New plans are emerging for educational improvements next year that include further developing the curricula for biological and information technology at the university level, Ministry of Education officials said Wednesday.

University officials are also encouraged to expand course offerings in economics, law, finance and accounting to meet the rising demand for professional expertise in these areas now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization.

Other areas of the educational system also are receiving advice for changes from the ministry.

Adult and vocational schools are expected to enlarge recruitment to bring new farming skills to rural areas and to re-train laid-off workers and farmers who migrate to cities, a ministry news release said.

Combating illiteracy is a key tenet of new education plans, particular among those between ages 15 to 50 in the central and western areas. The ministry recommended expanding primary and middle school education programmers to this end.

The central government has allocated 5 billion yuan (US$602 million) to speed up the popularization of this schooling in these regions.

The number of young and middle-aged illiterates is now 4 percent, mainly those in remote and poor counties in the central and western areas where economic and educational conditions are backward.

Minister of Education Chen Zhili said her ministry will mobilize regional education departments and higher learning institutions to fix that.

Peking, Tsinghua and other 12 universities in better developed regions will assist 14 colleges in Qinghai Province, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and other western areas by rotating teachers to those areas and donating teaching equipment.

(China Daily December 27, 2001)