China's annual government meetings, the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, concluded on March 15th. The government work report and plans for the upcoming year approved at the sessions outlined several aims related to education, including increased investment in vocational education, reinforcement of previous announcements on improving equality and improving education in less-developed parts of China, and plans to continue investing in scientific research. The government will continue to spend more than 4 per cent of GDP on education, with over RMB 1 trillion (£110 Bn) in central government spending.

Vocational education played an important role in this year's plans, with Premier Li Keqiang's speech promising to "greatly increase" the central government's fiscal support for vocational colleges and encouragement of local governments to do the same. Scholarships and grants for vocational college students will also be expanded, and the Premier announced RMB 100 billion (£11 Bn) in funding for a vocational skills initiative aiming to provide training to 15 million people upgrading their skills or switching jobs or industries.

Meanwhile, this year's work report again emphasises improving living standards in less wealthy parts of the country, including rural areas and central and western China. This includes measures to reduce rural student school dropout rates, encourage teachers to teach in rural areas and to improve teaching conditions in rural schools, and improve access education for children living with their migrant worker parents in cities. University admissions quotas for students from poor and rural areas will be increased, while the government will also continue to support the development of high-level universities in central and western China.

In the research field the Premier announced that the central government would increase support for both basic and applied research and support platforms for university-industry collaboration. He also announced that innovation cooperation with other countries will be expanded, although no details were provided.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, British Council International Education Services

In the education sector, the plans announced by Li Keqiang are roughly in line with existing policies such as the recently-announced China Education Modernisation 2035. However the recent announcement had a particular emphasis on vocational education, particularly at the higher education level, which points towards an increased importance of this sector in coming years. The Ministry of Education's 2018 statistical release shows that this is already underway - the number of entrants to higher vocational colleges grew by 5.2 per cent last year, almost twice the rate of bachelor's degree entrants; this is largely a result of government planning as entry to university is mainly limited by quotas set at the provincial level.

Source

Full text of the government work report from china.org.cn: http://www.china.org.cn/china/NPC_CPPCC_2019/2019-03/16/content_74578930.htm