‘REAP’ against education apocalypse

A brilliant move in saving the future of the world

Away from China’s crowded cities, a crisis is growing in rural areas that affect the entire country, especially the children.

By the time Chinese children reach working age, a third of them are expected to be intellectually suppressed.

In rural China, 50 percent of eighth graders scored below 90 on IQ tests. According to the 2010 census, only 24 percent of China’s labor force attended high school.

With China’s booming economy, placing new demands on its workers, there’s problem of healthy cognitive development, especially among China’s rural population. This is China’s biggest problem that no one knows about, a very depressing reality in the country that’s been overlooked.

To tackle this problem, economist Scott Rozelle established collaborations with researchers and institutional partners to form REAP – the Rural Education Action Program.

They conducted surveys in rural areas and found out that 27% of children were anemic, which is an indicator of malnutrition. 37% had intestinal worms and 20% had myopia.

The researchers concluded that any one of these factors would hinder their education. REAP provided students with vitamins, deworming

treatment and corrective glasses. Sure enough, their Math scores improved far more than their peers who didn’t receive any help from the group. This has been a significant findings that contribute to the overall operation of the program.

These results helped convince China’s central government to establish ‘school lunch program’ in 2011 that now benefits more than 20 million world students daily in rural China.

There’s a large body of evidence showing that children’s first 1000 days have something to do with their educational achievement and adult mental health.

So, Scott’s team started focusing on children in the early stages of their life. In 2013, they tested 1800 babies from 348 villages in the areas of Qinling mountain region. 45 percent were anemic. 29 percent scored below normal on a standard intelligence test for babies.

This time, when the team intervened with vitamins, test scores didn’t improve. That’s when Rozelle turned to parenting as the possible crook.

In 2014, REAP started asking caregivers how they parented. Just 32 percent reported playing with or singing with their child. 11% had told a story to their child the previous day, and less that 5 percent had read to their child.

REAP then studied 513 child caregiver parents. Half received in-home parental training which included weekly coaching for six months. The parents were monitored and trained well in the field of parenting so as to the care that their children really need because they believe this will work.

The program surely had been doing a great job when it comes to the outcomes based on relevant findings.

The study found out that the training brought babies scores up to normal. But with many mothers leaving rural homes to find jobs in cities, 30%-40% of rural children are raised by grandma. When a grandmother received the in- home training however, the babies’ score in the assessment fairly went up.

The researchers found i t difficult to reach the parents in remote areas. They found it time consuming and expensive. They have also found out that 40% of the children suffered from depression and anxiety.

To overcome these obstacles, REAP has embarked on its most ambitious experiment yet. The team has targeted 100 villages in the Qinling mountain region and had set up early childhood education centers in half of them.

There’s f ree play, group activities, reading, and one on one parent training for all parents.

They tested it to see how a stimulating environment and effective parenting shape the intelligence of children. (