Some attendees at a national youth congress expressed their
desire to volunteer for jobs in underdeveloped western areas of
China in response to government calls for graduates to "go
west."
The All China Youth Federation, a pillar organization led by the
Communist Party of China, held the 1st Plenum of its 10th National
Committee with 1,400 participants in Beijing from Friday to
Sunday.
Song Fangrong, a new deputy attending the conference, has worked
hard trying to provide education for children in one of the poorest
parts of the country, the rural area of Wufeng County, Hubei
Province, at an altitude of 1,800 meters.
The 32-year-old, from the Tujia ethnic minority, has been
teaching in a primary school there for 17 years. For many of them,
Song was the only teacher in the school.
"I came from the countryside, and I want to return to my
hometown, so it is natural for me to choose to go back after
graduation to help," said Zhu Xuejun, a senior China Agriculture
University student from north China's Shanxi
Province.
At the beginning of this month the State Council issued a
circular encouraging graduates to seek jobs in the west, to release
employment pressure in big cities and meet a shortage of
professionals in comparatively poor areas.
In the following weeks, leaders including Hu Jintao
and Jia
Qinglin made the same call.
The number of college graduates rose from over one million in
1999 to 3.38 million in 2005. Many have failed to find jobs in big
cities while higher educated professionals are badly needed in less
developed areas, particularly the western region.
Graduates are often reluctant to work in the west because of
lower incomes and harder working conditions.
"We established a flexible identity registration system to
dispel graduates' worries of not being able to go back big cities
later on," said Hou Jianliang, the vice minister of personnel, "And
the government promises to support those working at grassroots with
special funds."
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(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, July 25, 2005)