There is a saying: the State of Chu (today’s Hubei Province), is the home of talents. Indeed, Yichang has not only nurtured many talents, but also attracted and will be attracting more and more people to choose to stay and work here.
High-quality talent is fundamental to development. Currently, Yichang is striding forward to be “a big, strong, excellent and beautiful” megacity. So it is urgent to actively build an education development mode, a science and technology innovation mode, a talent training mode that are commensurate with a megacity. Meanwhile, constructing a city that has excellent learning environment, numerous talents and good opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship can increase the attractiveness, radiation power and influence of Yichang City, providing a better intellectual support for the construction of a modern megacity.
Strength of Yichang: A City Filled with the Aroma of Books
"Reading can help to forge national spirit, inherit national culture and rejuvenate a nation. Through reading, the quality of citizens can be improved, the development of society and economy can be accelerated and national prosperity can be promoted. A city, whose citizens are fond of reading, is not only a city of cultural ambiance, but also a city of attractiveness and competitiveness."Liao Dafeng, Standing Committee Member of CPC Yichang Municipal Committee and minister of Municipal Publicity Department, said so at the launching ceremony of the All Citizens Reading Activity.
Currently, Yichang City has further promoted the National Reading Activity into governmental organs, schools, communities, families and villages by improving public cultural service network of four levels including city, county, town and village(community), creating a number of reading platforms for all citizens, such as the Three Gorges Culture Forum and the Young Leader Institute. In City Reading Index Test in 2012, Yichang City ranked first in Hubei Province with an index of 89.43.
Moreover, Yichang City is the first as well as the only prefectural-level city in Hubei Province and in central and western regions of China that has developed a balanced and qualified compulsory education which covers the whole area of Yichang City and the counties under its administration. Yichang is the first city in Hubei Province that promoted a number of reform and innovative measures such as the balanced development of compulsory education, construction of standard school for compulsory education, educational aid program in urban and rural areas, establishment of efficient class and new mechanism for the management of campus security, all of which have gained remarkable achievements. Yichang won the first prize twice consecutively in the Assessment of Institutional Innovations of Local Education in Hubei Province.
Planning: Creating a Regional Higher Education Center
Through the establishment of a good learning environment, the effective aggregation of advanced educational resources, the strengthening of high-quality talent team, the enhancement of scientific and technological innovation capability and the improvement of citizens’ overall quality, the comprehensive competitiveness of Yichang will be further improved with its developed education, favorable environment for learning and entrepreneurship, aggregated competitive talents and excellent opportunity for innovation and development. On 10th of December, Standing member of Municipal Committee, Publicity Minister Liao Dafeng elaborated the plan of Establishing Yichang as a Major City of Education to Boost its Development into a Megacity on behalf of the research team in the meeting themed comprehensively deepening reform and transforming development mode to accelerate the construction of a modern megacity.
Liao Dafeng suggested a dramatic development of higher education to create a regional higher education center. Yichang University Town should be planned and constructed with high standards. Support shall be given to relocate the College of Science and Technology of China Three Gorges University to the University Town, and construct a comprehensive university that is advanced in science and engineering; the relocation of the Hainan Aviation Academy to the University Town should also be accelerated. There should be a number of well-known universities and research institutions from home and abroad introduced to Yichang so as to establish their branch schools, graduate schools and research institutions here. The expansion and improvement of colleges and universities in Yichang should be promoted. Support should be given to accelerate the construction of Three Gorges University into a comprehensive university with distinctive features and high-level educational quality so that it could become one of the elite universities in China. College of Science and Technology of China Three Gorges University should be built as a provincially first-class and nationally influential polytechnic college. Moreover, supports should be given to build the Three Gorges Vocational and Technical College into an applied technology colleges that is provincially first-class and nationally influential.
In addition, accelerating the construction of a modern Vocational Education Park is another move towards building a regional higher education center. The school-running pattern of joint schooling and segmented training between municipal Vocational Education Park and county Vocational Education Center should be vigorously promoted. The pattern of Industry Park plus Standard Workshop plus Vocational Education should be further developed so that the joint development of vocational colleges and enterprises in industrial park could be realized.
Supports: Optimization and Adjustment of Education Planning
A blueprint has been drawn to develop Yichang to be an ideal city of education.
In the research report Developing Yichang to be An Ideal City of Education to Boost its Development Into a Megacity, Liao Dafeng proposes that there should be a leading team to make overall plans and coordinate all the details, and there should be a responsibility system of management in which every objective will be set up at first and then checked at the end. What’s more, a working committee of colleges and universities should be set up to come up with the higher education in the city.
Liao Dafeng suggests that the task should be contained in Yichang City Master Plan so as to optimize and adjust the education planning. The distribution of schools for urban-rural compulsory education needs balanced adjustment based on the change of school age population and the overall planning on the progress of urbanization. It’s pointed out that when speeding up the making of the education planning for new districts, factors like economic development in new districts, function division, population density and distribution of students should be taken into consideration, based on the principles of complete coverage, convenience for school attending, demands meeting and appropriate advance.
Liao Dafeng addresses that to establish an ideal city of education, it’s necessary to supply policy support and financial support to improve the development of education. Ways should be found to establish Investment and Financing Platform of Education and Development Fund of Education. Systems of government subsidies, student loan, and reward fund must be improved. Meanwhile, more efforts should be made to enhance the policy measures to support the development of non-government funded education. Funding and taxation support should be ready for high-level talents to lead the founding of research institutions. And there should be preferential policies to encourage graduates from local colleges and universities to get jobs and start a business in Yichang.
Moreover, more effort should be made to train local educators, so as to form a group of elite scholars and experts of school management who enjoy their reputation in the whole province, even the whole nation.
Xiong Wenbin, a professor from China Three Gorges University and expert in the study of sociology, holds that Yichang has made a relatively solid basis of an ideal city of education and that there’re a batch of influential colleges and universities like China Three Gorges University (CTGU) and Hubei Three Gorges Polytechnic. Besides, some key disciplines, such as the major electrical automation in CTGU, are well known in Hubei Province and even in China, so it’s practicable to develop and strengthen the foundation for Yichang to be a major city of education. Besides, Yichang has been implementing the strategies ofdeveloping the city through science and education and strengthening the city through talents over these years. A series of policy measures have been made to boost the development of the education reform, and a large number of scholars have been brought in, which has laid the foundation to develop Yichang into an ideal city of education. Moreover, Yichang is the birthplace of Ba and Chu Culture, which has endowed this city profound culture. In recent years, the culture industry in Yichang has maintained a sound momentum of development and made cultural achievements. This is also an outcome of effective aggregation of talents in Yichang City.
According to Chen Fen, a citizen of Yichang, Yichang is striding forward to establish itself as a megacity. It is absolutely necessary to bring in advanced education resources. But apparently there\'re not enough colleges and universities for now. I hope there will be more colleges and universities to attract more excellent students to come to study and work in Yichang.
According to Chen Liang, a citizen of Yichang, although there are some advanced education resources in Yichang, the education resources now available are far from enough to meet people’s requirements. I hope Yichang could further optimize its education planning. (Reporter: Wang Ying)