Mandarin training as a tool to alleviate poverty

China has stepped up efforts to improve impoverished groups’ communication and vocational skills through strengthened Mandarin Chinese education, reinforcing the fight against poverty, the Ministry of Education said.

In cooperation with the Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee, the ministry has dispatched 2,291 university students in 239 teams to 345 poor villages in China’s central and western regions to offer Mandarin training, Xu Xiaoping, a ministry official, told a press conference on Tuesday.

The ministry underscores the importance of Mandarin training for ethnic minority teachers, rural teachers, young and middle-aged farmers and herdsmen, and primary-level officials, Xu noted.

A total of 463,000 teachers, 1.96 million farmers and herdsmen and 213,000 primary-level officials in 12 provincial regions received Mandarin training last year.

In a three-month online training campaign scheduled from May to August, the ministry plans to help 5,200 teachers from ethnic minority communities and rural areas improve their Mandarin.

More than 88 million people had sat the Mandarin proficiency test by the end of 2019, Xu noted, adding the ministry will channel more resources to intensify and expand online Mandarin training based on the experience gained from previous practices.