Shandong's expenditure on education accounted for about 20 percent of its general public budget expenditure in 2018, ranking first not only in the province's various expenditures, but also in China's total education spending.

The expenditure is expected to rise, according to attendees at a reviewing conference on budget, with more investment in education and technology to cultivate talents for future development expected this year.

"Growth in education spending is a must to turn Shandong, a province with large population, to a modern strong province," said Shi Min, a government official at the conference.

"However, Shandong still needs to improve education security as its per capita education funds remains low in the country," said Gao Jianfeng, deputy director of the provincial department of finance.