By 2020, the gross enrollment rate of the whole country and provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) will reach more than 90%, and the gross enrollment rate in poverty-stricken areas in the central and western regions will increase significantly. Because of the disparity between the poverty-stricken areas in the central and western regions and the eastern regions, it is not easy to achieve the goal of significant improvement in the short term. This requires more emphasis on the importance of "precision strike", that is, to clarify where the "growth point" of the gross enrollment rate is and find the "short board" that affects the gross enrollment rate. Facts have proved that, compared with ordinary high school education, secondary vocational education has more advantages in helping "precision strike".

First, vigorously developing secondary vocational education can increase the gross enrollment rate of high school education in poverty-stricken areas, ethnic areas, remote areas and old revolutionary areas in the central and western regions. At present, the gross enrollment rate of senior high school education in four provinces and regions in China is still below 70%, and the gross enrollment rate of 1 1 cities in poor areas is below 50%. The popularization level of high school education in border counties and ethnic autonomous counties is even lower, and in some places it is less than half or even one third of the national average. These places are obviously shortcomings in popularizing high school education. In these areas, vigorously developing secondary vocational education can not only effectively improve the popularization rate of high school education, but also enable young laborers to acquire skills, thus achieving the effect of accurate poverty alleviation.

Second, vigorously developing secondary vocational education can increase the gross enrollment rate of rural high school education. Due to the uneven distribution of educational resources, the high-quality high school educational resources enjoyed by rural areas are very limited. A survey shows that in the structure of secondary vocational education in China, students from rural areas occupy a large proportion, and the stability of their students even directly affects the development scale of secondary vocational education in rural areas. It can be seen that vigorously developing secondary vocational education can ensure the popularization rate of rural high school education to a certain extent. In addition, attracting more rural students to receive secondary vocational education can effectively improve the quality of rural labor force in China, and then reserve sufficient human resources for new urbanization.

Thirdly, vigorously developing secondary vocational education can improve the gross enrollment rate of high school education for special groups such as students with financial difficulties, disabled students and migrant children of migrant workers. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed that tuition and miscellaneous fees for secondary vocational education should be gradually exempted. This policy has benefited nearly 20 million students, covering nearly half of the total population receiving high school education. The policy of exempting tuition and miscellaneous fees will attract more students from poor families, disabled students and children of migrant workers to receive secondary vocational education, thus laying a solid foundation for popularizing high school education.