This is NEWS Plus Special English.
More than 130 million people have graduated from vocational schools and colleges in China since 1996.
According to a report from the top legislature, the National People's Congress, vocational schools and colleges have become the main training ground for technical workers.
China has 13,000 vocational schools and colleges, with 30 million students. Last year, there were around 18 million students in secondary vocational schools, compared with 13 million in 1996. The number of students enrolled in vocational colleges stood at 10 million last year, compared to 1 million 19 years ago.
Along with the increasing number of students, investment in vocational education has expanded over the past 19 years, with an average increase of 17 percent per year.
A project initiated in 2009 to exempt some students at secondary vocational schools from tuition fees has benefited 35 million people. In the 19 years since the law on vocational schools and colleges was introduced, more than 200 million people have participated in evaluations of vocational skills, with around 160 million obtaining certificates.
Now the news continues.
A kind of traditional Chinese medicine has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enter phase III of clinical trials.
Kang-lai-te, an anticancer drug with active ingredients extracted from coix seeds, passed a phase II trial by the administration for efficacy in treating pancreatic cancer.
Coix is a grain related to rice and maize and an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.
Kanglaite has been proven to have significant effects on middle or late-stage malignancies of pancreatic, lung and liver cancers. Patients were found to have longer life expectancy when injected with it together with chemotherapy.
After establishing that the benefits outweigh known risks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it can be approved for sale.
Due to the low toxicity of the medicine and the serious nature of pancreatic cancer, it may be possible to enter the U.S. market with only one phase III study instead of the normal two.
The developer plans to enroll 750 patients in the phase III trial in China, the US and Europe. It will take three to four years to complete at a cost of some 50 million US dollars.
