Doors to Education Open Wider: OfficialMore effort will be made to expand senior middle school and higher-level education programs in the country's urban areas to help improve labor skills, according to the Ministry of Education.China will build more senior vocational schools and community-based training institutes, said Minister of Education Chen Zhili at a national conference on education reform in various cities which concluded Tuesday, December 5, in Suzhou of Jiangsu Province, east China. Chen called on regional education departments in all cities to make senior middle school-level and higher education programs more popular in order to build lifelong learning systems for people. Both State and non-State-run schools are being urged to provide more study opportunities, said Chen. In the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), the central government lays out important tasks such as accelerating the upgrading of industries, developing a modern service industry and pushing the national economy further into the information technology era. These goals need a large number of highly-skilled workers and promoting special education programs are crucial to cultivate talented people, said Chen. Poor education is a major problem preventing China's complete transition from a traditional agrarian nation to a modern industrial one, according to the ministry's Department for Basic Education. Now, more than three quarters of the population in developed areas have had a nine-year compulsory education, the ministry's statistics indicated. People living in remote, poor and rural areas will all receive vocational education within the next two years, according to the ministry's schedule. |
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