Sichuan, a multiple ethnic group-inhabited province in China bordering Tibet, worked on its education action plan for 2011-2020 in its minority ethnic regions at a meeting in the provincial capital of Chengdu on October 21.

The Sichuan government is striving to bring the educational level in its minority ethnic regions on par with other areas in the province by 2020, Governor Jiang Jufeng said at the meeting.

As part of the current 10-year plan for 2001-2010, the central government and the Sichuan provincial government have devoted 6.1 billion yuan ($893 million) to upgrade ethnic groups' education in the province, providing access of nine-year compulsory education to everyone free of charge. It previously provided only primary school education for free.

Since 2001, Sichuan has also greatly improved its schooling conditions in ethnic regions, with bilingual education both in Mandarin and local ethnic language moving forward, and the "9 plus 3" project running smoothly.

The "9 plus 3" project means students will get three years' secondary vocational education for free after they finish the nine-year compulsory education.

More than 10,000 Tibetan students in Sichuan province have been receiving free secondary vocational education since this September as part of the "9 plus 3" project, Xinhua news agency reported September 2.