Due to the raging epidemic of the coronavirus and attempts to control it, millions of Chinese students must stay at home, so starting a normal semester is not possible - but the authorities have found a way.

The next school semester was to start in China on February 17, but it did not happen, so that the children did not have a chance to get bored, local authorities came up with the idea of ​​online courses. Primary and secondary schools are required to open the relevant online curriculum so that 180 million students "are in homes with teacher-led and supervised learning". The education committee assures that it is not a holiday in the traditional sense of the word, although at the same time it is not the start of the new semester, but students cannot be allowed to relax too much.

We remind you that in China the issue of coronavirus is more serious than anywhere else, because it all started here and the virus has already infected over 70,000 and killed 1696 people. It is no wonder that the Chinese are taking the necessary measures to limit the extent of the epidemic, even at the expense of traditional science. As one of the students explains, 14-year-old Zhang Ziqing, at 8:00 in the morning turns on his computer and starts learning online: - I communicate with teachers through an online software called Fastmeeting. Each teacher spent about 15 minutes explaining the principles of this curriculum to us. Everyone was also assigned to Chinese, English or mathematics.

Mobile operators scan the faces of customers in China.

Students log in to a special website dedicated to digital education and offering multimedia programs for primary and secondary schools, and then click on the links provided by teachers - they also help through group chats, e.g. Wechat. Courses for primary schools last from 7:30 to 17:00 with breaks for self-study, sight exercises or online class meetings. The education committee informs, however, that in this way students rather consolidate previously acquired knowledge rather than learn something new, because the system is not prepared for such eventuality.

The situation in universities is slightly different, where we can talk about the real start of the new semester, because universities ensure that they have the right tools. What's more, we are also dealing with a different age group that no longer needs such supervision and support as younger students. Especially that the universities have started classes in the form of live streaming, which almost do not differ from classic lectures. As the rector of the Tsinghua University claims, recognized as one of the best and most elite in the country: - The situation with the epidemic is a challenge for us, but on the other hand the opportunity to comprehensive promotion of digitization and computerization of teaching.

China built a dangerous antenna five times larger than New York