BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- China says it will further promote balanced development of education between urban and rural areas with a focus on training high-quality teachers in light of the latest PISA test results of students worldwide.

Efforts will also be stepped up to provide targeted help for students from underprivileged families, said Xin Tao, an official of primary education quality monitoring in the ministry, in response to the test results.

Chinese mainland students from the municipalities of Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, scored the highest in reading, science, and mathematics, among the around 600,000 15-year-old students in 79 countries and regions.

However, the test results showed the four regions of China still have room for further improvement in terms of education equity, mainly on the number, quality and teaching skills of teachers.

It also showed that students from the above Chinese regions study for an average of around 31.8 hours per week in classes at school, a relatively high level among the tested countries and regions.

Chinese parents also attach high importance to the education of their children, the test showed.

Conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development every three years since 2000, PISA tests the performances of 15-year-old students worldwide on reading, mathematics, science, and solving real problems with knowledge. Enditem

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