In an ambitious drive to increase access to higher education, China’s college and university enrolment increased from around six million in 1998 to 21 million in 2005. But with the flood of new graduates, individuals are having a tough time finding jobs in an increasingly competitive labour market. Li Mu (李沐) reports on government interventions designed to alleviate graduate unemployment by encouraging young job seekers to "Go west, go down to where motherland and people are in greatest need."

Discrimination against students with medical conditions is rife in Chinese colleges and universities despite being formally prohibited by China’s Constitution and various related laws, according to a report published by three NGOs.

Child-focused international development agency, Plan, will in May start rolling out a training programme for pre-school teachers in ten counties of Shaanxi Province in a bid to support local government efforts in what is becoming a new frontier for rural education.

China’s total illiteracy rate rose slightly in 2005, and the country will miss its targets for eradicating illiteracy unless greater efforts and resources are deployed to tackle the issue, government officials and researchers say.

Hong Kong charity, Sowers Action (苗圃行动), established fifteen years ago to support education on China’s mainland and currently mobilising around CNY 19 million (USD 2.4 million) per year for primary schooling, is deliberating a shift towards vocational education, according to Herman To (杜勇声), a founding member and current Deputy Chair of the organisation.

Throughout the “reform and opening” era, China has struggled to universalise primary education and, as it nears that goal, the government is raising expenditure to remove financial barriers for the poorest families. But, as Chang Tianle (常天乐) reports, remaining challenges are not all financial.

Quality projects with local ownership are the most effective means of pursuing advocacy objectives in China argues Zhao Zhonghua (赵中华) of Save the Children, citing the experience of an education project that, he says, has had demonstrable impact on government policy and practice.

International development NGO, Mercy Corps, is partnering with a local organisation established last year in Sichuan Province’s Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in a new initiative to improve life skills and livelihood opportunities for teenage, ethnic minority girls who have grown up in an area ravaged by poverty, drug use and AIDS.

Not just the so-called “three problems of agriculture” (三农) but as many as seven rural conundrums are explored candidly by a senior government researcher in a report that summarises the findings of recent fieldwork and is published in a new, English language magazine, China Economist.

Seven Issues Directly Affecting Farmers’ Interests is written by the Director of the State Council Development Research Centre’s Rural Economy Department, Han Jun (韩俊), who pulls few punches during a frank discussion of education and health financing, land requisition, rural infrastructure, migration, farm credit, and farmers’ lack of bargaining power.

Although universal access to primary schooling is, according to the government, now close to being “basically achieved,” the future fate of China’s education system is by no means certain. Reflecting here on the present and future challenges are three education experts, Wang Xiaohui (王晓辉) , Hu Wenbin (胡文斌) and Gerard Postiglione (See end of article for contributor bios.)