Political advisors offer suggestions on social development

Chinese political advisors met Tuesday for their annual session to voice suggestions on the country's social development, ranging from education and employment to work safety and protection of farmers' rights.[Special coverage]

A total of 16 members of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) addressed a plenary meeting attended by top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng at the People's Great Hall in Beijing.

For a long time, teachers in the countryside have faced difficulties such as low income, high pressure and poor living conditions, said Ma Dexiu, vice director of the committee for education, technology, culture, health and sports under the CPPCC.

"Many of them both give lectures and cook for the students. They also work as psychologists and dormitory supervisors," she said.

More than 2.8 million teachers work in the countryside, where about 40 million students receive primary and middle-school education.

Bettering education in these areas is the key to realizing educational modernization by 2020. The government should roll out more attractive policies so that teachers could stay in the countryside and do a better job, Ma said.

Priorities should be given to the less developed old revolutionary bases, ethnic minority areas and border areas, she said.

"We must make efforts to ensure children from the countryside have the same access as their peers in cities for fair and high-quality education," she said.

Li Shiming, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, called on authorities to list work safety as a national strategy, strengthening legislation and law enforcement and raising public safety awareness to prevent accidents.

About 66,000 people died in 298,000 accidents last year, a slight drop from the previous year, Li said.

Fu Huimin, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, noted that only 10 percent of Chinese have registered to volunteer, compared with around 50 percent in developed countries.

The development of volunteer services also faces a lack of a legal system and poor management, Fu said.

He called on authorities to make laws on volunteer work, provide more financial assistance to volunteer organizations and set up an insurance mechanism for volunteers.

Du Ying, vice director of the ethnic and religious affairs committee under the CPPCC, said employment should be promoted in ethnic minority areas, which are at a stage of economic transformation.

The per capita GDP in these areas is only 78 percent of the national level, with employment remaining low, he said.

The areas should use their advantage to develop industries in such fields as clean energy, resource exploitation, eco-friendly tourism and ethnic culture to provide more jobs for locals, he said.

More talent, technology and management experience from the more developed east China should be introduced into these areas to boost economic development. The government should also better the sense of responsibility for enterprises to employ more people from ethnic minority areas, he said.

Liu Muren, head of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region commission of the China Democratic League, proposed to protect rights of farmers whose land had been requisitioned amid China's urbanization drive.

Disputes during land requisition have been the cause of many petitions and conflicts, he said.

He called for establishment of a market-based system for land pricing, the protection farmers rights, to help them understand and supervise compensation deals and helping them integrate themselves into new communities after relocation.