Delivering a speech at the third plenary meeting of the ongoing First Session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, CPPCC member Zhao Naiyan pointed out that though China still suffered a shortage of college graduates, many students graduating from universities and colleges this year were having difficulty in finding jobs.

"There are many reasons behind this phenomenon. Apart from the sharp increase in annual students recruitment of Chinese universities and colleges in recent years, an outdated personnel system, poor employment service, old-fashioned educational concepts and methods in colleges, and unrealistic job expectations among the colleges graduates themselves all contribute to the emergence of this problem," said Zhao.

He criticized some universities and colleges for still embracing the educational mode under the old planned economic system, which stressed students recruitment but neglected employment prospects for the graduates. "Some programs and curricula of some colleges are irrelevant to the actual needs of society," he added.

Zhao urged governments at all levels to further reform the existing personnel system, lift all restrictions on the employment of new college graduates, and give complete freedom to enterprises in hiring employees.

Universities and colleges should also attach strategic importance to the task of helping their own graduates find jobs, and encourage their students to abolish inappropriate job-seeking concepts and willingly go to work in the country's underdeveloped western regions, rural areas and grassroots units, Zhao said.

In his speech on behalf of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, one of China's eight non-Communist parties, CPPCC member Wu Zhengde said that it is necessary for the government to promote "a balanced development of compulsory education" across the country.

In China currently, he said, there exists the "unfair phenomenon" that different schools in different regions are receiving different treatment at the compulsory education stage.

"Unfairness in compulsory education will undermine social justice, deprive children born to impoverished families of the equal right to education, lead to a new form of corruption, and hurt the sentiments of the younger generations," he stressed.

Stating that the inappropriate distribution of the government's financial input was a main factor behind the regional imbalance of compulsory education development, Wu suggested the both the central and provincial governments increase their educational spending in those poor and underdeveloped regions, to narrow the regional gap in the allocation of compulsory education resources.

He also demanded the government enhance monitoring efforts to ensure the effective use of compulsory education resources.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2003)