Apple has officially announced that its donation to the China Development Research Foundation has increased to US$14.5 Million (100 million yuan) to create growth opportunities for teachers and students across China. Apple's new donation will fund the three-year "Smart Gardener" project, focusing on digital teaching in underdeveloped areas in China, which is expected to affect more than 120,000 teachers and more than 2 million students .

The new donation will primarily target elementary and middle school teachers, with support for kindergarten and vocational teachers. The goal is to better integrate digital technology into classroom instruction. Below is a Weibo entry from Tim Cook's account.

This donation is based on the long-term cooperation between Apple and the China Development Research Foundation's children's digital development project in impoverished areas to provide quality educational opportunities.

Apple first donated US$3.6 million (25 million yuan) to rural education projects back in 2018, which has benefited 11 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions including Chongqing, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, and Yunnan. Hundreds of thousands of children. In 2021, Apple will donate another 25 million yuan to jointly launch the China Children's Development Fund.

Over the years, Apple has supported curriculum development and teacher training, helped advance important research in the areas of education and nutrition for minors in rural areas, and funded projects that distribute iPads and MacBooks to students and teachers in these areas, including Qinghai Li Xia, an educator.

Support for the China Development Research Foundation program is one of Apple's many programs to promote education in China. Other initiatives include popularizing early childhood education, providing programming and robot operation skills training for employees of supply chain partners, and holding free Today at Apple courses at each Apple Store retail store.

In 2018, Apple launched the "Smart Project" that brings together relevant community education projects. The program has provided students and educators of all ages with educational opportunities covering programming, rural cooperative director education, rural teacher training, and more.

By helping teachers in underserved areas improve their digital skills and use iPads to create more engaging learning experiences for students, the program has made significant progress in closing the rural-urban education gap.