Yang Shanhong, deputy inspector general of education at the Anhui Provincial Department of Education, shared her experiences in performing the responsibilities as a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) during an online seminar with counterparts from Francophone countries in Africa.

More than 100 people including parliamentary representatives from some 20 French-speaking African countries, experts and NPC deputies took part in the exchange event held from April 26 to 27. The participants discussed topics such as reflecting the people's will in legislation, adopting a people-centered approach in supervision, representing the people's voices and seeking a path of democracy in line with a country's conditions at the seminar.

Yang said an NPC deputy needs to stay connected to the people, heed their concerns, pool their wisdom and improve their livelihoods, which is how the whole-process people's democracy works in China.

Since elected as a national lawmaker in 2018, Yang has put forward two motions and 35 suggestions based on her over 30 years of work experience in the education sector.

In order to guarantee children's universal access to quality and affordable preschool education, she took the lead in submitting the motion of speeding up the legislation process of preschool education law, which has been put on the legislative agenda of the NPC Standing Committee this year.

She has also played an active role in improving a national program on nutrition enhancement for rural students. Based on visits to schools and talks with teachers and students for many times, she offered her suggestions that were highly valued by the Ministry of Education.

Promoting the application of information technologies at schools in rural areas is also one of her passions. She was the driving force behind online classrooms at more than 4,000 rural teaching venues in the province, which enabled rural students to attend classes taught by teachers based in counties and towns via the internet.

"As a deputy to the NPC and an educator, I am proud and honored to faithfully represent the people's interests and will. I will continue to fulfill the missions as an NPC deputy and live up to the people's expectations," said Yang at the event.