Vocational school students understanding of the New Farm Village Programme －with special reference to Hunan Province－

China's New Farn Village Programme is under way to improve the lives of the 800 million people who live in farming communities by improving education and hygiene，and heightening the quality of culture and technology whilst preserving the balance between agricultural and urban regions，eastern and western China and man and nature. The govemment eyes secondary vocational education as important in this task and is striving for it to produce so-called new farmers. This paper looks at how secondary vocational education has developed under this national programme and surveys the enrolment motivation and employment hopes of students at 5 schools in agricultural areas of differing economic levels in Hunan Province to examine their understanding of the New Farm Village Programme. The five areas can be divided economically into advanced，middle and underdeveloped areas. There are fewer students in underdeveloped areas than advanced areas who say they enrolled in the vocational schools to upgrade their skills or take qualifications. Furthermore, after graduating students want to find employment in the big cities or in their hometowns but not in the undeveioped west. This tendency can be seen more in rural regions where development is delayed. We can clearly see that after graduating students aim to enter university and then leave the agricultural areas for economic centres such as Beijing，Shanghai or Shenzhen. Their maximum concem is how to escape the farming communities which is contrary to goals of the government programme. Analysing the Survey onto enrolment motivation and employment hopes it can be concluded that students at vocational schools show very little interest in the govemment's New Farm Village Programme or New Farrners. This can be seen most in students in the undeveloped areas，so it is suggested for the programme to succeed the economic development of middle and undeveloped areas should be prioritised