Hujiang offers courses to rural kids

Online learning service provider Hujiang EdTech is offering free courses to help poverty-stricken left-behind children gain greater access to education.

The poverty-alleviation Hu+ Project, pronounced hujia, was launched by Hujiang in 2015. Aiming to offer educational assistance to primary and middle schools in remote areas of China, the project takes advantage of internet services to provide online classes across the nation.

Hujiang's real-time interaction education platform, CCtalk, provides remote teaching services. The online courses enable students in underprivileged regions access to the same educational resources as those in urban areas, promoting educational equality.

By the end of 2017, Hujiang had brought its CCtalk platform to a total of 3,000 needy schools in the country's poverty-stricken areas, establishing connections among over 1 million students and 100,000 teachers. The service covered over 500 counties across 30 regions, such as rural areas in Henan, Gansu and Sichuan provinces.

"With the help of information technology, those left-behind children - whose parents have left their hometowns to work in other cities - are able to access high-quality education. The livestreaming education service provides poor students with opportunities to interact with teachers, listen to them and answer questions, just like in real classes," said Jin Rui, deputy director-general of the education bureau of Sanmenxia, a city in Henan province.

Children from Beijiao Primary School of Changzhou in East China's Jiangsu province have also enjoyed and benefited from Hujiang's online courses. According to Xu Qing, principal of the school, up to 70 percent of the children's parents are migrant workers who usually have limited time to take care of their children.

"With the launch of the project, the left-behind children can enjoy online courses that are not only high-quality but involve a lot of fun. Courses designed for parents are also offered. All the courses are totally free," Xu said.

Fu Cairui, CEO of Hujiang, said, "Using the internet, our Hu+ Project breaks through the limits of space and time, setting up links between thousands of rural schools and excellent education resources nationwide, even around the globe.

"Through the project, we aim to address educational problems in China's remote areas, as well as to provide a model for educating urban migrant children," he added.

According to statistics from the All-China Women's Federation, there are up to 35.81 million migrant children in China, meaning 13 out of every 100 children are migrants.

A relate survey demonstrated that the top reason for rural migrant workers in cities bringing their kids with them was that they wanted them to receive better education. However, the survey also showed that the biggest challenge for those migrant workers was children's education.

According to Hujiang, in the future, the company will continue to expand the project in other rural areas of China, bringing high-quality educational resources to students in poverty. It also plans to train a total of 200,000 instructors in 20,000 schools in China, covering all provincial-level administrative regions.

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn