The Chinese government is to invest 500 million yuan (64.1 million U.S. dollars) over the next four years to improve teaching standards in secondary vocational training schools, said an official with the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Beijing on Thursday.

The main obstacle to the development of vocational education in China was the lack of adequate teachers in schools, said Wu Qidi, Vice Minister of Education.

"The unprecedented investment of 500 million yuan by the central government exceeds the total investment over the past two decades," said Huang Yao, director of the ministry's Department of Adult Education.

The investment would be used to train 150,000 teachers in secondary vocational schools, support the development of training courses in urgently required professions, and send teachers to study abroad from 2007 to 2010, said Huang.

Secondary vocational schools had 750,000 teachers in 2005, of whom 71.84 percent had bachelor degrees. Every 21 students had one teacher, statistics showed.

The number of students in secondary vocational schools reached 18 million in 2006. An estimated 22 million students will study in secondary vocational schools by 2010. At least 300,000 more teachers are needed according to the current ratio of teachers to students.

Source: Xinhua