Jack Ma Foundation aids rural teachers

HANGZHOU - The Jack Ma Foundation earlier this month announced a new plan to invest at least 300 million yuan ($45 million) to encourage graduates of normal schools to teach in rural areas over the next 10 years.

The first 10 million yuan will be invested in selecting 100 fresh graduates from normal schools in Chongqing municipality, as well as Hunan, Sichuan and Jilin provinces. Each participant will be provided with a 100,000 yuan subsidy for serving at a rural school for five years.

"Rural education will get better only if we have the best graduates as rural teachers," says Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.