A History of Vocational Education Development in China

The earliest vocational education in China may be traced back to the industrial education in the 1860's more than l30 years ago. The main content of vocational education at that period £¨ late Qing Dynasty £© was to study western technology and train manpower with practical skills. The "Schooling System of 1902" laid down a set of systematic regulations for vocational education, while the "Chinese Vocational Education Society", which was established in l917, set the precedence of joint provision of vocational education by the education sector and the industrial sector in China. However, the slow economic progress and backward industry hampered the development of vocational education in China before 1949£® At that time, there were only 561 secondary technical schools with an enrollment of 77,000 students and 3 schools for training skill workers with an enrollment of 2700 students. The total enrollment in secondary vocational schools represented only 4£®2£¥ of the total students population in secondary schools.

During the 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in l949, vocational education underwent a process of adjustment, rectification, substantiation, reform, improvement and steady development£® In the 1950's, to meet the needs of economic expansion, thousands of specialized secondary schools £¨ SSSs £© and skill worker schools were set up while in the 1960's the training of manpower badly needed in all sectors of the society was accelerated and agricultural secondary schools and other vocational schools developed rapidly. However, the normal pace of development of Chinese vocational education was seriously affected by the outbreak of the culture revolution.

Since China entered a new historical era of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978, Chinese vocational education has been injected with tremendous vitality for development£® In 1980, formulated by the Ministry of Education£¨MoE£© and the State Bureau of Labor and ratified by the State Council, the " Report on the Structural Reform of Secondary Education" pointed out that the structure of secondary education should be reformed and vocational education be developed so as to enable the senior secondary schools to meet the needs of socialistic modernization construction. In 1985,the CPC Central Committee promulgated the "Decision on the Structural Reform of Education", clearly laying down that a vocational education system with rational structure and different stages from junior level to senior level which could match the industrial sectors and link up with regular secondary education should be gradually established£® Then in l991, the State Council formulated the "Decision on Energetically Developing Vocational and Technical Education" identifying the tasks and objectives for the further development of vocational education in the light of economic and social development in the 1990's in China. The " Outline on Reform and Development of Education in China" drawn up by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in 1993 required governments at various levels to attach great importance to vocational education, make overall plans and energetical develop vocational education. The outline aimed at mobilizing the initiatives of all departments, enterprises, institutions and all quarters of the society to provide vocational education of multiple forms and various levels. In 1996, the first "Vocational Education Law" in China was formally promulgated and implemented, providing legal protection for the development and perfection of vocational education. A year after, in the "Report of the 15th National Congress", President Jiang Zeming pointed out that the strategy of invigorating China through science, technology and education and keeping sustainable development should be implemented and vocational education and adult education of various forms should be actively developed. The "Decision on Deepening Educational Reform and Promoting Quality Education " the State Council in 1999 emphasizes that an educational system adapting to the socialistic market economy and the internal law of education with different types of education linking up to each other should be established, and that vocational education should be energetically developed and senior secondary education including regular and vocational education should also be vigorously developed£® All these policies, regulations and laws have not only created an unprecedentedly good social environment for the development of vocational education, but also show the direction for the reform and development of vocational education in the 21st century.