During a recent conference on education targeted at poverty alleviation of the Open University of China (OUC) in Chengdu, it was discovered out that in order to carry out the task of poverty alleviation by means of education in the deeply poverty-stricken "Three Regions and Three Prefectures" named by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the OUC plans to implement assistance programs for the construction of cloud classrooms or computer rooms, subsidising rural teachers to improve their academic qualifications and construction, and the promotion and popularisation of poverty alleviation resources for learning centres in the "Three Regions and Three Prefectures" from 2019 to 2020.

The theme of the meeting was learning and understanding the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s position on poverty alleviation and solving the outstanding problems of "Two Needs and Three Guarantees", as well as summarising and exchanging experiences of education targeted at poverty alleviation in the OUC, and mobilising and deploying the next stage of education aimed at poverty alleviation in the OUC.

Yang Zhijian, president of the OUC and secretary of its Party Committee, introduced the main achievements of education aimed at poverty alleviation over the past few years. Firstly, poverty alleviation work around the "Three Regions and Three Prefectures” was carried out according to the overall deployment and requirements of the Party Organisation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the MOE. Secondly, work was carried out according to the overall deployment and requirements of the Party Organisation of the MOE on poverty alleviation in Western Yunnan and Qinglong and Weixian counties. Thirdly, poverty alleviation work through education was carried out around the OUC’s “Long March Belt” Education Project Targeted at Poverty Alleviation and in Tongliao City.

It is reported that as of the end of 2018, more than RMB 24 million has been invested in the OUC's "Long March Belt" Education Project Targeted at Alleviating Poverty, directly benefiting 25,531 people.

Yang Zhijian emphasised that poverty alleviation through education is an arduous political task. The OUC should make every effort to promote the task of poverty alleviation through education by taking more pragmatic steps, stronger measures, and more precise methods, and contribute to stopping the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

He said that in the future, the OUC system should focus on five aspects of work. First, the OUC should carry out in-depth study of and implement the spirits of the important speeches and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on poverty alleviation. Second, in accordance with the work deployment of the Party Organisation of the MOE, the OUC should make every effort to promote poverty alleviation through education in the "Three Regions and Three Prefectures”. Third, the OUC should work together with other organisations to support poverty alleviation through education in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai. Fourth, the OUC should focus on targets and strive to succeed in poverty alleviation through education in Western Yunnan and Qinglong and Weixian counties. Fifth, the OUC should continue to carry out the "Long March Belt" Education Project Targeted at Poverty Alleviation and poverty alleviation through education in Tongliao, in order to create a model with a distinctive form and features.

Many innovative models of education targeted at poverty alleviation have emerged from the practice of poverty alleviation through education in the OUC. The Party Committee and the Learning Centre of Cangxi county, Sichuan innovated its poverty alleviation mechanism, models, and service demands, by integrating the promotion of the local “1,000 grassroots cadres academic degree promotion" project with the "Long March Belt" academic degree education project targeted at poverty alleviation. The tuition fees for the assisted students are shared by the OUC, Cangxi County Finance Department, and the village where the students come from. The number of students who have benefitted has grown as a result. The OUC and Xinjiang Radio and Television University (Xinjiang RTVU) have jointly explored a mechanism for the co-construction and sharing of course teaching resources of pilot majors in Xinjiang, developed and produced learning resources for the courses in nine experimental majors of four undergraduate programs and five junior college programs at Xinjiang RTVU, and promoted the reform and innovation of the Xinjiang RTVU teaching model. The OUC has actively negotiated and cooperated with the Taofen Foundation. The two sides have cooperated in the construction of OUC Taofen Libraries for OUC grassroots learning centres in 25 poverty-stricken counties in 12 provinces along the Long March Belt taken by the Red Army and encouraged multiple groups to participate in the implementation of poverty alleviation concepts.

Reprinted from www.jyb.cn