Northern Jiangsu makes progress in promoting education in 13th Five-Year Plan

2021-03-03 15:55:00

Education in relatively underdeveloped northern Jiangsu area made remarkable progress during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), according to press conferences organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education.

Xuzhou had 2,419 schools at all levels and 2.12 million students, making it the largest city in Jiangsu in terms of basic education scope. The city kept increasing its investment in education, which added up to 104.4 billion yuan during the five years. Xuzhou newly built and renovated 537 primary and secondary schools and 647 kindergartens.

Suqian also made strides in pre-school and compulsory education. Over 98 percent of the city’s children aged 3 to 6 were enrolled by kindergartens. The percentage of children at quality and public kindergartens reached about 90% and 92%, respectively. Suqian also invested 650 million yuan for PPP projects in education information technology, and improved the modern education means at 222 primary and secondary schools.

In the coastal city of Lianyungang, information technology also become an important tool to expand education access. The city’s Smart Education Cloud Service Platform included 12,000 classes and provided online tutoring for home-based learning for all levels of students in the city, with 630,000 online learners per day. The platform has also made it possible for teachers and students in rural schools to enjoy quality learning resources. The city selected outstanding primary and secondary schools as the host to offer interactive classrooms, which further brought quality educational resources to teachers and students in less developed regions.