Since the reform and opening up 20 years ago, the scale of illiterate population in China has continued to drop sharply, and the number of illiterate people over the age of 0/5 in China has dropped from 230 million to 87 million, a decrease of 62%. During the period of 1964-2000, the adult literacy rate of China 15 years old and above increased by 43.3 percentage points, which was higher than the cumulative average growth rate of developing countries 13.6 percentage points and even exceeded the world average growth rate. In 2000, the adult literacy rate in China was about 15 percentage points higher than the world average.
Since the reform and opening up, the per capita years of education of workers in China have increased by more than two years, and the total years of education have more than doubled. 1982-2000, the number of employees in China increased from 450 million to 720 million, an increase of 59%; The average years of education of employees increased from 5.8 1 year to 7.99 years, an increase of 2. 18 years; The total years of employees' education increased from 2.63 billion years to 5.76 billion years, an increase of 1.2 times.
From 1982 to 2000, the proportion of employees with college education in China increased from 0.87% to 4.66%; The proportion of people receiving high school education increased from 10.54% to12.65%; The proportion of employees with primary school education or below decreased from 62.58% to 40.98%.
In the same period, the overall cultural quality of employees in China's three industries has been continuously improved. The average length of education of employees in the primary industry increased from 4.82 years to 6.79 years, an increase of nearly two years, with an increase of more than 40%. The proportion of employees with primary school education or below decreased from 73. 1% to 55.0%, and the proportion of employees with college education or above increased from 0.04% to 0. 14%. The average education years of employees in the secondary industry increased from 8.09 years to 9.44 years, increasing by 1.4 years, with an increase of 16.7%, among which the proportion of employees with junior high school education or below decreased from 78.4% to 7 1.6%, and the proportion of employees with college education or above decreased from1. The average years of education of employees in the tertiary industry increased from 9.29 years to 10.79 years, an increase of10.5 years, with an increase of 16. 1%, in which the proportion of employees with junior high school education or below decreased from 62.3% to 49.6%, and those with college education or above.
The results show that in recent 20 years, with the continuous improvement of the popularization of compulsory education in China, the overall quality of employees in the primary industry has been improved rapidly, mainly due to the decline of illiteracy rate and semi-illiteracy rate and the rapid increase of the proportion of junior high school education personnel, but the gap with the secondary and tertiary industries is still very large, and the proportion of employees with college education or above in the secondary and tertiary industries has increased significantly.
The main problem faced by China's human resources is that the overall cultural quality of the population is far from that of developed countries.
According to the data of the Fifth Five-Year Plan and the data of the United Nations Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2000, the average educational years of the population aged 25-64 in China was 7.97 years, which was only equivalent to the overall educational level of the United States 100 years ago, and the average educational years of the United States and Japan reached 12.55 years and 199 years respectively. In developed countries and newly industrialized countries, the proportion of people who have received higher education and secondary education is relatively high. For example, in the United States and South Korea, 87% and 66% of the population aged 25-64 have received high school education, among which 35% and 23% have received higher education. In contrast, in 2000, 18% of the population aged 25-64 in China had received high school education, 82% junior high school education and 42% primary school education. Less than 5 people per 100 have college education or above. The difference in population distribution with different education levels is the reason for the low quality of human resources in China.
Unbalanced industrial structure of labor force
The overall level of employment structure in China is far from the modern employment structure. The proportion of employment in the primary industry is too high, and the proportion of employment in the tertiary industry is as low as the added value, which belongs to the employment structure with slow transfer of agricultural labor force. Since the reform and opening up, although the proportion of employment in the primary industry in China has been declining by more than 20 percentage points, by 200 1, the proportion of employment structure in the tertiary industry in China is 50.0: 22.3: 27.7. Compared with developed countries, newly industrialized countries or developing countries, the proportion of employees in the primary industry in China is obviously high, while the proportion of employees in the tertiary industry is relatively low. The proportion of employees in the tertiary industry in developed countries and newly industrialized countries generally reaches 60% to 75% 1.997. The proportion of employees in the tertiary industry is 1 1: 3 1: 58 in South Korea, 0.3: 30.7: 70 in Singapore and 5: 33: 60 in Japan. The proportion of employees in the tertiary industry in developing countries such as Brazil, Egypt, India and Pakistan is 54.3%, 44. 1%, 39.8% and 34.6% respectively, which is also significantly higher than that in China. Compared with populous developing agricultural countries such as Indian, Pakistani and Egyptian, whose GDP per capita is lower than that of China, the employment proportion of primary industry in China is obviously higher.
The low proportion of high school cultural population is the bottleneck to improve the quality of human resources.
At present, there are many problems of low quality of human resources in China, which are mainly manifested in the low proportion of people with secondary education or above. According to the data analysis of the fifth population census in 2000, among the population aged 15 and above, the proportion of people with high school education only accounts for 18.96%, and the proportion of people with high school and technical secondary school education accounts for 14.36%. In contrast, most people in developed countries and newly industrialized countries have a high school education level or above. From 65438 to 0999, the average proportion of the population aged 25-64 in OECD countries is 69%, of which 45% have high school education, while the proportion of high school education in developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Britain is about 50%, which is a huge gap.
Due to various reasons, the enrollment scale of vocational education in China showed an obvious downward trend at the end of 1990s, and the situation that the scale of vocational education declined and the scale of ordinary high schools increased rapidly was changed. By 200 1, the enrollment rate of junior high school graduates in China is only 52.6%. From the geographical distribution, the graduation rates of junior high school graduates in the eastern region, the central region and the western region are 56.7%, 47.3% and 55.7% respectively, and the graduation rate of junior high school graduates in some populous provinces in the central region is still around 45%, which has had a certain impact on the development of senior high school education in China. About 50% of junior high school graduates can't go to school, and they will directly take part in employment or stay at home. In the long run, workers with junior high school education or below will accumulate in large quantities, which will adversely affect the improvement of the overall quality of human resources in China. According to the comparison between the data of the third population census 1982 and the fifth population census in 2000, in the past 20 years, the proportion of workers with college degree or above in China 15 population has increased from 0.9% to 4.6%, an increase of more than four times, while the proportion of workers with high school and technical secondary school education in 15 population has increased from 65,430. We believe that the slow growth of high school educated population is one of the most fundamental reasons for the low overall level of human resources in China, and the low proportion of high school educated population has become a "bottleneck" to improve the quality of human resources in China.
The overall education level of employees in the tertiary industry does not meet the requirements of modern industry and industrial structure upgrading.
According to the data analysis of the fifth population census, in 2000, the average years of education of financial and insurance employees in China reached 13. 19, which is equivalent to the level of freshmen, and it is a highly educated industry in the tertiary industry. Employees in the financial and insurance industry are mainly workers with high school or junior college education, accounting for about 3/4, junior high school or above accounting for 13.9%, and bachelor degree or above accounting for only 10.86%. Among every 100 employees, there are still insufficient high-level talents with graduate education 1 person. In 2000, the average years of education of employees in the real estate industry were 1 1.75 years, which was close to the level of education after graduating from high school. The employees in the real estate industry are mainly junior high school and senior high school, accounting for about 2/3, the education level of primary school and below only accounts for 6.9%, the education level of junior college and above accounts for 26.89%, and the employees with bachelor degree and above account for 26.89%.
In the geological survey and water conservancy management industry, employees with college education or above account for 2 1.98%, and employees with junior high school and high school education account for more than 70%. The average education period of employees is 1 1.46 years, which is close to the education level of high school graduates. The cultural structure of employees in transportation, post and telecommunications, wholesale and retail trade, catering and social services is relatively low, and the average education period of employees is basically between 9- 10 years, with workers with junior high school education as the main body. Among the employees in these three industries, the proportion of junior high school education is about 50%, while the proportion of junior college education and above is low.
Only 6.85% of the people in the transportation, post and telecommunications industries have college education or above, and about 65% have primary and junior high school education. Only 5. 17% of people in wholesale and retail trade and catering industry have college education or above, and the proportion of people with junior high school education is close to 50%; Only 8.70% of the people in the social service industry have college education or above, while the proportion of people with primary and junior high school education exceeds 60%.
Compared with developed countries, the overall quality of managers and professional technicians is far behind.
In 2000, the average years of education of the heads of party and government enterprises and institutions in China reached 12.24, and the proportion of junior high school and below, senior high school, junior college and above was about 1/3. Compared with the overall education level of Japanese managers, the average years of education are more than 1 year, and the proportion of senior managers is quite different, most of them are managers with bachelor degree or above. The quality of such a team of managers is far from the requirements of China's entry into the era of economic globalization and further transformation of government functions.
In 2000, the average length of education of professional and technical personnel in China was 13.05, which just reached the level of freshman, and the proportion without college education was close to 60%. The proportion of graduate education is less than 1%. Compared with the overall cultural quality of Japanese professional and technical personnel, the average length of education of Japanese professional and technical personnel has reached 14.4 years, among which the proportion of personnel with college education or above exceeds 3/4, and the proportion of personnel with undergraduate education is close to 50%. The average educational years of professional technicians in China are less than those in Japan 1.4 years, and the proportion of professional technicians with bachelor degree or above is only 13.5%. The quality of such a team of professional and technical personnel can neither meet the demand of China's scientific and technological innovation for human resources in the era of knowledge economy, nor is it conducive to the continuous improvement of the country's scientific and technological competitiveness and comprehensive national strength.
In 2000, the education years of office workers and related people in China reached 12 and 15 respectively, but the proportion of the population with college education or above accounted for 67.7%. It is worth noting that at present, among the three teams with relatively high overall cultural quality, that is, the heads of party and government enterprises and institutions, professional and technical personnel, clerks and related personnel, workers with primary school education or below still account for 2%-7% respectively, while those with high academic qualifications only account for 30%-40%, which is incompatible with the higher requirements of professional knowledge and skills.
In 2000, the average years of education of commercial service workers, industrial workers, operators of production and transportation equipment and related personnel in China were 9.25 and 9.08 years respectively, which were 0.96 and 0.50 years higher than 1.990 respectively. They are two teams with relatively slow growth in the average years of education of six types of professionals. Commercial service personnel and industrial workers are still mainly those with junior high school education, and the proportion of those with college education or above is 2%. This kind of personnel quality will be difficult to meet the needs of upgrading China's industrial structure and continuously improving the labor productivity of manufacturing industry.
The overall quality difference between urban and rural labor force population is too large to meet the needs of urbanization.
In 2000, the average length of education of rural labor force aged 15-64 was 7.33 years, which was 2.87 years lower than that of urban labor force aged 10.20. The main reason for the difference lies in the distribution of various cultural levels of the population. The proportion of rural labor force with high school education or above is obviously low, while the proportion of rural labor force with primary school education or below is relatively high. /kloc-among the rural laborers aged 0/5-64, 47.62% have primary school education or below, and 8.74% are illiterate, which are 3 1 percentage point and 6 percentage points higher than those in cities respectively. The proportion of rural labor force population with high school education or above is only 8.46%, which is 35 percentage points lower than that of cities. The proportion of rural labor force population with college education or above is less than 1 percentage point, which is lower than that of cities by 13 percentage point. 15-64 years old, the proportion of cities, counties and villages with different education levels is: the proportion of people with college education or above is 20 ∶ 9 ∶1; Among them, the proportion of the population with bachelor degree or above is 55 ∶13 ∶1; The proportion of high school educated population is 4 ∶ 3 ∶1; The proportion of junior high school educated population is 0.91:1.01:1; The proportion of population with primary school education is 0.37∶0.55∶ 1. It can be seen that there are obvious differences in the hierarchical structure of the education level of urban and rural labor force in China, especially in the proportion of the population with middle and higher education level. At present, China's urban human capital accumulation is basically in the stage of middle and higher education, while rural areas are still in the stage of popularizing junior high school primary education.
The difference in the cultural quality of the labor force between regions is mainly reflected in the gap in the proportion of high-level talents. Compared with 1990, in 2000, the proportion of population with various education levels and the regional relative difference coefficient of per capita education years in China decreased to varying degrees, indicating that the overall gap of labor quality among regions in China has narrowed since the 1990s. The relative difference coefficient of per capita education years is low, only 17. 1%. Judging from the relative difference coefficient of labor force with various education levels in 2000, the difference of cultural quality of labor force between regions is still very obvious, and the gap is concentrated at both ends. The relative difference coefficient of adult illiteracy rate, undergraduate proportion and postgraduate proportion is large. The relative gap between graduate students is the largest, reaching 2 12%, and the relative gap between undergraduate and above is as high as 105%. With the improvement of cultural level, the relative gap between regions shows a corresponding expanding trend.
From the perspective of human resources, the trend of education development is to develop higher education and cultivate a large number of high-level innovative talents. Facing the future, we should deepen the reform of higher education, vigorously develop higher education, take catching up with the world's advanced science and technology as the driving force, attach importance to the quality of personnel training, and continue to expand the scale of postgraduate training. Referring to the development of world science and technology and the trend of world economy, we will speed up the cultivation of new scientific and technological forces and quickly build a complete national innovation system. This system should include knowledge innovation system with national scientific research institutions and research universities as the core, technological innovation system with enterprises and scientific research institutions as the core, knowledge dissemination system with universities and vocational training institutions as the main body, and knowledge application system with enterprises and society as the main body. National innovation system should be the basis of sustainable economic and social development, the cradle of cultivating and bringing up high-quality talents, and the pillar and backing of China's comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness.
Accelerate the popularization of high school education and break through the bottleneck of human resources development: vigorously developing secondary education is the key to improve the overall quality of human resources. The only way to break through the "bottleneck" of the low proportion of education workers in senior high schools in China is to speed up the popularization of senior high school education, further increase the enrollment rate of junior high school graduates, the popularization rate of secondary education and vocational education in the whole country and regions, and vigorously promote the process of popularizing secondary education in cities and developed rural areas.
Constructing a perfect lifelong learning system for all and improving the overall quality of the people: the improvement of innovation ability and workers' skills is not only reflected in the proportion and years of education, but also depends on the improvement and operational efficiency of the education and training system. Constructing a perfect national lifelong learning system is an important guarantee to continuously improve the overall quality of the people. With the deepening of the information age, lifelong education and lifelong learning are no longer an international educational trend of thought, but have become educational policies and practical actions in many countries. Establish community colleges with China characteristics to train talents for communities, streets and villages. (Excerpted from the Journal of Social Sciences)