(Yicai Global) March 14 -- China's education ministry is requiring all schools to achieve basic internet access with increased speed this year, with the proportion of primary and secondary schools with access to a bandwidth of 10M or higher to reach 80 percent, a policy document it issued directs.

The percentage of schools with multimedia classrooms must reach 90 percent this year, per the circular issued yesterday, which urges increased broadband internet access in primary and secondary schools, basic access in rural ones, and expanded network bandwidth in all.

The broadband satellite pilot project the ministry also announced yesterday must support educational networking in remote and poverty-stricken areas and engage in information-based teaching and research, said the paper, which also mandates optimizing Confucius Institute online platforms to attract high-quality global teaching resources via cooperation and sharing to furnish Chinese language learners with better, more convenient resources.