They might not sell lip balm in remote parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but 25-year-old Chen Zeqing, a middle-school teacher from Xiamen in Fujian Province said he can live without it.
Chen is one of 137 volunteer teachers currently involved in the Partners in Learning project, which was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education and Microsoft (China) in 2003.
Its aim is to provide primary and middle-school teachers in rural and remote areas with basic education in computing and information technology, which they can later pass on to their own students.
Among the volunteers are postgraduate students in education technology, experienced teachers from developed areas of the country and IT professionals.
Chen is currently working with 30 teachers in Kebuer town on the grasslands of the Chahar Right Middle Banner, many of whom have never even seen a computer before. The icy winds that so common there have left his lips cracked and sore, but he said it doesn't get in the way of his work.
"I totally forget about the pain when I'm busy answering questions in class," he said.
Li Ruyi, 45, a geography teacher and one of Chen's students, did not know how to turn on a computer when the class began earlier this month. He now surfs the Web almost every day for new teaching materials to make his geography class more colorful and interesting.
"I found some wonderful pictures and videos of people reading books while floating on the surface of the Dead Sea in the Middle East, so I put them in a Powerpoint presentation. My students will be so excited to see it when they return for the new semester in September," Li said.
"I have my own QQ and blog and also visit other teachers' blogs across the country to get new teaching ideas," he said.
Since the launch of the Microsoft-funded project, some 100 classrooms, each with 30 computers with Internet access, have been built in remote areas across the country.
The partnership scheme is part of a broader program launched by the government in 2003 to create a teaching resource network. This allows millions of teachers across the country access to useful materials and information via the Internet and television.
This year, more than 1 million teachers in the country's western regions will benefit from a new training program, Zhou Ji, minister of education, said recently.
"Education is a long-term undertaking and essential in cultivating the country's talent. Information technology helps boost the quality of education teachers provide and also narrows the knowledge gap between rural and urban areas," Zhou said earlier this month at the launch of the program.
Dozens of teaching experts from Capital Normal University in Beijing, Northwest Normal University in Xi'an and Southwest University in Chongqing arrived in Tibet and Xinjiang recently to provide training for 2,000 local teachers. |