03:26
We head now to a primary school in Jinggangshan in the east of China. The area was a revolutionary base in the 1920s and the starting point of the Long March. For the last two decades a company in Shanghai has been helping the school with much needed funds. CGTN's Cui Hui'ao has the story.
Pan Tian Primary School. As the name in Chinese suggests, the school is located on a beautiful field. For a long time, it had to make do with shabby facilities, providing the most basic education to students nearby. Its destiny started to change around twenty years ago, when a company in Shanghai offered to help.
XIAO JIANZHONG, HEADMASTER JINGGANGSHAN PAN TIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL "A company called SAIC Finance helped our school. They built a classroom building for us in 1997, and since then they've subsidized over 2 million RMB to our school."
The support has never stopped. In recent years, the company built a plastic track next to the soccer field, bought more school uniforms, and reconstructed the teachers' dormitory. Now, Pan Tian Primary School is equipped with essential facilities, and accommodates around 120 students, in six grades. Most of them are from local villages. Some are referred to as "left behind children", meaning their parents left to work in urban areas, while they remain at home.
XIE XIANGLUO, FOURTH GRADE TEACHER JINGGANGSHAN PAN TIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL "Ten years ago, 70 percent of our students were left behind children. They were often lonely, with behavioral problems. As their teachers, we felt bad about their condition and we try to do everything we can to comfort them and make them happier."
For example, the school has arranged a separate room for students like Ying Zhihong to call their parents from school.
YING ZHIHONG SIXTH GRADE STUDENT "I call them twice a week and I miss them a lot. They ask me how I am doing. And I tell them everything at school is great."
The teacher, Xie Xiangluo says the number of left-behind children at the school has decreased significantly, mostly thanks to development of the local economy. Parents are starting to move back to start their own businesses in town. As a Chinese saying goes, children are the future of tomorrow. The school's headmaster hopes his students can get the most out of their precious opportunity for education, thankful for the support they are getting, and contribute back to society when they grow up. Cui Hui'ao, CGTN, Jinggangshan.