Officials should attach great importance to the position vocational education takes in the process of China's economic and social development, Li said at a national conference on vocational education.

The conference, held by the State Council, opened yesterday in Beijing.

Li said that in the coming years, China will further reform the management system of vocational education.

Under the system, city-level governments should take more responsibility for this management.

The way vocational schools are run will also be reformed to make government the overseer and industries, companies and other non-governmental agencies the active parties, Li said.

He also said the development of vocational education should be closely linked to economic and social development.

Training of technical workers, especially high-level technicians, should be strengthened. And farmers should be offered more training in scientific knowledge and modern agricultural techniques.

Li said that a group of quality teachers should be groomed for vocational education and that teachers and education management staff members should be made to compete for their positions.

Vocational schools should attract technical and management staff from enterprises to teach their students, he said.

Enterprises should employ those who graduate from relevant vocational schools or are trained and get a certificate for a certain technique, he said.

Those who want to run their own business are also required to get the necessary training and vocational education.

Thanks to past efforts by officials at different levels, he said, vocational education in China has experienced remarkable development and contributed to the better quality of the general labor force.

(China Daily July 18, 2003)