The head of the Shaanxi Ministry of Education, Yang Xiwen, and Deputy Director Lu Liqun attended a news conference on accelerating the development of vocational education in rural areas, organized by the information office of the Shaanxi provincial government.

At the meeting, Yang talked mainly about the overall development of rural vocational education in Shaanxi.

Yang said as of 2010, there were 663 secondary vocational schools and 900,000 students in the province, among which 49 were national key schools and 22 model schools. About 11 comprehensive training bases were built and others were on the way. Also, the number of higher vocational schools was 39, with 382,000 students, of which six are model schools at the national level and six are at provincial level.

Yang said Shaanxi province has thoroughly implemented the spirit of vigorous development of vocational education.

"We have already got several achievements. First of all, the strategic position of vigorously developing vocational education has been strengthened. Second, its school-running scale unceasingly expands. Last but not least, the capability to serve the national economy and people's livelihood has grown noticeably," Yang said.

He concluded that rural vocational education is the basis for forming new industries in rural areas, and moreover, it is an important human support on the development of modern agriculture, which also can be seen as an effective way to build a moderately prosperous society. Based on the general idea of industry-centered, people-oriented ability enhancement and serving agriculture, the government has carried out the following projects: training skilled students, and developing a modern agricultural vocational education.

Yang also hoped for a system of modern agricultural vocational education with local features, and more effort should be put into cultivating a large number of qualified personnel so that these strategies can contribute to the economic and social development of Shaanxi.