BEIJING — China had over 2.9 million teachers in rural areas by the end of 2018, the Ministry of Education said on Feb 26.

Close to 2.5 million rural teachers work at primary and secondary schools, while 420,000 teachers work at kindergartens, according to the ministry.

The ministry is striving to build a high-quality team of rural teachers and dispatched a great number of college graduates to the rural areas, especially the poverty-stricken regions, said Liu Jiantong, an official with the ministry’s department of teachers.

The central budget financed 4.5 billion yuan ($670 million) last year as an allowance for 1.27 million teachers from over 80,000 rural schools in China’s central and western regions, said Liu.

In 2018, 1,800 retired teachers in good health registered to teach at rural schools. In addition, 19 provincial-level regions dispatched 4,000 teachers to support education in Tibet and Xinjiang, said the ministry.