China plans to enroll 8.2 million students for secondary vocational school education this year, Zhou Ji, the Minister of Education, said at a national meeting in Beijing on Monday.

"Expanding secondary vocational education will be key to developing the country's over-all education level," said Zhou, adding it was a pressing task to increase the enrollment.

He said to attract more students to secondary vocational schools, China should offer more financial support, build a better school management system and try to improve teacher training.

In the past five years, China's vocational education has made good progress. In 2007, secondary vocational schools enrolled 500,000 more students than the previous year, boosting the total to 8 million.

"Secondary vocational schools should provide high-quality education and prepare their students to be more competitive in the job market," Zhou said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2008)