Robot teachers -- who never get angry or make sarcastic¹ remarks -- have been a hit with pupils during a pilot project in some South Korean schools, a government report said Thursday.

韩国政府上周四发布一份报告称，该国在其部分学校试行的机器人老师受到学生的青睐。这些老师从不会生气，也不会数落学生。

Robot teachers - who never get angry or make sarcastic remarks - have been a hit with pupils during a pilot project in some South Korean schools, a government report said Thursday.

Elementary school children responded favourably² to the robotic teachers, the Ministry³ of Knowledge Economy said, citing a survey by educational researchers.

English-teaching robots were sent to three provincial⁴ schools for eight weeks starting in late December.

And programmable electronic devices resembling robots, which teach maths, science and art, were used in 10 Seoul schools for five weeks from November.

The researchers found that the English-teaching robots helped raise interest in the language and boosted the confidence of students.

"Tele-presence" robots are controlled remotely by an English teacher and are equipped with a microphone and video camera. Autonomous⁵（自治的，自主的） units use voice-recognition software to interact with children.

The government has expressed interest in robots to give rural school children more learning opportunities.

"The machines spurred（鞭策，教唆） creativity and had a positive influence on the attitude of students," a ministry official told Yonhap news agency.

Officials in charge of the project are working to improve the quality of robot teaching and iron out（解决，消除） glitches⁶（小毛病，小故障） before any decision to expand their use.