On August 29, Education Minister Chen Baosheng hosted a symposium in Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County of Hebei province to review the progress made in targeted poverty alleviation in the county and push forward smooth transition from poverty relief to rural rejuvenation. Deputy governor of Hebei province Xu Jianpei attended the event.

Minister Chen noted that since Qinglong county had successfully graduated from the list of poor counties, it had achieved “good” on the rating scale for two consecutive years in the assessment of the effectiveness of poverty alleviation organized by Hebei provincial government, while the MOE had achieved a “good” rating for two consecutive years in the assessment of targeted poverty alleviation by central government departments.

Chen said that, to ensure the final victory of the perhaps largest anti-poverty campaign in human history led by the CPC, the most important task was to prevent recurrence of poverty of these counties, and regression back onto the poverty list, by consolidating the outcomes achieved in the campaign and implementing rural strategies for rejuvenation.

Chen further stressed that, to give education a bigger role in poverty eradication, five targets now had to be met: a) reducing drop-out rates to zero; b) intensifying efforts to guarantee compulsory education; c) ensuring education quality by balancing educational resources between rural and urban areas and reforming the evaluation system; d) pushing forward rural revitalization by promoting vocational education and training talented individuals who are willing to work and remain in rural areas; and e) streamlining and refining school management so that it is well-suited to the digital age.

Xu first extended gratitude to the MOE for its long-term support to his province and then pledged to apply the good methods and practices arising from the ministry’s targeted poverty alleviation in the province-wide campaign of poverty relief through education.

Before the symposium, Minister Chen visited primary schools, villages, poor households and teachers with financial difficulties in Qinglong county, and investigated local efforts in a number of areas, including school reopening, poverty eradication through education and industry, the project of delivering agricultural products directly from farmers’ cooperatives to school canteens, and rural rejuvenation.