READING AND SPEAKING
Within a few decades, a quarter of China’s population will be aged 60 or over.As a result, there will be fewer full-time workers between the age of 20 and 65 to support the older people and children in the society. As the age distribution of the population changes,education will become increasingly important as a means of improving the health and employment opportunities of older people. It will also help strengthen family relationships and the sense of community. The Ministry of Education introduced the first University of the Third Age (UTA) in Shandong in 1983. There are now about 17,000 UTAs in China providing a wide-ranging curriculum to about 1.4 million older people. When the age restriction for the University Entrance Exams was lifted in 2001, several other people, including a 73-year-old Shandong man, signed up to take the test. In the autumn of 2004, business woman Liu Fuzhen joined her 14-year-old son at Yincai Junior Middle School in Lingshai as a full-time member of second grade class. It is 23 years since Mme Liu dropped out of school to help her family through financial difficulties by finding work. Having set up a successful property business, Mme Liu has now decided to pursue her childhood ambition of completing high school and attending university.
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