A special program will give 51 teachers who teach English at middle schools in impoverished areas the opportunity to improve their skills.

The program, jointly organized by the University of International Business and Economics and the China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development, was launched in Beijing on Monday.

As the program's first batch of participants, 30 teachers from Yulin, Shaanxi province and 21 teachers from Mengla county, Yunnan province will receive a month's intensive training on how to improve their teaching of English at the UIBE.

After that, they will have a year-long online training program on the same subject called Speexx, which is provided on uibeglobal.com, an online-education product established by the UIBE and Digital Publishing, a Germany-based company that provides online language education services.

Li Weigang, a law professor at the UIBE and is also the deputy county magistrate of Mengla, said the initiative will have a significant and profound impact on the county.

Mengla is an impoverished county located in the southeast of Yunnan's Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture. Education there faces many challenges, according to Li.

"Only five percent of the 500 plus test-takers of this year's national college entrance exam are admitted to colleges because of the low level of teaching," Li said.

"The training will enhance these teachers' standards by showing new teaching ideas and methods to them, which will benefit the education development of their regions," he said.

Gu Yongjiang, vice-president of the China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said the program will have a positive effect on tackling poverty.

"The program will help nurture a group of high-quality teachers and therefore more high-quality students will emerge."