The playground of the Xi'an village school was once a noisy, chaotic place but hosts the games of only a couple of students on March 10, 2015. Photo: IC

Almost every parent wants what is best for their child. For many rural parents that means moving far away to find work. But many of these parents have to leave their children behind as they cannot look after them in the city.

Yet, in Xi'an village near Liuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, so-called "left behind" children are not really left behind. There is a school for them, there are teachers for them, but the number of pupils and the number of teachers is dwindling. 

Ten years ago, the village's elementary school had more than 300 students and eight teachers. But now it has only 14 students and two teachers that are both in their 50s. The playground that once echoed with the sounds of children and their boundless energies, is now sparsely filled with a few youngsters playing. Some parents who have left think that county and provincial level schools have better facilities and teachers than the school in the village and choose to send their children to them instead.

Despite the downward trends, the teachers working at the school are still dedicated to providing both education and care to the children that attend the school.

In the just finished annual legislative and consultative sessions, a few members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) jointly put forth a proposal to solve the problems of "left-behind" children in rural areas. In a proposal drafted by Yang Song, a CPPCC member from Hubei Province, he argues that the problems faced by rural schools are harming the whole national education system. Many village teachers are poorly paid. Village schools lack funding.

The member suggested that schools reallocate teaching resources and that the salaries of rural teachers should be increased to ensure the quality of the rural education nationwide. He also suggested that the safety and quality of rural schools should be ensured by local governments.

The Liuzhou local education authorities have already made plans to combine elementary schools at the village level and have assigned younger teachers to these village schools to better utilize their talent. They aim to transform rural schools from being "small and poor" to "small but pretty."

Global Times

A teacher at the Xi'an village school teaches the whole class - just four students. Photo: IC 

 

Teachers and their "left behind" students walk on a mountain road to their rural school in Machang village near Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Photo: IC

A teacher waits for young students on their way to school in Machang village.Photo: IC

A student helps a younger kid with his mathematics exercises at the Xi'an village school. Photo: IC