Government's efforts

Nationwide, traditional bricks-and-mortar schools are working with internet companies to offer classes online.

The Shanghai Municipal Education Commission announced that schools would launch a regional online education program via television and the internet. The program began airing on Monday.

Chen Baosheng, minister of education, said at a recent news conference on combating the outbreak, "We are coordinating and integrating State and regional teaching resources to guarantee online education for students nationwide."

On Feb 17, a cloud platform began broadcasting to ensure the country's 180 million students could continue their studies. In the first week, the platform offered 169 lessons covering 12 subjects.

The government has enlisted three major telecoms operators－China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom－as well as tech companies such as Huawei, Baidu and Alibaba to back up the platform with 7,000 servers, according to China Central Television.

In addition to online classes, primary and secondary school students can study via television, according to the ministry.

For students living in remote or rural areas with poor internet accessibility, a channel operated by China Education Television started airing classes on Feb 17 to enable home studies.

The Ministry of Education has issued an open letter to college students, suggesting that they learn from home.

Some 22 online education platforms are offering more than 24,000 college courses for free, covering 12 undergraduate disciplines and 18 majors in technical and vocational education.

With most schools opening online classrooms, hashtags about the new phenomenon have been trending on Sina Weibo.

Su Sishui, a high school teacher in Jinan, Shandong province, became an online celebrity with his first livestreaming class when he accidentally turned on a beauty camera feature, showing him red-faced and wearing makeup. As a result, his wife intervened in the session several times.