China will shorten the contract time for government-funded normal students from 10 years to six years, as part of its efforts to cultivate more qualified teachers, the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday.

Since 2007, the ministry has been implementing the "Free Normal Education" program for college students majoring in education at normal universities. Students participating in the program do not need to pay tuition fees, but they are required to teach at primary and secondary schools for at least 10 years after graduation.

The ministry will allocate more financial support for students participating in the program and encourage high-level universities to offer education degrees, according to a guideline published on the ministry’s website.

It also will focus on cultivating normal students majoring in preschool education in vocational schools, which also are exempt from tuition fees and have a contract time of five years, the guideline said.

China, with 46 million preschool children, has a shortage of 710,000 kindergarten teachers and 760,000 caretakers, based on the proportion of one teacher for 15 children and one caretaker for 30 children, Chen Baosheng, minister of education, said at an earlier news conference.

"The shortage of teachers and caretakers is expected to reach 1 million and 900,000, respectively, by 2020," Chen said.

Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education, said there is less of a shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools, but they still lack qualified and responsible teachers, especially for those in rural areas.