Xinhua news agency, Beijing, April 27 (reporter Xu Zhuang): “vocational education is as important as general education. There is no difference between high and low, good and bad between these two types of education.” When interpreting the newly revised Vocational Education Law on the 27th, Chen Ziji, director of the Department of vocational education and adult education of the Ministry of education, said.

The newly revised vocational education law was adopted at the 34th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress on April 20 and will go into effect on May 1. Public opinion generally expects that the new vocational education law can break the old ideas in society, such as “vocational education is a low-level education” and “the rising channel of vocational school students is narrow”. The press conference of the Ministry of education on that day was to introduce the relevant situation of the law.

How to respond to social concerns and enable vocational education to “incubate” more high-quality skilled talents for made in China and created in China? Chen Ziji introduced that the new vocational education law made it clear in legal form for the first time that “vocational education is an education type with the same important status as general education”, and truly realized the improvement of social recognition of vocational education by promoting top-level design such as general vocational accommodation.

In order to implement “vocational education and general education are equally important”, the new vocational education law also puts forward many “practical measures”: it stipulates that the State shall comprehensively promote the coordinated development of vocational education and general education; It stipulates that vocational school students enjoy equal opportunities with ordinary school students at the same level in terms of enrollment, employment and career development; It is stipulated that employers shall not set up conditions for application, employment and employment that hinder the equal employment and fair competition of vocational school graduates.

The revision of this law embodies the practical experience of the reform and development of vocational education over the years. At present, China has built the largest vocational education system in the world, with 11300 vocational schools and more than 30 million students. As China enters a new stage of development, industrial upgrading and economic structure adjustment are accelerating, the demand for technical and skilled talents in all walks of life is becoming more and more urgent, and the important position and role of vocational education are becoming more and more prominent.

“Many provisions of the current laws can no longer meet the needs of reform and development.” Deng Chuanhuai, director of the Department of policies and regulations of the Ministry of education, said that the new vocational education law optimizes the positioning of vocational education types, deeply promotes the reform of education methods, school running modes, management systems and guarantee mechanisms, enhances the adaptability of vocational education, and speeds up the construction of a modern vocational education system. “It will promote the training of more high-quality technical and skilled talents, skilled craftsmen and craftsmen from large countries, and provide high-quality human resources support for promoting economic and social development and improving national competitiveness.”