Abstract:
One of the results of educational reform in China since 1978 has been the rapid development of vocational education. "By the end of 1986, there were 3,187 vocational and agricultural middle schools with 2.5 million students" (Bott, 1988. p. 26). According to People's Daily (1987), there were also 3,782 secondary specialized schools with 1,757 students in the same year. The ambitious goal of the government is to produce 1.1 times more graduates from secondary vocational technical schools during the current five years (1986-1990) than the previous ones (the Seventh Five Plan for National Economy and Social Development of the People's Republic of China). In rural areas many secondary schools either have started to offer vocational courses or have been transformed into secondary agricultural-technical schools. These new programs demand a great number of agricultural teachers. However, at present there is an acute shortage of teachers for agricultural education, which was pointed out by research (Zhao, 1984) as well as the Decision on Reform of Educational System of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (1985). In order to meet this demand, many agricultural teacher education programs have been established in higher education since the early 1980s.
Keywords:
China, agricultural teacher education, vocational technical programs
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