Shenzhen will cooperate further with Hong Kong in the field of education this year, education chief Zhang Baoquan told a meeting yesterday.

"Full-rounded cooperation will be carried out between our city and Hong Kong from elementary schools to universities," Zhang told several hundred local school officials attending the meeting.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology will set up a graduate school in Shenzhen and Chinese University of Hong Kong will admit local high school passouts as undergraduates, he revealed.

Between 10 and 20 more local primary and secondary schools will join a sister-school program involving Hong Kong institutions. Since the program was launched last year, 72 local and Hong Kong schools have signed agreements of long-term cooperation.

Shenzhen will build at least one more international school to cater to the needs of a growing number of expats here, the education chief said.

The city will begin to build a new university this year. It is also preparing to open a medical school under Shenzhen University and another city university to meet the needs of the 2011 Universiade which will be held here.

Zhang especially mentioned the importance of sports in the lives of young people. "Primary and secondary schools in the city should guarantee that their students have at least one hour for sports each day starting this year," he said.

As the city government has decided that 30 percent of the total expenditure on education will go to vocational schools each year, the education bureau is planning six more vocational schools by 2010. "One of the eight boarding schools in the planning will be a large-scale top-level vocational school in China," Zhang said.

There were 35,664 vocational school students in the city in 2006, and 96.7 percent of graduates from the schools were either enrolled by universities or found jobs.

Editor: Yan