New Oriental helps train 25,000 rural teachers in 10 years

Support from an education company during the past decade has benefited thousands of teachers and students in underdeveloped areas of China.

The Candlelight Campaign, a program in which New Oriental Education and Technology Group dispatches teachers to train peers in impoverished areas for free, was launched by the company and the China Democratic League in 2007.

Through face-to-face lectures, the company has shared advanced methods for teaching English, math and Chinese with educators in remote areas.

So far, more than 400 employees have volunteered for the campaign, helping to train more than 25,000 teachers in 28 provinces and regions, mostly in central and western parts of China.

The company also opened its online courses and teaching resources to teachers and students in those areas.

Yu Minhong, founder and president of New Oriental, said on Wednesday that the company will continue working with the China Democratic League to train teachers in remote areas.

"By making full use of the internet, we hope that high-quality educational resources can benefit more teachers and students in need, and that the unbalanced situation in education development can be changed," he said.