Huize county breaks carriers, as rural students ace gaokao

Huize county in Yunnan province, one of the 52 poverty-stricken counties, has impressed everyone with outstanding performance in the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, this year. Around 80 percent of 6,796 candidates from Huize registered the minimum admission score or above, about 30 percent registered the minimum admission score or above for key universities and 11 candidates got admission to one of the country’s top two universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University.

Since 2010, some 139 students have got admission to Peking University or Tsinghua University, more than 30 percent of them from poverty-stricken households. Tens of thousands of students from impoverished families have successfully entered college, starting a new journey to change their destiny.

What students from Huize have achieved is huge for an impoverished county of 1 million people, around 30 percent of them povertystricken.

Education is always a problem for residents of poverty-stricken regions. The quality of education is often unsatisfactory and many students forgo higher education because of economic hardships and limitations of the local social environment. So the outstanding scores by students from Huize county sets an excellent example of how poverty-stricken counties can improve the quality of education and help more local students realize their dreams. Teachers are crucial for encouraging and nurturing such students and the local authorities in Huize paid great attention to cultivating such teachers. Since 2016, the county has hired 2,569 new teachers to meet the demands of relocated and new middle schools. Every year the county invests millions of yuan to provide subsidies, allowance and bonuses for teachers.

Particularly, the county stresses on equality to enable all students, especially those from povertystricken families, to receive quality education. It’s good to see students’ dreams come true.

More important, the talents will further benefit the impoverished regions by stopping poverty inheritance and help the once impoverished residents see prosperity in the future.