With a symbolic toss of soil to plant a pair of young trees at the entrance to a middle school here, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates today helped senior officials of the Chinese Ministry of Education launch the first of 100 computer classrooms -- most of them in rural China -- to be equipped through an ambitious government initiative supported by Microsoft's Partners in Learning program.
During separate tours of the Asian-Pacific region this week, Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer both helped launch local programs in China, Malaysia and Japan supported by Partners in Learning, a five-year, global Microsoft initiative to help governments around the world provide technology access and skills training to students and educators .
"We believe that technology is one of the most powerful tools that teachers and governments can use to educate and inform people of any age," Gates said in Beijing today.
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