Lesson 9: How to mobilize university students to build new rural areas?

(Baonghean) - China always considers human resources and material resources as indispensable factors in the process of building new rural areas, in which human resources play a role in providing intellectual resources, paving the way, promoting and deciding success, so they have had many policies to encourage and give incentives to attract university graduates to work in rural areas.

Since 1995, Jiangsu has been the first province to have a policy to attract university students to take up leadership positions in rural areas. In 1999, Hainan Province implemented the "student village management" program. In March 2000, Tianhe District (Guangzhou City) recruited 52 students to work as village-level managers. From 2005 onwards, a series of localities such as Beijing, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Qinghai, Liaoning, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Anhui, Shanghai, Jilin, Hunan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Yunnan have successively implemented programs to attract students to manage villages and help farmers build new rural areas.

Since 2006, China has implemented a policy of mobilizing intellectual talents of university students to contribute to the construction of new rural areas on a national scale, including a university student program with "3 aids, 1 aid" to rural areas (agricultural assistance, educational assistance, medical assistance and assistance to the poor). In March 2008, the Central Organizing Committee coordinated with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to organize a forum to attract university students to build new rural areas. After that, each year the State mobilized more than 20,000 students to work in rural areas, mainly for them to work as village, hamlet, commune and ward managers and to propagate and help farmers build new rural areas.

The policy to attract students to work in the countryside is based on the principle of "public recruitment, voluntary registration, organized selection, and unified mobilization". The State stipulates that every year, by the end of April, localities must provide detailed information on the needs, job aspirations, positions, and number of students to be recruited in each field. By the end of May, based on the plans of the localities, the State can apply the assessment method to issue certificates of "students meeting village management standards", and from July, they will be mobilized to work in the localities, along with appropriate incentives. The service period in the countryside is from 2 to 3 years, when the term ends, students have the right to decide their career, either to continue working there or to go to work elsewhere.

But the State still has preferential policies for this group of students, such as: 1) If students have aspirations and the village, commune, ward, town, enterprise organization... levels are lacking management positions, they will continue to appoint them; 2) For students who want to set up a business, become independent entrepreneurs, they can be exempted from administrative fees, credit loan guarantees, interest subsidies and some other policies; 3) Get extra points in civil service exams, higher education exams; 4) Students who, after graduating, voluntarily return to remote and difficult areas after their service term ends, get extra points in graduate school exams, priority in contributions while studying...; 5) When working in a state agency, seniority is calculated from the time of participating in rural work... In the regulations on implementing preferential treatment for students participating in village management in 2013, the first year's salary is 3,000 yuan/month, the second year's is 3,500 yuan/month (equivalent to 12.5 million VND), in addition to enjoying some other benefits such as health care, maternity, and housing for civil servants; if there is a need to work continuously in rural areas, they will be reappointed if appropriate, and enjoy many other incentives...

Although there is an abundant labor force in rural areas, there is always a lack of talent and a highly qualified workforce. On the other hand, there are many outdated concepts, conservative and stagnant thoughts in rural areas, including the village management staff. Meanwhile, there is a great need to update scientific and technical knowledge, new organizational and management methods, so in the new rural policy, it is necessary to mobilize university students to work in rural areas. This will bring many benefits: 1) Promote propaganda work for farmers on many issues of the new rural areas; 2) Promote new and modern knowledge, science and technology; 3) Enhance the capacity of grassroots organizations in rural areas, change old and outdated habits and concepts; 4) This is also a policy to solve employment for university students, reducing the congestion in the city.

To mobilize university students to serve the new rural areas, it is necessary to: 1) Create in them a proactive attitude, make them volunteer rather than coercive; 2) Increase the number of staff in rural areas, reform the personnel management model and insurance regime in rural areas; 3) Educate students about the new rural areas, strengthen propaganda work among young union members, make them love the countryside and realize the need to be responsible for the countryside; 4) Create in university students a sense of long-term service to the countryside; 5) Educate students on comprehensive qualities, have understanding and be ready to adapt to the working environment in rural areas; 6) Make students realize that they can be satisfied working in rural areas, break down conservative barriers so that they can boldly promote their talents and actively innovate in the new rural areas; 7) It is very necessary to "order" human resources to serve the countryside from universities to have a training regime, prioritize right from the beginning...

Le Duc Hoang

(Vinh University)