On October 29, the 16th China Corporate Social Responsibility Forum, hosted by China News Service and China Newsweek, was held in Beijing.

With the theme of "Towards 2020: Changing Situation, Resolving Situation, Building New Situation," this forum explored how companies should resolve the unprecedented changes and create a new positive development situation. Among the announcements, Xueersi Online School under TAL Education Group was awarded the title of "2020 Responsible Enterprise."

Xueersi Online School under TAL Education Group was awarded the title of "2020 Responsible Enterprise"

Vice Chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Ma Peihua delivered a speech at the forum. He stated, "The 14th Five-Year Plan is about to be launched, and the era has given 'responsibility' a deeper meaning. The boundaries of responsibility are being redefined. Enterprises should be good at capturing new demands and opportunities from the crisis in order to turn passive situations into active ones amidst the great changes of the era."

Former State Councilor and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress Chen Zhili attended the forum and presented the award for the Responsible Enterprise of the Year.

As a corporate representative, TAL Education Group's executive president, Wan Yiteng, was invited to participate in the forum and engage in dialogue with other corporate representatives. He stated that 2020 is destined to be an unforgettable year, with the biggest change in the industry being the overall social value emergence of extracurricular training education, particularly in technology and innovation, with online education being particularly prominent.

He mentioned that after the outbreak of the epidemic, TAL Education Group set up a special fund of 100 million yuan for epidemic prevention, donated 20 million yuan to the Wuhan Charity Federation, and allocated 80 million yuan to support the "keep learning despite class suspension" campaign, including offering free live classes through its Xueersi Online School and providing free technical support to help public schools and other training education institutions. Statistics show that during the epidemic, the number of students watching live classes from Xueersi Online School exceeded 60 million times per day, and courses were chosen by over 80% of users in comparable courses.

During the epidemic, sixth-grade student Ayimair in Jeminay, Xinjiang studied at Xueersi Online School through free live classes

"Love and technology make education better. Love is more important than technology, and love can ensure that technology does good," Wan Yiteng shared several stories of Xueersi students and teachers. For example, during the epidemic, sixth-grade student Ayimair Nurubek in Xinjiang attended five to six hours of live classes on Xueersi Online School every day, studying Chinese, English, and courses by famous masters; A'niu Shibun, a Yi high school student in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, achieved excellent results in the college entrance examination this year with the help of Xueersi Online School and TAL Smart Education's public welfare education classes; Sun Cheng, a teacher at TAL's Guiyang Branch, teaches his students in the open fields to ensure a better network signal.

Sun Cheng, a teacher at TAL's Guiyang branch, teaches children in the fields

This year marks the end of the poverty alleviation campaign. Qu Tianjun, director of the Social Poverty Alleviation Department, State Council Poverty Alleviation Office, stated at the forum that winning the battle against poverty is the largest social responsibility currently and in the near future. More and more companies are getting involved in poverty alleviation, making significant contributions and demonstrating a sense of active responsibility.

In this regard, Wan Yiteng shared the practical experience of TAL's education poverty alleviation efforts. The Hope Online Education public welfare platform initiated by TAL Charitable Foundation integrates high-quality online courses and teaching products in resource-poor areas, opens live classes and learning platforms, and collaborates with public welfare organizations and enthusiastic education public welfare individuals to improve education in resource-poor areas. Since its launch, the platform has covered more than 40 counties in 18 provinces including Shaanxi, Hebei, Guizhou, Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Sichuan, benefiting over 100,000 teachers and students in poverty-stricken areas.

Wan Yiteng stated that TAL's education poverty alleviation project is gradually showing the effects of "useful, well-functionning, long-lasting, and precise." Looking ahead, TAL hopes to achieve three "large-scale" goals in its education poverty alleviation project: large-scale high quality, large-scale warmth, and large-scale customization using its accumulated experience in teaching over the past seventeen years and cutting-edge educational technology.