On March 13, spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Government Jiao Yang answered reporters’questions on the city’s plan in the period of 2006 through 2010 to carry out the national program to enhance people’s scientific knowledge.

Q: Shanghai has many good resources to popularize science. How should the city make use of these resources to boost people’s scientific knowledge?

A: Shanghai is working on a project to develop and share the city’s scientific resources, striving to build the city into one of China’s resource centers for science popularization and culture.

The city’s plan on the overall project can be outlined in four aspects, based on the principle of science popularization through culture, creativity and brands.

The first aspect is to seize the opportunity brought by the project to build the city into one of the country’s resource centers for science popularization and culture.

The second aspect is to develop Shanghai into a human resource hub, where the overall level of citizens’scientific knowledge is raised through the project. This target focuses on popularization, and in turn serves the public. Then, assisted by the Shanghai research and design public service platform, the project aims to churn out more scientific and research accomplishments and elites. This is the target for the advanced stage.

The third aspect is to develop and integrate local authorities’information resources, material resources and human resources for science popularization.

The fourth aspect includes three core tasks -- to build a platform to expedite the project, to develop contents to endow the project with more substance and to create an environment conducive to the project progress.

Q: The project targeting middle schools is a successful example of enhancing the scientific knowledge of the city’s youth. What measures in the future will Shanghai make to enhance this?

A: Children are a significant target audience in propelling the program to enhance citizens’scientific knowledge. The middle school project and the actions designed for children are Shanghai’s experimental projects covering children in kindergarten to high school students. Because of their eminent effect and their vital roles in the work, these projects have been listed as pivotal in Shanghai’s overall plan.

The two offices in charge of the projects, the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology and the Shanghai Education Commission, have merged into one. The new office, set in the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, will coordinate the work to popularize science education in kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools and high schools.

Authorities will expedite the program to spread science education by increasing areas and schools that are included in the program. We hope all the eligible schools in the city will join, especially those in rural areas. Authorities will also build a training service platform for teachers; to provide more training opportunities to teachers. This will be part of the plan in order to propel science education in schools and help enhance the scientific knowledge of the city’s youth. The progress of the experimental phase of the project for children shows that providing resources, including human resources and material resources, is an important way for the science and technology community to participate in the science education of minors. For the project, authorities will also develop a database of multi-media education materials and develop some short courses. As well, more efforts will be made to study typical cases and to develop new cases. Before 2010, the number of practice bases to serve the project will be increased to 50. The team, made up of experts from the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, will be expanded to 1,000 from the current 400 by then. The volunteer team to popularize scientific knowledge, mainly composed of college students and postgraduate students, will be enlarged to 1,000 people.