On May 16th, led by Fang Jin, Deputy Secretary General of China Development Research Foundation, Kong Dongmei, Chairman of Dong Run Public Welfare Foundation, and Wang Jingqi, the representative of Apple Company, paid a field visit to the "Village Kindergarten Project" in Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province.
After two years’ efforts, 324 mountain village kindergartens (395 classes) have been built in the "Mountain Village Kindergarten Plan" in Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, and 789 full-time mountain village preschool volunteers have been recruited, and 20,828 rural children aged 3-6 have had the opportunity of preschool education. The project has received strong support from Beijing Hongyi Charity Foundation, Beijing Dali Charity Foundation, Good Future Group, Dong Run Charity Foundation, Tencent Crowdfunding, Sunshine Special Fund and caring individuals, and Apple will also give strong support to the project.
Mountain village kindergartens provide semester education opportunities for disadvantaged children aged 3-6 in rural areas in poverty-stricken areas, and are located at the village level where public parks cannot cover them and private parks will not run them. The site is renovated by idle primary school buildings, and local pre-school graduates from secondary vocational schools and colleges are recruited to carry out full-time education. Most of the children in the park are disadvantaged children who are taken care of by their grandparents, left behind and single parents. Kindergarten in mountain villages is basically their only opportunity to receive pre-school education.
It takes more than 2 hours to drive from Qixingguan City to Qinggangcun Village Kindergarten in Dahe Township. Qinggangshan Village Kindergarten has 22 children aged 3-6, which is a mixed-age class with 2 volunteer teachers and 8 left-behind children, including 2 single-parent families. According to the teacher, most of the daily caregivers of other children are grandparents, but their parents are working in urban areas, and if they may meet once a week, they will not be counted as left-behind children.
Qinggang Village Kindergarten uses an idle primary school building with two floors and a wide outdoor space. The kitchen was set up and rebuilt at a cost of 30,000 yuan, and a worker was hired to cook with a salary of 1,680 yuan per month. Equipped with bedrooms. Five days a week, from 8 am to 4 pm every day, children live and study in kindergartens, with free nutritious lunches and bedrooms. Children can walk to the kindergarten for half an hour at most.
Go to the village kindergarten children’s home visit
Li Ming (pseudonym) is a 6-year-old boy who has been studying in Qinggang Village Kindergarten for 2 years. There are five people in his family, including grandpa, dad, mom and brother. Dad works in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, which is the main source of income for the family. Mom is at home, planting some corn, potatoes and soybeans in the field, mainly eating them herself, and raising a few chickens, ducks and pigs. My brother is 11 years old, and he is in the third grade of Jigu Primary School. My mother is 32 years old and has a junior high school education. She went out to work. Seven or eight years ago, because grandma Li Ming was suffering from diabetes, her mother and her husband and children returned to Qinggang Village from Zunyi, where they were married, to take care of the elderly (grandma and grandpa had two daughters and the other daughter was not around), and grandma suffered from stroke, paralysis, cerebral hemorrhage and other complications one after another. She just died last month, only 52 years old. In the past seven or eight years, all the money earned at home has been sent to the hospital.
Li Ming’s house is dilapidated, made of stone, with black walls and roofs. The house is covered with mud, but the house is clean and tidy. Speaking of kindergarten, my mother said that the child became more sensible and polite after attending kindergarten, and he would do everything he did, help him do something, and say thank you to his mother, which was not the case before. I think it’s good to have a teacher to discipline me. When I come back, I will say what I learned in kindergarten. The teacher teaches ancient poems, sings, dances and draws pictures. I am very happy with the change of the child. When it comes to the expectations of children, it is good to be a useful person to the society and to your family. Don’t do bad things, there is not much demand, just be simple. Expectations for children’s future are also a reflection of family status. Li Ming’s family was mainly poor due to illness. During the interview, my mother gave us the impression that she was extremely filial, positive, optimistic and capable. Although life was difficult, she was always trying to move forward. It is the hope of this family in the future that children can be trained well.
The second point visited by the research team is the village kindergarten in Longfeng Village, Salaxi Town. There are 64 children in 2 classes and 3 volunteer teachers for preschool education. Most of the children’s fathers work outside the province, mainly in Guangdong. In 2017, there were more than 30 children in the park, which increased to more than 60 this year. Kindergarten is set up in Longfeng Village Primary School, but the venue is relatively independent, entering the primary school gate, the primary school is on the slope, and the kindergarten is under the slope. The kindergarten classroom was rebuilt from the warehouse of the previous primary school. Children can take a nap in the kindergarten. The nap room is also an activity room. Volunteer teachers put the beds away and put them together, and the space is empty. Kindergarten has a free nutritious lunch provided by the government. Volunteer teachers design courses according to the Guide to Learning and Development for Children Aged 3-6.
Children in mountain village kindergarten
Li Jie (pseudonym) is 6 years old, studying in Longfengshan Village Kindergarten, and has a 9-year-old sister. Her mother is gone and can’t come back. Her father is under control because of something. Li Jie’s parents didn’t get a marriage certificate, which is a de facto marriage. This situation is very common in rural areas of Qixingguan District. The two brothers and sisters are taken care of by grandparents. Grandpa is 64 years old, grandma is 56 years old, and grandparents and grandchildren live together. Grandparents have four sons and one daughter. They don’t let their children support them and live independently. Grandpa is busy in the fields, and grandma helps with cooking in the primary school, which costs 1,500 yuan a month. Longfeng Village is a provincial-level demonstration village. The government has invested in supporting the construction of new houses, and the house of Li Ming’s family has been well repaired. Longfeng Village is a relatively good village in Qixingguan District, with a per capita land area of 5 mu and good topography and geology. Under the guidance and promotion of the government, a large-scale potato planting has been formed, with a yield of 3,000-4,000 Jin per mu, and the income of villagers is guaranteed. Through the good development of the village and the hard work of Li Ming’s grandparents, the life of the four grandparents is guaranteed. In the interview, we can also feel that grandparents are satisfied with their lives and grateful to the government.
When it comes to mountain village kindergarten, grandparents are happy to say that Li Jie’s biggest change is that he is reasonable and polite, the teacher takes care of the baby well, the children don’t have to worry about it, and the old couple can work with confidence. Talking about the hope for their children’s future, the old couple said, read as much as possible, they can take care of themselves, what else can they think? The family growth environment of Li Jie and his sister is very unfavorable. We hope that the care, companionship and education from society, schools and teachers can give them warmth like sunshine, grow with them and finally walk out of the mountains.
Aunt canteen is preparing lunch.
After the visit to the village kindergarten and the children’s families in the park, the research team had a discussion with local comrades such as Director Zhang Wanze of Qixingguan District Education Bureau in Salaxi Town Central Primary School. Everyone fully affirmed the achievements made in the past two years. The Qixingguan District Committee, the district government and the education department attached great importance to the project, enabling more than 20,000 children to learn and grow in the village kindergarten, which was a great achievement. At the same time, during the discussion, everyone fully realized the shortcomings and challenges of kindergarten work in mountain villages in Qixingguan District.
First, the bulk is large, the foundation is poor, and continuous help and investment are needed. The resident population of Qixingguan District is about 1.58 million, with more than 330,000 students from kindergarten to high school and secondary vocational school. The superposition of large size and poverty makes education have great unfair opportunities and the basic public services of education are seriously inadequate. Government investment in education is still more in compulsory education and high school, and preschool education is the short board in the short board. The government and society need to invest more resources to help children in remote rural areas in Qixingguan District get preschool education opportunities. Many of the children in the existing mountain village kindergartens are older children, some of whom are 3 years old and 4 years old, and some of whom are 5 years old still lack the opportunity to enter the park.
A sleeping child
Second, the problem of large class size and primary school. The average class size of Shancun Kindergarten in Qixingguan District is 53 (the maximum class size should not exceed 35), and the average teacher-child ratio is 1: 26. The class size in some kindergartens is out of control, and the teacher-child ratio is seriously unbalanced. At present, the management of mountain village kindergartens is mostly managed by primary schools. In some places, there are older teachers who are transferred from primary schools to protect or manage their posts. In some places, preschool volunteers from mountain village kindergartens are sent to the primary schools to replace them, and primary school teachers are sent to the kindergartens to replace them. The professionalism and quality of preschool education need to be guaranteed.
Third, the kindergarten management, volunteer management, incentive assessment system in mountain villages need to be improved, and the policy should be innovated. Provide platforms and conditions for preschool education volunteers from the aspects of development expectation, post honor and ability growth, and promote the stability of volunteer team and talent training.
Fourth, the quality of mountain village kindergartens needs to be improved. Curriculum design, teacher training, volunteer training and other aspects need to explore more professional solutions.
In 2018, Qixingguan District Government, education department, China Development Research Foundation, Good Future Group, Dong Run Public Welfare Foundation, Tencent Public Welfare Crowdfunding, Sunshine Special Fund and Apple will work together to solve the problem of early childhood education in poverty-stricken areas in China and promote social equity.
