State Councilor Liu Yandong announced recently that the education budget will increase this year by 580 billion yuan from 2011, Liu added that priorities will be to support people from rural areas and ethnic minorities and also to increase funding into technical and vocational schools. Already students from vocational and technical schools receive 3.95 million yuan in government funded aid. The increase in funding is seen as a forerunner to a plan to improve the quality of vocational and technical schools and to connect vocational and general education. Reports China Daily.