Increased funding will be made available in China for vocational education and more financial support given to needy students studying in vocational schools, said Vice Minister of Education Wu Qidi in Beijing Thursday.

 

Speaking at a forum on vocational education Wu said this year China launched a special grant for such studies. Each poor student on the first grade of vocational school would get 1,000 yuan (US$125) per year. Second and third graders would get grants from provincial and local governments.

 

Students with financial difficulties included those living in underdeveloped regions, orphans, children from low-income rural and urban families, ethnic minorities, the children of martyrs and those affected by accidents, he said.

 

This year the government has spent 800 million yuan (US$100 million) in assisting poor students in vocational schools. A total of four billion yuan (US$500 million) would be granted to four million vocational students over the next five years.

 

As well as assisting needy students the government also vowed to spend more in boosting vocational education at middle and higher levels. With an investment of 1.4 billion yuan (US$175 million) in the next five years the Ministry of Education would establish 2,000 training centers, 1,000 county-level vocational education centers, 1,000 middle vocational schools and 100 higher vocational schools. The ministry would also train two million teachers for vocational education, according to the official.

 

This year 7.5 million students went to middle vocational schools. By 2010 the number is expected to reach eight million. This is the same as the number of students in general high schools. The employment rate of middle vocational school students stayed at 90 percent or higher in the last two years despite the extended enrollment of one million each year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2006)