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Distance Learning Promoted
Education officials are determined to promote distance learning programs to help develop education in rural and poor areas of China.
According to Frioday's "China Daily", the Ministry of Education started a distance learning project last May in 145 areas of central and western China, which have relatively underdeveloped economies and poor education facilities.
The project, featuring computerized teaching networks, is underway in Chongqing Municipality, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Hunan and Hubei provinces, and Tibet, Xinjiang Uygur, Ningxia Hui, Guangxi Zhuang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, the newspaper quoted Wang Zhuzhu, an official with the ministry as saying.
Wang was attending a workshop on international cooperation on distance education, which opened yesterday in Beijing. To date, 240 primary school teachers in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces have received computer-based teaching training programs, said Wang. Wang said such training programs will be introduced into more schools to help schoolmasters and teachers learn computer skills. "Equipping these areas with computer networks is a vital. The State has invested 80 million yuan in support of the project," said Wang.
Spreading distance learning is an important step to help ease the shortage of teachers in western regions. It also allows these areas to benefit from advanced teaching techniques produced by more developed areas.
The ministry introduced a series of measures early this year to promote educational development in west China. Distance learning is a major part of those measures, said Yuan Chengchen, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Science and Technology. At the workshop, Kerstin Leitner, co-ordinator of the United Nations Development Program in China, expressed her interest in distance learning programs. She highlighted issues such as how to build information infrastructure in the targeted areas, plans to work with international organizations, the assessment of learning programs and teacher training, and how to solve language barriers among different ethnic groups.
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