Hubei puts emphasis on training for rural teachers

Hubei province is making great efforts to support schoolteachers in rural areas as it makes the development of countryside teachers the priority in enhancing education quality.

According to a release by the provincial government, there are about 600,000 teachers in Hubei, of whom 89,000 serve in rural areas.

In order to improve their teaching ability, the province channels 70 million yuan ($9.8 million) every year to train teachers, and those in rural schools, especially in poor areas, are given priority.

The release said that about 480,000 teachers took the training programs organized by the provincial government, with those from poverty - stricken areas invited to join the training courses in the past five years.

Financial support is also in the pipeline for teachers in rural areas to secure a better living environment. Such support also encourages more young people to teach in rural schools.

Last year, subsidies of 239 million yuan were given, benefiting 57,700 schoolteachers in the countryside, according to the government release.

Over 42,000 apartments worth 1.7 billion yuan were built for rural schoolteachers in more than 50 rural areas in previous years.

Information technology was also emphasized by the government to enhance teaching quality and improve education for children in rural areas.

So far, about 460,000 schoolteachers across the province completed training in the application of information technology, and 60 percent of them use the internet to explore new teaching methods, according to the release.

Wu Zhihua, a 35-year-old who now teaches at an elementary school in Dafasi town in Wuxue city, set up the city's first workshop for programming in rural areas and guided his students to win rewards at a provincial-level robot competition.

"I used to work in a foreign trade company in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and chose to come to the school in 2013 to teach mathematics, sports and information technology," he said.

"The living and teaching facilities were shabby back then," he said. "And most of the students I taught were left-behind children who lived a boring life."

He then inspired the children and taught them about information technology.

"Children are born with a nature to love playing games, so I taught them typing and programming through games."

In 2015, he bought a robot for the students using 30,000 yuan that he had planned to use for his wedding.

"I got great support from my wife and then the school's president who helped me borrow 10 computers from other schools to start computer lessons for the kids.

"We hope that more kids can understand the internet and change their future with education," he said.