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Hu calls to develop education as priority
BEIJING—Education should be
developed as a priority to help train more professional and skilled
people for building a moderately prosperous society and propelling
socialist modernization, said Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday.
At a seminar in the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, the compound where
China’s leaders work and live, Hu discussed the educational development
strategy with more than 100 model teachers from around the country.
After hearing their opinions and suggestions, Hu expressed his
appreciation and greetings on behalf of the Communist Party of China and
the government. China will mark its 23rd Teachers’ Day on Sept. 10. “You
are the excellent representatives of all teachers in China. With the
nation and people in mind, you have set good examples with your silent
and selfless sacrifice in your careers,” Hu told the teachers. Education
was the basic way of raising moral standards as well as cultural and
scientific levels, he said, ordering further determination and more
funding to ensure compulsory education, promote vocational education and
raise the quality of higher education. Equality in education should be
set as a basic state policy to shorten the gap in educational standards
between urban and rural areas, he said.
He called on the public to show more respect to teachers so their
enthusiasm, initiative and creativity will be fully developed.
He also encouraged more young people to teach in the countryside, remote
areas and places where teachers are needed most. Premier Wen Jiabao,
Vice President Zeng Qinghong, and Li Changchun, who are members of the
Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) Central Committee, also attended the seminar.
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.—Xinhua |
