Left-behind children get more attention in rural China

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An estimated of nine million rural children were recorded "left-behind" by their migrant parents in China, according to an official report by the Chinese government last year. Many were left with extended family members, but the lack of parental care leads to isolation and feelings of rejection.

Efforts are being made in China to help left-behind children feel more loved. In a recent visit by CGTN reporters in Santai county, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, a typical place struggling from poverty to a prosperous life.

The local officials said the county has about 90,000 students receiving compulsory education, and among them, 21,000 are left-behind children. More or less, they are prone to depression and social anxiety.

Almost one-fourth students receiving compulsory education in Santai country, southwest China’s Sichuan province, are left-behind by their parents who move out to work in big cities./CGTN Photo

In a class of over 50 students at fifth grade, half of these students have not seen their parents for months or even years. Yang Yan is one of them. She is not social and only sees her parents every six months.

Yang Yan’s situation is quite common in Santai county, where some people are still very poor, and about one-fifth of approximately 1.5 million locals have to move out to work in cities near or far away, leaving their children behind.

For the underlying psychological issues of these students, school education is very important.

School teachers pay special attention to the left-behind students in Santai county and arrange various activities for them to feel at home./CGTN Photo

During the class break, the students have various games to play. Their teachers said this is part of their efforts to make students like Yang Yan feel at home.

Wang Lixin, the headmaster of the school said the school, like all others in Santai, organize many activities to care for them, including one-to-one talking and teaching, especially individual students who are isolated and not good at learning.

The educators are trying every possible way to make a sound learning and living environment for these students and leave no one behind.

Xie Yali, dean of studies for the school, usually go to the dorms of the left-behind students. Xie said she and her colleagues do psychological counseling every day, and only during the counseling sessions, would these students talk more about their real thoughts.

She recognizes that smiles may appear on the faces of these students, but their longing for their parents.

Many left-behind children in Santai county live with their extended family members, but with lack of care and love from their parents./CGTN Photo

Yang Yan’s parents recently came back from Sichuan, China’s richer southern coast.

They work in Chengdu, the capital of the province, where they see more chances to earn money and raise a family, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a family reunion at the moment. The contacts between Yang Yan and her parents usually happens during a phone call one or two times in a week.

This family is only one example among many others. There are many problems that school education system cannot solve in Santai, also including in the whole vast rural areas in China, but on the path out of poverty, there is definitely something that needs to be done about the problem of left-behind children.