China is constantly making efforts to improve its education sector, and has made some progress in both facilities and personnel.

The Ministry of Education reported that in 2015, about 51.7 million square meters of school buildings were built in China. Most of these are found in less developed areas, according to state-run Xinhua.

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The Ministry also reported that more than 28 billion yuan or $4.32 billion was spent on classroom equipment this year.

The new report was presented during a meeting on improving compulsory education in less developed areas of China.

Earlier in December, the Ministry said that in the past five years, schools have recruited better-educated and younger teachers.

Prior to 2010, the majority of elementary and middle school teachers were made up of young to middle-aged individuals. At that time, 71 percent of teachers were 45 or younger, and 56 percent were younger than 40.

The five-year period that followed 2009 also saw a significant 75 percent increase in the number of well-educated teachers. From 2010 to 2014, a yearly average of 34,000 college and normal university graduates taught in different rural schools.

The government also invested about 6.4 billion yuan, or $1.01 billion, for the purpose of training kindergarten, elementary and middle school teachers at that time.

Over the next five years, the government plans to give at least 360 hours' worth of training to 3.3 million rural teachers.

Xu Tao, director of the teachers work bureau under the ministry, said they “will provide distance learning or send professionals to rural areas, while also establishing development centers."

This will help shorten the disparity between the quality of teaching between urban and rural schools, which is caused by the imbalanced economic and social development.

Education vice minister Liu Lumin said during the new report's presentation that new work in all regions will be inspected during the first half of 2016.

TagsChina education, China schools, China teachers, teachers