Remote lessons could cut travel

Distance learning may be cheaper alternative to large bus purchases

BEIJING - China should do more to develop distance education as part of the effort to reduce school bus accidents, a senior official said over the weekend.

Some 460 billion yuan ($73 billion) is needed to equip all schools nationwide with standard school buses, Liu Yandong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said at a meeting on education on Saturday.

The estimate is based on a plan to cover all 150 million primary- and middle-school students at schools where attendance is compulsory, she said.

However, Liu said it's still difficult for the government to allocate so much money at once, and more effort should be made to develop distance education, which can free rural students from traveling long distances to receive a quality education.

In a move to promote distance education, 103 universities made a commitment on Saturday to open their digital educational resources to the public.

Fatal school bus accidents have made the headlines in recent months, and many people believe that these accidents are a result of the policy of dismantling small teaching sites and combining schools in rural regions.

According to the Ministry of Education, the number of primary schools decreased more than 50 percent from 1997 to 2009.

About 70 percent of the school bus accidents occurred in rural areas, according to previous research from the Sunglory Education Research Institute, a Beijing-based education service provider.

As one means to solve the distance problem, China began in 2002 to promote boarding schools.