Gulzhou, covering an area of 170,000 square km. in the east of the Yunnan-Gulzhou plateau, is a multi-e ' thnic mountainous province with a population of 35,080,000, among whom minority population takes 36.7 percent and agricultural population takes 87 percent. The province has altogether 89. counties, districts, cities and special industrial zones under the Jurisdiction of its 9 prefectures and cities.

Statistics shows that 96.8 percent of the school-aged children has participated in primary education and 89.8 percent of the youth and adult aged between 15-47 have obtained the three R's. At present the province has established approximately 9,000 farmer technical schools at both township and villa.e levels, which offer various courses in practical technologies useful in rural context.

The pilot county ( Maogon ) is situatied in the remote and poverty-stricken areas in 0

Guizhou Province. The total populationis 13,400. The 1991 statistic data indicaties that per capita farmer net income was 246 RMB.

Here is a brief introduction of the main interventions and outcomes of the implementation of the programme on the Pilot Project on Promotion of Literacy among youth and Adult.

Primary Education

• To raise the participation of school-aged children in primary education in accordance with the requirement of the Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China.
  
• To establish more complete primary schools to meet the need of popular primary education.
  
• To raise learning achievements of primary education.
  
• To control dropout rate of primary education.
  
• To raise qualification rate of teacher for primary education throu-h in-service training.
  
• To improve physical environment of primary schools.

Literacy Education

• To conduct 85 literacy classes for farmers, especially for women farmers.
  
• To develop a literacy objective contract responsibility system.
  
• To adopt both the visiting teacher and the classroom instruction modes according to actual situation.
  

Post-literacy Technical training for Farmers

• To establish 16 farmer technical schools at the township scat and the 15 villages of the township.
  
• To offer 23 technical courses in 205 classes for 15,000 farmers.
  
• To develop 14 textbooks and 13 materials for technical training.
  
• To provide training for those who were invited to give lectures in farmer technical schools.
  
• To make full use of audio-video aids in technical training for farmers.
  
• To establish a school farm in each of the farmer technical schools.

Outcomes

Primary education

0 98.1 percent of school-aged children in Maogong has participated in primary education.

0 The dropout rate has decreased to 1.3 percent, and the emergence of new illiterates has prevented.

Literacy Education

99 percent of the population group aged 15-50 have obtained the three R's and illiteracy has been eliminated in the township.

Farmers' technical quality has greatly improved. Over 96 percent of farmers have mastered 1 or 2 practical skills.

The community is aware of the important roles of education in socioeconomic development.

Farmers' living standard have raised.

Statistics on education in Maogong:

Children aged 7-12	1991 (A)	1996 (F)	Deference F-A
Number of children	1,673	2,018	245
Number of girls	793	930	137
Number of school children	1427	1,976	487
Number of school girls	676	893	187
Enrolment-rate (%)	85.3	98.1	7.1
Primary school enrolment	2,067	2,337	270
Lower secondary school enrolmcnt	788	1,046	258
Primary education dropout rate	89	98.5	9.6
Lower secondary education popularization rate	86.0	99	13

T'he five rates before and after implementation (%)

	Before (A)	Target (B)	After (C)	Difference between
	(1991)		(1996)	C-A	C-B
Primary education
Enrolment rate	85.3	97.0	98.1	12.8	1.1
Dropout rate	11.0	2.0	1.5	-6.5	-0.5
Graduation rate	85.6	96.0	96.4	10.8	0.4
Popularization rate	86.0	96.0	99.0	13.0	3.0
Adult education
Literacy rate	84.6	96.0	99.0	14.4	3.0
Functional literacy rate	9.3	85.0	95.5	86.2	10.5