Project backed by e-commerce giant gives children access to higher-quality education

Children in dozens of villages in Northwest China are able to learn authentic English from expatriate teachers just like their counterparts in big cities in the country, thanks to a distance education project launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The project, jointly launched at the end of March by Alibaba's Taobao Education and Rural Taobao, is designed to help children in the less developed rural areas get access to the same high-quality educational resources available in urban areas.

According to a statement released by Alibaba in mid-April, the Taobao small classroom project has already covered 50 villages in northwestern China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces by equipping the existing local Taobao rural service centers with the company's online education resources.

Alibaba said in 2015 that it would open 100,000 village-level rural service centers, in which tech-savvy young people can help elders in the villages shop online, an initiative to boost e-commerce in China's rural regions.

"The infrastructure at some villages is getting bigger and bigger, so is the hardware at some rural schools. But there is strong demand for good teachers in villages," said Fang Huilin, who is in charge of Taobao Education, the online education business unit of Taobao.

She said that Taobao Education has teamed up with English language training schools, including Wall Street English and Web International English, to recruit experienced teachers to teach for rural children via this online education project.

"By leveraging Taobao Education's technology and reputation, we hope to send more good quality educational resources to rural kids," she said, adding the project is expected to cover about 600 villages by the end of 2016.

Amy Chen, who has seven years of teaching experience at Web International English, is among one of the first teachers for the Taobao small classroom project.

"Many children in rural schools are trained to write and memorize English words but they are afraid of speaking English," she said.

Through interacting with teachers via live streaming and playing some games online, children are more comfortable and confident of speaking English, she added.

Li Yi, who works at a rural Taobao service center in Zaoyuan village in Luochuan, a city in Shaanxi province, said Taobao Education holds one distance education class every weekend.

"The number of students for the class has increased from a dozen to more than two dozens over the past several weeks. They not only bring their friends but also invite kids from neighboring villages to join the online session," he said.

According to Taobao Education, it will gradually bring vocational training programs to villages in the same way.

"For young people, we plan to equip them with some practical skills in farming and doing business. For the elderly group in the villages, we plan to launch some course regarding healthcare, dance and exercises," said Fang.

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 05/05/2016 page15)