaching and learning should be flexible in order to meet the farmers’ requirements of learning anywhere, anytime without leaving their homes or hometowns, quitting their jobs, or delaying their work.
Second, education content must be both useful and interesting. Explanations should be given in simple language, lively, and easy to understand. Classes should be very practical so that what has been learned can be put directly into practice for the desired purposes.
Third, teachers should be available to them all the time, answering questions and offering learner support.
Fourth, learning costs must be kept low, so that knowledge and skills can be acquired with little or no money.
It is the OUC’s web-based distance education that can meet all four criteria. Therefore, the Organization Department of the CPC Hunan Committee, Department of Education, Department of Finance, and Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Hunan Province, jointly issued the Notice on Implementing “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan”, and defined the task to be fulfilled by Hunan OU. With the release of the document, three practical problems in the cultivation of professional farmers have been solved through Hunan OU’s service to agriculture, rural development, and farmers.
First, the problem of organization is solved. The document stipulates that the farmer university students are included for cultivation in the “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan” after being admitted to the cultivation universities and obtaining status as students in adult higher education with the recommendation of their permanent residence village or community Party organizations and township neighborhood Party committees or Party work committees, and with the approval of the organization departments of the county or county-level city CPC committees.
Second, the problem of tuition is solved. The document further stipulates that the “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan” be included in the 2014-2020 Construction Plan of Constructing Service-Oriented Party Organizations at Grass-Roots Level in Hunan Province. Students of “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan” are given tuition subsidies by reference to the standard of work types in category A in job training for rural labor transfer.
Third, the problem of utilization is solved. It is stipulated in the document that, upon graduation, outstanding students of the “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan” can be chosen as village level reserve cadres, leaders in obtaining wealth in rural development, and people to be helped in industries. Those who start their own business in the countryside are given support via special preferential policies.
These measures are appealing to a large number of migrant workers who can return home to take advantage of the programme. It’s estimated that 8,000-10,000 farmers can be cultivated each year.
III. Experience and enlightenment
1. Syllabuses and teaching programmes for all majors and courses are revised in line with training objectives for new professional farmers in Hunan in an effort to adapt to local circumstances in Hunan.
2. Courses and relevant teaching resources are developed to meet the learning needs of local farmers.
3. New models are explored to expand teaching space. By making use of the learning platform of “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan”, teacher users set up their “teaching space”, and offer “learning space” for the students. Experts from planting and breeding industries are arranged to give technical guidance to the farmer university students through these “spaces”, helping to solve substantial practical problems in production.
4. Learner support is enhanced by combining online and offline efforts. Online teaching is given by Hunan OU to set up the learning platform of “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan”, trusting branch schools and tutorial centres to organize, train, and urge the students to learn autonomously via the platform. Tutorial centres are responsible for organizing and delivering offline teaching, branch schools take the responsibility of supervision, and Hunan OU is in charge of the examination and evaluation of implementation results.
5. Results assessment is reformed via three methods. The first is a change in concept, changing the examination of memories into an assessment of knowledge application capacity. The second is to combine formative assessment with summative assessment. The third is to change the unified examination into single examinations given while learning, with as many online examinations as possible.
6. The construction of the service platform is enhanced to make it easy for farmer university students to use.
7. A quality assurance system is formulated. Led by administrative educational authorities and supported by departments of organization, finance, and human resources and social security, special inspections are made to check the implementation of the “Farmer University Student Cultivation Plan”, and in the event of any problems, timely supervised rectification is made.
Open universities serving the needs of agriculture, rural development, and farmers is truly an honor; it’s also a responsibility in need of loyal commitment; it’s an opportunity that needs to be seized. Efforts shall be stepped up to maintain the sustainable, sound, and fine development of the three issues concerning agriculture, rural development, and farmers.
About the author:
Chen Jianmin, a professor and Secretary of Hunan OU CPC Committee, has long been engaged in university management. He has published 3 books, taken charge of 5 provincial research projects, and released over 30 academic papers. He has been honoured with one second prize in Philosophy and Social Science Achievement in Hunan, one first prize in Education Achievement for Institutions of Higher Education in Hunan, and one teaching achievement award of the Open University of China.
By Chen Jianmin
(reorganized by Cao Gang based on Chen Jianmin’s lecture To Develop the Open University to Serve Agriculture, Rural Development and Farmers)