Global Times

Loneliest lessons

School with only one pupil highlights decline of rural education

- By Zhao Yusha

Arecent report about China’s “loneliest school,” which has just one teacher and one pupil, has pointed a spotlight on the dire situation of rural education in the face of massive urban migration.

Xu Zefeng, the only teacher of Youcheng primary school in Central China’s Henan Province, who has been working there since 1982, told the Beijing Youth Daily that since he started working in the school its number of students has been steadily declining.

“The village is so poor that most young people chose to leave when they reach marriageab­le age. Now there are just a few senior citizens left,” Xu said.

Xu noted that the only reason that Xu Jiaqi, his only student, has stayed is his particular­ly extreme poverty. “His family is just too poor to send him outside. Although Jiaqi can enjoy the ‘ two exemptions and one subsidy’ policy, it costs 100 yuan ($ 14.52) to make the round trip from the school in the county seat to home, which is too expensive for his family,” said Xu.

The “two exemptions and one subsidy” policy – exemption from miscellane­ous fees and textbook fees in addition to subsidized living expenses for boarding students – was adopted by China in 2001 and is implemente­d in poverty- stricken areas.

Though he only has one student, Xu still works hard. Apart from core subjects such as Chinese and mathematic­s, Xu also teaches Jiaqi music, painting, and physics. Jiaqi has to take examinatio­ns in other primary schools so he can be compared with his peers. “Jiaqi feels lonely sometimes as he has no companions. So I take him for a walk to listen to birds chirping. Sometimes I lecture him about studying harder but he is just too young to understand,” Xu said.

Dropping performanc­e

The rural education situation is deteriorat­ing mainly because rapid economic growth lured – and still lures – everyone able to leave impoverish­ed villages to the country’s expanding cities. Xiong Li, headmaster of a public school in Wuxi, a village in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipali­ty, told the Global Times that it is a vicious cycle because most of the students who leave are those with good academic and family background­s. “As these students leave, schools’ academic performanc­e drops, which means that more parents would not send their children to attend rural schools,” Xiong explained. The number of elementary school students in China’s rural areas decreased by 26.05 million from 2009 to 2014, according to a report released by Northeast Normal University ( NNU) in 2015.

There were 853 schools with less than five students in Northwest China’s Gansu Province in 2013, the provincial education bureau was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying.

More educators

Increasing the number of qualified teachers working in rural areas would be the quickest and most effective way to improve rural schools’ academic performanc­e, Li Guoxiang, a senior researcher on rural developmen­t from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Rural schools have failed to attract young teachers in recent years, as another NNU report released in 2012 found that just a third of the 5,285 rural teachers surveyed are younger than 30 and teachers in their 50s make up over 20 percent.

Wu Zhihui, the report’s leading researcher, told the Global Times that many older teachers have no formal teaching qualificat­ions. Up to one- third of the surveyed teachers in villages have no such certifcati­on.

“Some teachers only have a high school diploma, which can’t guarantee that they have a sound knowledge base,” Wu said. Moreover, those who are willing to stay in schools in rural areas find their wages are a pittance. Xu Zefeng said that although he has worked in Youcheng elementary school for 35 years, he has no money to help his son renovate his house. Xu’s monthly salary is 1,000 yuan. “This is why the job is tough. Authoritie­s must shoulder their responsibi­lities in offering fine education to all children and focus more on rural educators. More subsidies are needed for their salary and housing condition improvemen­t,” Wu said. According to the 2012 NNU report, nearly 90 percent of the surveyed college graduates would be willing to teach in rural schools if the monthly salary could reach 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. The government is trying to solve the situation by increasing its investment in rural teachers. By the end of 2015, the budget offered by the central government provided for over one million rural teachers with additional living allowances totaling 7.37 billion yuan. The income of rural teachers has continuous­ly increased and the job has become more appealing over the years to graduates.

 ??  ??
 ?? Photo: IC ?? Xu Zefeng, 53, and Xu Jiaqi, 10, Youcheng primary school’s only teacher and student, have class in Youcheng, Central China’s Henan Province, on May 16.
Photo: IC Xu Zefeng, 53, and Xu Jiaqi, 10, Youcheng primary school’s only teacher and student, have class in Youcheng, Central China’s Henan Province, on May 16.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from China