A netizen browses Xiwang.com on a laptop in Beijing. Ding Shan / For China Daily

Children from underdeveloped areas of China are to be given online access to mainstream educational resources.

Educational inequity remains large across the different areas of China, according to Lu Mai, secretary-general of the China Development Research Foundation.

There are about 40 million children suffering from poverty, including a shortage of good educational resources, Lu said.

Xiwang.com, a new online platform launched in Beijing by the TAL Education Group, a leading tutoring services provider in China, hopes to address that.

Zhang Bangxin, the group's founder and chief executive officer, said by gathering educational institutions, tutors and high-quality teaching materials and courses, the platform will become a place of sharing, exchange and learning knowledge.

"Through a combination of technology and public service, the platform will make the best educational resources accessible to students from remote and impoverished areas, so that equal access to education can be boosted," he said.

Deng Guosheng, deputy director of the China Philanthropy Research Institute at Tsinghua University, says the internet has brought new opportunities in the development of education.

The development blueprint for education under the latest five-year plan (2016 - 20) sets out using information technology, including big data and cloud computing, to accelerate online learning.

"Education is a targeted measure taken to alleviate poverty, promote social equity and boost the economic development of the country," Deng said.