China's Ministry of Education has issued a circular which says that five projects will be carried out this year to offer national training to middle and primary school teachers across the country.
The five projects include the training program for the backbone teachers from the remote areas of western China; the long-distance training program for senior middle school teachers from provinces under textbook reform experiment; the long-distance training program for compulsory education teachers in the rural areas of the middle and western parts of China; the special training program for directors of middle and primary schools; and the training program for middle and primary school physical education teachers. Under the training program for the backbone teachers from the remote areas of western China, normal universities of the eastern cities and provinces and Shaanxi Normal University will be entrusted to offer targeted training to teachers from the western provinces of the country. The training content will be distributed via a computer disk which will be sent to the areas to benefit about 500,000 teachers from the countryside.
The long-distance training program for senior middle school teachers from provinces under textbook reform experiment will combine online training with on-site study. It will be offered to up to 100,000 senior middle school teachers from the five provinces that are under a textbook reform by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp. The long-distance training program for compulsory education teachers in the rural areas of the middle and western part of China will be carried out by online broadcasting and tutoring. About 200,000 teachers from 22 provinces in the middle and west China as well as 150 counties from Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp will benefit from this program.
The special training program for directors of middle and primary schools will be given to 10,000 teachers in charge of a class from 100 selected counties throughout the country based on a program implemented last year. In addition, China's Ministry of Education will commission institutions of higher learning with the right conditions to offer special training to physical education teachers of the middle and primary schools in west China to improve their teaching skills.
The Ministry of Education says it is also working on a general plan to further strengthen on the training of middle and primary school teachers in the middle and western part of the country in the next five years.
