Best and brightest: Teachers who inspire the nation

Teacher spreads knowledge through internet

Li Yongle is the kind of teacher most pupils and students wish they had.

The 37-year-old, who has been teaching physics for 11 years in the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China in Beijing, is funny, smart and most importantly, believes math and physics are tools not just to explain our existence, but also deal with our everyday concerns.

In 2015, he launched a public WeChat account called Toilet Classroom, through which he hoped that students would be able to fill their fragmented time by studying. He posted short video clips, lasting five to 10 minutes, on physics and math. Most clips were recorded in Li's classroom after school.

The Diplomat, a magazine from the United States, referred to Li's vision for the Toilet Classroom as creating the Chinese version of the Khan Academy, the online learning platform famous for its free, high-quality lessons.

In 2017, a video recorded and published by his students of him explaining the term "leap year" took the internet by storm with tens of millions of views in one day, propelling him to online stardom.

Li has more than 11 million followers on the Xigua video app.

To further promote equality in education and science education among the public, Li signed an exclusive cooperation contract with the video app in late July.

Within the framework of the agreement, he plans to record basic classes taken in high school with other science video creators active on the app and post the videos on the platform for free.