72% of students in vocational schools come from villages

About three fourths (72.3%) of the total number of students in secondary vocational schools come from rural areas. 66.2% of the students are male, the National Bureau of Statistics said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. At the start of the 2008/09 academic year, 71% of the over 15,000 persons in secondary vocational education studied in professional schools, 20.9% in handicraft schools, while 8.1% in professional colleges. Most of them receive scholarships (92.2%). The average yearly fee for a student in secondary vocational education varies between 1,200 and 3,500 lei, depending on the institution and profession. 26.9% of the persons studying in secondary vocational schools want to work in the service sector, 16.4% want to become cooks, 10.3% vehicle repairers, 7.2% plasterers, 6.1% dressmakers or electro-gas welders-fitters, 5.8% - computer operators, 3.8% - carpenters, 3.4% tractor drivers-mechanics in agriculture. A number of 2,344 teachers worked in secondary vocational education at the beginning of the 2008/09 academic year, a decrease of 4.2% compared with a year before. The ratio of teachers to students is 1:10. Of the 23 handicraft schools, including six units under penitentiaries, 50 professional schools and 2 professional colleges, 66 have libraries, 62 have canteens, 60 have reading rooms, 59 have medical points and 57 have sports facilities. The number of students admitted to secondary vocational schools rose by 4.4%. 27,800 students of the total number studied in the state language (85.0%), 4,899 (14.7%) in Russian, while the others (0.3%) in Ukrainian. 12.4% of the students opted for the economy, 12.1% for medicine, 9.3% for transport, by 8.0% for pedagogy and service provision. Forty-one of the 47 secondary institutions where one could learn a profession have a gymnasium, 42 have reading rooms, while 35 have canteens, the National Bureau of Statistics said.