China appears to be heading towards a 3D-printed future after sources from within the government revealed that, over the next two years, the country is to offer each of its 400,000-plus primary schools a 3D printer.

In a country where production of goods is the highest in the world by a considerable margin, this would appear to show that the government has intentions of overtaking many of the other world’s most powerful nations in terms of their youth education.

According to 3DPrint.com, the news of China’s ambitious project came after the CEO of the Kinpo Group, Simon Shen, which is the parent company of the 3D printing company XYZ Printing, confirmed the project was underway over the next two years.

If true, this programme will almost double the previous estimate figure curated by Gartner, which expected just more than 217,000 3D printers to be shipped in 2015.

While more details of how the programme will work and who will be providing the 3D printers will be rolled out , it’s assumed that XYZ Printing will provide a proportion of those shipped to China’s youngest schoolchildren, but Shen has hinted that they will be one of, if not the, largest supplier.

“It will be our growth driver of the third quarter and fourth quarters,” Shen said.

Asian school child on laptop image via Shutterstock