Shanghai’s middle and primary school students will start to use so-called e-schoolbags next year, the city’s education officials said.

Currently, 1,500 kinds of digital education textbooks are being produced. They are slated to be finished by April 2014, said Ni Minjing, an official from Shanghai Education Commission.

In recent years, the country has encouraged the development of e-books as part of its efforts to reform education and allow students to have more study opportunities.

In 2012, Shanghai started to promote the use of e-schoolbags by launching pilot projects in 40 middle and primary schools in the city’s Minhang district. The project will be expanded to the entire district by 2014, with about 150,000 students using e-books, officials said.