Yangchang Township in Pan County Uses Distance Education to Carry Out Learning Activities and Help Villagers Get Rich
On October 28, after dinner, Tu Yuanji, a villager from Shangwu Village in Yangchang Township, Pan County, turned on the distance education channel on his TV as usual and began his "required course." The course had two main parts: first, a lecture by experts on the Scientific Outlook on Development, and second, practical agricultural technical knowledge.
"At this time in the past, the villagers were basically all busy with their own affairs. Now things are different. When the hour comes, everyone is glued to the TV to 'recharge.'" Speaking of the changes in the villagers, Dai Dezhong, Party branch secretary of Shangwu Village in Yangchang Township, Pan County, was all smiles.
In recent years, Shangwu Village has strengthened the building of its modern distance education network, connecting the computer server at the village distance education site with the cable televisions in villagers' homes, extending the modern information superhighway to every household and continuously delivering practical information on science and technology, agriculture and culture to farmers.
"Giving gold or silver is not as good as giving science and technology and information. Distance education has brought farmers truly useful and effective scientific and technological information. Nowadays, the villagers in our village no longer just keep their heads down and work. Instead, they have changed their way of thinking and strengthened their studies, becoming new-type farmers who are cultured, know technology and can do business. Farmers' incomes are also rising significantly..." Dai Dezhong said with deep feeling.
Tu Yuanji, who already has more than two years of breeding experience, told reporters that after the village connected the distance education network to his home, he watched practical agricultural technology programs every day and his chicken-raising skills improved considerably. His farm has tens of thousands of chicks in stock. The survival rate of the chicks has increased and the raising time has been shortened. Each year he can sell 300,000 chicks, with an income of about 150,000 yuan.
Since the activity of studying and practicing the Scientific Outlook on Development began, Shangwu Village, in accordance with the general requirements of "Party members and cadres receive education, scientific development reaches a higher level, and the people receive real benefits," has made full use of the distance education platform and used evenings and slack farming seasons to widely publicize the significance of studying and practicing the Scientific Outlook on Development, enabling Party members to study the content of the Scientific Outlook on Development at home. This has created a good atmosphere for the effective carrying out of the study and practice activity and effectively solved the problem that Party members are scattered and it is difficult to gather them together for study.
At the same time, the village Party branch and village committee also led the village's 27 Party members in widely collecting what the masses are thinking, hoping and looking forward to through discussion meetings, household visits and other means, promptly downloading new crop varieties, new technologies and market information, making them into CDs and distributing them to the masses. At present, more than 3,000 CDs have been distributed free of charge to villagers, and quite a few villagers from other villages have come to get them as well.
Led by Shangwu Village, villagers in the surrounding Xiawu Village, Xiaohe Village and Xiayun Village in Yuni Township have also joined the ranks of going online to study and "seek out" technology. Now, more than 2,000 households in 4 villages including Shangwu can watch distance education programs through cable television at home. Their annual per capita net income exceeds the local average, reaching more than 3,000 yuan.