China trains more caretakers to manage aging society

China is making efforts to educate more people to care for its senior citizens, aiming to provide more professional services for the elderly and better face the reality of an aging society, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

The minister Li Liguo said on Wednesday that China has had 88 colleges offering majors in senior citizen care and service, and has attracted 2,583 students to this field by the end of 2015.

"We've also cooperated with other government departments to give training and qualification tests for those willing to serve the elderly, in a move to increase the number of nursing workers to 6 million by 2020," said Li, adding that the country has had 68 such training institutes so far.

The Standing Committee of National People's Congress, China's top legislature, conducted an inspection on whether a law to protect the elderlys' rights and interests was enforced well last year, finding that the picture in rural areas was not optimistic.

As a result, Li said that the ministry has increased efforts to serve old people in villages. For example, it has established more than 27,000 nursing houses with about 2.5 million beds in the countryside, according to a statement of the authority.

"In addition, we are also considering making better use of beds to supply better services for senior citizens," he added.

By the end of 2014, China had 212 million people over the age of 60, making up 15.5 percent of its total population, according to the top legislature.

By 2020, the elderly population will reach 243 million and problems relating to the aging will be springing up, it added.