Schools in mainland China have now been closed for four weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak - but some teachers are taking drastic steps to ensure that their pupils’ education continues.
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In a video uploaded by Chinese media outlet the People’s Daily, teachers are shown delivering “live lessons” online for their pupils, with some going to extreme lengths to deliver a class.
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In one case, a teacher is shown navigating a mountain near her hometown so that she can find a network signal and teach online.
And a particularly dedicated teacher is shown delivering an online class from his toilet “in order to reduce the noise”.
In an effort to contain the virus, schools in China have remained closed over the past month, so the government is turning to online platforms to bridge the gap.
On Monday, the country’s Ministry of Education launched a “national Internet cloud classroom”, and China Education Television is using satellite to broadcast online learning to areas with poor internet connection.
This month, headteachers at international schools in Hong Kong told Tes how their staff were using video conferencing to teach exam classes “face to face”, as well as delivering a normal timetable through Google classroom, screencasts and vodcasts.
“Thank goodness for technology,” one headteacher wrote.
And a teacher who had returned to Britain from China found that he had to work through the night to match the hours of the Chinese school day when teaching online.
