1,000 Chinese rural schools to offer science literacy courses

BEIJING -- A total of 1,000 rural primary schools across China will offer science and technology literacy courses to improve the scientific practice of rural students, the People's Daily reported Wednesday.

The project was launched Tuesday in Beijing at a seminar attended by nationwide experts and scholars in science and education. The project will spend 38 million yuan (about $5.50 million) offering courses, textbooks and teaching aids to 1,000 rural primary schools in more than 20 provincial-level regions, including Yunnan, Guangxi and Tibet.

Courses are mainly in the fields of artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, aerospace, agricultural science and life science.

In addition, 100 urban eminent teachers will be hired to provide online training courses for 10,000 rural teachers.

The project is supported by the Pingan Insurance Group.

China's rural proportion of the scientifically-literate population last year was 4.93 percent, lower than the national average of 8.47 percent.

He Shanliang, a chief designer of the courses and professor at the Nanjing Normal University, said that the courses would focus on cultivating students' innovation and practice abilities.

In May, a rural primary school in Guangdong province was pioneering such a course, which taught students how to raise rice yield with innovative technologies.

Earlier this month, the first laboratory of the project was set up in a county-level primary school in Gansu province, where students learned to design a multi-geared ferris wheel model and a temperature-controlled hatchery.

By September, all schools on the list will begin offering the courses.