NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
POVERTY REDUCTION AND EFA IN RURAL CHINA: THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES
By David Atchoarena, IIEP, Paris
In spite of massive migration to cities, China today still counts about 830 million people living in rural areas, 67% of the total population. It is estimated that at least 30 million rural people live under the absolute poverty line.Rapid economic development in the past decades has generated new challenges such as income and social status gaps between rural and urban people, and environmental degradation. The frequent use of the term ?Three Nong? referring to agriculture, farmers and rural areas reflects the increasing recognition, in the development agenda, of rural development issues, including education for farmers and rural communities at large.
In response to economic, labour market and higher education reforms, Chinese agricultural universities, over 60 in total, have undergone profound structural transformations. In this context, there is a growing recognition that higher agricultural education institutions should go beyond their traditional role of education and research for the agricultural sector to serve rural people and contribute in more direct ways to rural development and poverty reduction.
The provision of services to the community is widely recognized as a fundamental mandate of universities, along their traditional missions for teaching and research. This is often mentioned in the official mission statements of universities. In some countries, like Thailand for instance, universities are now expected to directly contribute to poverty reduction.
Outreach programmes delivered by universities of agriculture include a wide range of activities. The support to agricultural extension services is probably the most frequent modality through which universities are directly in contact with farmers. However, while university extension services are best placed to play a role of innovation and catalyst, scaling up remains the responsibility of relevant government agencies, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture. China provides a clear example of such necessary complementarities.
Beyond this form of university/community interaction, the collaboration between universities and schools is also a very active field, including a great variety of linkages. University can contribute to improving teaching at school level through in-service teacher training. Rural schools can in turn provide an adequate venue where universities can reach-out farmer communities. Examples where universities use schools to disseminate scientific knowledge to rural people illustrate the contribution of higher agricultural education institutions to Education for All (EFA) and lifelong learning in rural areas.
The involvement of universities in community development projects and farmers? training programmes can produce significant feed-back effects on the pedagogy used for regular university teaching. China Agricultural University, for instance, introduced new approaches, derived from participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques, which are transforming the pedagogy. By recognizing local cultures and endogenous knowledge such experience tends to reconceptualize teaching and learning at university. Yet, in spite of this experience, changing the academic culture remains a challenge. To a large extent, extension continues to be seen as a practice, not as a science, and faculty members are often reluctant to recognize local knowledge.
The diversity of university/community interaction in rural China provides an inspiring ground for further reflecting on ways in which universities, in particular higher agricultural institutions, can contribute to EFA and poverty reduction in rural areas. Placing such experiences within a strategic framework would still require that institutional obstacles be overcome. Among other things, expanding and strengthening universities? outreach activities would require that an appropriate evaluation system, including performance indicators be put in place.