Retracing an Educational Journey

“What didn’t I teach? Chinese, Math, Music and Art, everything when the bell rang for them.” 

Principal Bi was the pioneer of an era of educational studies in Yunnan. At forty-five, he had woven twenty-five years of his life into the fabric of Yangliu, ever since stepping out of Shifan University in 2000. Now, instead of teaching classes, he is responsible more for teachers’ training management and resources control, taking care of ten poverty-stricken primary schools in Yangliu village.

Principal Bi and his son

Behind this admirable educational experience was a disheartening reality. Only the bare essentials of education was preserved under the compulsory education act, meaning there was a lack of teachers and existing teachers usually taught multiple subjects. He knew one teacher who only had qualifications for Chinese but was compelled to teach Chemistry and Biology, so he had to learn himself beforehand, just like the students. Perhaps it was this humble nature of learning for the children and learning with the children that made Principal Bi, the teacher of these teachers, so humble and approachable.

In recent years, Baoshan city has attached great importance to rural development, with the aim of creating a green environment that would improve living quality and mental well-being for its residents.  

When asked to describe Baoshan, Principal Bi didn’t hesitate to pour out elegant Chinese idioms to express his love, a rich imagery twirling from the fingers of a poet that translated into a smooth, serene countryside scenario. 

“The mountains are clear, the waters are beautiful…the people are talented, the earth has spirit…” 

To him, no place other than Baoshan is fit to be called “Spring City”. 

“Wherever in Spring City, flowers are flying.” The willows are indeed in full bloom with azaleas and dahlias all over the mountains and fields.

Pingzhang Primary School was merged into Yangliu Central Primary School, significantly enhancing resources such as teaching staff and hardware facilities, and making the college admission rate more objective. All resources are funded by the government, aiming to narrow the gap in educational resources between urban and rural areas and achieve educational equity. Compulsory education is free of tuition fees–sudents receive a five-yuan nutrition meal subsidy every noon. For economically disadvantaged families, the living allowance for one semester is 625 yuan (for primary school students) and 750 yuan (for junior high school students), which basically covers meal expenses and other costs, and is sufficient to support living expenses.

Although the Central Primary School is generally recognized to have better resources and a greener environment, and improved people's qualities compared to its predecessor, Pingzhang Primary School, for many children, the distance to simply reach school is long and arduous. They need to go home on Fridays, return to school on Sundays, and stay at school for the rest of the time. Since the middle-aged and elderly at the homes of left-behind children cannot pick them up and drop them off for a long time, taking a taxi will cause additional expenses. The result was that they had very little time to spend with their families, especially since many children could only get together with their families during traditional festivals.

When asked if there were any major setbacks Principal Bi faced because of the harsh environment, he replied with a faint shake of the head, an almost sympathetic gesture towards our naivety. 

“When people from the city go to the countryside, undoubtedly, they’ll feel remote. But for us who grew up here, the hardships aren’t so dramatic.” 

Perhaps that was the comfort he said to himself when he was a child walking six hours to school. There were no roads, if you will—just ways to pass, scattering dirt. Roads didn’t exist anyway, just like the fantasies and palaces constructed in the cities. They were built little by little and passed down by the people and for the people, so wherever there are people, there must be a way, he thought.

“I would go home on Friday afternoon and set off for school at noon on Sunday,” he said, because the mountainside at night was dangerous to pass. 

“When I first started working, there were over 60 schools in the township. One village had many schools at the same time. One principal might only have one school, and each school had two or three classes. Later, it was compressed to a total of 10.”

Retracing the journey, his biggest achievement was seeing his students get into university and enter the workforce, generation after generation, seeing the tree of dedication bearing cycles and cycles of fruit, like the crinkles on his eyes, concentric circles of tree rings, washed and dried year by year, towards the next season, never getting old… 

It wasn’t that he forgot the hardship to reach where he was today; it simply didn’t matter to him anymore what the world was like before the ways of clearing dirt became roads. He was already thinking of what he could make with the roads, how he and other teachers like him could pave the roads to lead to brighter homes, a more promising future, for generations to come, for each and every child willing to embark on the journey.