This Chinese school has only one student

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A 12-year-old Chinese boy may be one of the most lonely pupils on the planet – he has no classmates or schoolmates for the past few years now.

The boy living in northeast China’s Jilin Province took part in the opening ceremony days ago to welcome the new semester, along with his two teachers.

Wang Hao is the only student of Li Village Primary School, which is located at Gongzhuling City with over 1,000 villagers in about 400 families.

The school used to have dozens teachers and more than 200 students, according to Wang Lixin, an authority of the village. Teachers’ retirement and students’ transfers led to the decline in the number of students and teachers.

Wang Hao is working on his math homework. /Xinhua Photo

Despite this, the self-study courses in the morning and the other seven courses, including Chinese, English and math, have been rolled out on a daily basis.

Since the new semester, 41-year-old teacher Chen Hongyan has set 14 alarm clocks as the bells.

“I have to be conscientious about teaching, although there is only one student,” Chen said, adding that she has insisted teaching in the school for 18 years.

“I take him as my son,” Chen said.

Liu Haitao, the other teacher described by Wang as another window into the world outside the isolated village, is a PE instructor. Like Chen, he also loves telling stories to his only student to broaden his horizon.

Wang’s father, who is an auditor, has been grateful to the teachers.

Chen Hongyan guided Wang Hao while he was finishing his homework‍. /Xinhua Photo

Li Village Primary School is not alone, since there are also schools with only one student in other provinces like eastern China’s Anhui and southeastern China’s Fujian.

Although governments and social organizations have been working on improving the access to quality education, parents in the rural areas still tend to send their children to schools in big cities due to concerns in the quality of education in rural areas. Relatively wealthy families have even purchased homes near sought-after schools in the cities.

However, there are people who stick to what they believe. Although Li Village Primary School will very likely be closed next year due to Wang’s graduation, Chen said it won’t stop her from taking him seriously.