Educational Standards Determine Farmers' Income Levels

Educational standards have become important factors in determining farmers' income levels, according to a survey conducted by east China's Fujian Provincial Rural Investigation Team.

In the countryside in Fujian Province, farmers with a senior middle school education or higher account for 24 percent of the rural population, those with a junior middle school education account for 31 percent and those with a primary school education or below 45 percent.

The annual income level of the farmers with a senior middle school education or above is 3,716 yuan (about US$448), 8.6 percent and 18 percent higher than those with a junior middle school education and the rest of the farmers, respectively.

The figure of 3,716 yuan is also 15 percent higher than Fujian's average farmers' income level of 3,230 yuan（about US$400). The income levels of farmers of a junior middle school education and lower are 3,422 yuan and 3,147 yuan, respectively.

According to the survey, the gap among the three types of farmers in the wage-related incomes, namely, earnings made from working in cities, is much wider. The annual income of senior high school graduates

from this source is 1,320 yuan（about US$160), 21 percent higher than 1,088 yuan （about US$130) for the farmers with a junior middle school education and 28 percent higher than the rest farmers.

(Xinhua 03/29/2001)