In today’s talking points: Students learn to use a drone to find issues with farm land; World Bank approves $120 million loan to improve rural education in Guangdong Province; Women outnumber men in Chinese higher education; Communication University of China marks students’ attendance with facial recognition
Students learn to use a drone to find issues with farm land
Students from Yanco Agricultural High School in New South Wales have employed the use of drones to survey farming land to help generate maps and discover problems with crops and livestock. The drone can pick up issues to do with water by looking at the elevation maps, and can gather information about cattle movements and habits. Additionally, the drone can pick up how crops have responded to the application of chemicals and whether the plants are dead, healthy or unhealthy. The school’s agriculture teacher, Stuart McVittie hopes that students can then go home and apply the use of a drone at their familys’ farms.
Read more at: Education HQ
World Bank approves $120 million loan to improve rural education in Guangdong Province
To combat the disparity between education performances in rural and urban areas of China, the World Bank has recently approved a $120 million loan. This money will be allocated to certain public schools in the Guangdong Province that are considered less developed. Students that are considered most disadvantaged are those that are disabled or have parents that leave them behind as they migrate to bigger cities for work. The project is scheduled for completion in 2023 and will benefit around 555,000 students.
Read more at: China Daily
Women outnumber men in Chinese higher education
In China, women account for the majority of students in higher education, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Female students outnumbered men for the first time in 2016, when they accounted for 50.6 per cent of postgraduate and 52.5 per cent of college students. Women also made up 43.1 per cent of the workforce in 2016, up 34 per cent since 2010.
Read more at: Xinhua
Communication University of China marks students’ attendance with facial recognition
Over 300 students from six of Shen Hao’s courses at the Communication University of China now have their attendance marked by facial recognition. The software, installed on Shen’s tablet, takes students’ photos and then matches them to their photo in the school’s database. Shen believes the system “saves time and reduces the workload of teachers.” With facial recognition now being used widely across China, in various applications from ATMs and college dormitories, to tackling theft and shaming jaywalkers, the 1 billion yuan ($196 million dollar) market is expected to be worth 5.1 billion yuan ($1 billion dollars) by 2021.
Read more at: China Daily