BECE. Newsletter Vol.21, No.2, 2025, BECE 2049 Preference for General over Vocational Tracks: An Investigation Based on a Survey of 21,531 Junior Sec- ondary Students from Three Autonomous Prefectures By Shen, Y. Correspondence to: Youlu Shen, Hainan Normal University, China. E-mail: youlushen@126.com HIS STUDY aims to investigate the issue of preference for general over vocational tracks (PFGOVT) at the senior secondary education level in ethnic minority areas as well as the underlying reasons. The research team conducted a survey of 21,531 ninth-grade students from three autonomous prefectures where ethnic minority populations predominate, namely, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, Nujiang Lisu Au- tonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, and Linxia Hui Autonomous Pre- fecture in Gansu Province. The survey was preceded by in-person interviews with certain numbers of junior secondary students, parents, teachers, and lo- cal educational officials. Research Findings: • PFGOVT was pervasive among junior secondary school graduates in the three prefectures, for whom attending general senior second- ary schools was invariably the first choice. More than half of the students surveyed expressed a strong determination to pursue the general senior sec- ondary track, and nearly 30 of them would accept the secondary vocational education as a last resort only when they failed to enter general high schools. • Factors, including gender, family residence location, paternal occupation, maternal educational level, household income level, and academ- ic performance ranking, significantly affected the degree of PFGOVT of each individual student. • Primary reasons for students’ unwillingness to pursue voca- tional education included the uncertainties in finding employment with a vo- cational school degree, worries about increasing financial burdens on their parents, the undesirable quality of current vocational education, poor disci- pline management of secondary vocational schools, low pay for secondary vocational graduates, low social recognition of practical skills, and social discrimination against vocational students. Based on its findings, the study proposes the following recommenda- tions: (i) Schools, governments at all levels, and the media should actively disseminate information about recent developments in secondary vocational education to increase the public knowledge of the prospects of personal de- T mailto:youlushen@126.com Vol.21, No.2, 2025, BECE 2050 velopment as secondary vocational students. (ii) Measures should be taken to address the specific reasons for students’ reluctance to pursue the vocational track, including increasing investment in secondary vocational education, creating more employment opportunities for vocational graduates, and rais- ing the income levels of secondary vocational graduates; (iii) Career plan- ning training should be encouraged in primary and secondary schools to en- hance the appeal of the vocational track. Source: Journal of Central China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 2025; 64(03):163-174.