BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Teachers in China's 52 poor counties will be able to further improve their Mandarin proficiency and teaching ability through a recently launched online training program, according to the Ministry of Education Monday.

The program, which will be conducted from May to August, features 50 national popularization bases for spoken and written languages organized by the ministry.

With lectures, group tutoring, exercises and tests, a total of 5,200 teachers from ethnic minorities and rural areas will be offered online training by a pairing-up model in the bases, said the ministry.

The sessions are also designed especially for people of ethnic minorities and those speaking dialects, aiming to help them improve the accuracy and fluency when speaking Mandarin in teaching. Enditem