Vocational education needs revamp to make it fit for modernization

The Ministry of Education announced before the end of last year that China has established the world's largest vocational education system. According to statistics, about 35 million students are studying in 11,133 vocational schools and universities. Their graduates have made up over 70 percent of those newly employed in the nation's modern manufacturing and modern service industries in recent years.

Given the fact that China has a population of over 1.4 billion and that more than 80 million students are studying in junior and senior high schools, the scale does not surprise me. It is only natural for the country to have the world's most extensive educational system as well as the largest network for vocational education.

China operates a nine-year compulsory education system. On graduating from junior-high schools after completing the compulsory period, about 40 percent of the graduates choose to stop studying or to go to middle-level vocational schools. The majority choose to go to normal senior-high schools for another three years to fight for a university place. Competition has always been tough in the annual national university entrance exams and those who score low may have to settle for a high-level vocational college.