Han Ximin ximhan@126.com A total of 16 local high school students won awards for their voluntary online oral English teaching to students in remote and impoverished regions in China under the SPARK program of the Chinese Social Assistance Foundation. At a ceremony marking the anniversary of the program at 3Nod Smart Building in Nanshan District on Saturday, Hu Guanghua, secretary general of the foundation said SPARK is a small but excellent program, in which high school students used the Internet to teach oral English. It is cheap, highly efficient and has positive results. The program now has 400 members in Shenzhen, accounting for more than half of the total members across China. Under the program, the students set up accounts to organize teaching methods, compile educational materials and facilitate teaching. Over the past year, the volunteers organized English classes at 19 schools in 10 provinces and cities, which don’t have sufficient teachers. Around 7,000 students benefited from the program. In addition, the volunteers also have organized one-on-one classes for 680 students. Between June and September, the program operator also organized donations and raised 71,638 yuan (US$10,398) through the Tencent donation platform for the construction of audio-video teaching rooms at six schools in Xinjiang, Jiangxi, Henan and Guangxi. |