A training program initiated by the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation has covered more than 3,000 primary school teachers and principals in the country's western rural regions to boost their teaching quality.

The "Western Gardener Training Program" started in 2006 with a 12 million yuan (US$1.76 million) donation from the Starbucks Corporation.

Currently, the program plans to train 500 rural teachers, 250 rural school principals and 200 teachers of ethnic groups, according to a statement released after a seminar opened Saturday on education in the western regions.

During the two-day seminar, jointly held by the foundation and the University of International Business and Economics, government officials, education experts, enterpreneurs and teachers from the program discussed issues including higher learning institutes' role in promoting education in the western regions.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2010)