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BY ZUO YUANFENG
Tibetan students are at a computer lesson.
On a hot summer day in August 2006, Lamao Cering crouched in a windy field in west China's Qinghai Province murmuring to herself. "I want to go to school," she chanted quietly over and over in an almost mantra-like trance, oblivious to her father's call to come back and tend the sheep.
Seven years earlier, the 17-year-old Tibetan girl from impoverished Langjia village was attending school like millions of children worldwide until she was forced by her family to drop out from grade four against her will.
Lamao is just one of many children of rural China, who had to have quitted school to work for their families, as their parents, many themselves with minimal or no education, still think it's fair for children to abandon their studies, limited as they are.
Most rural parents see the benefits as two-fold: money spent and other necessities can be saved and the children can contribute to the family income.
For Lamao, her situation has worsened with time. She is now too old to attend basic schooling and lacks the credits needed to attend college.
The latest survey from UNICEF reveal that many from ethnic minorities are stuck in a similar situation, due to poverty, due to poverty, issues of poor school quality and migration of families to urban areas where schooling is even more unaffordable
Ms. Niu Lingjing, project director with the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), noted young people like Lamao Cering were a special group in society, stuck between childhood and adulthood.
She said, "They have little or no guidance on how to improve their quality of life and how to protect themselves in vulnerable situations."
In order to help bail out such adolescents, the CAST along with the UNICEF co-developed a non-formal education project for out-of-school children to address their learning and development needs.
The non-traditional education project is already the 7th cycle and launched in 2006 for this new cycle from 2006 to 2010. This project is aimed to provide education in life and livelihood skills and science literacy for out-of-school rural children between 10 and 18.
Since joining the project a year ago Lamao Cering has learned embroidery and how to make her family's flock of sheep grow healthier and stronger.
During a visit to Lamao's home, the project's teacher receives a warm welcome from the family.
"Come and take a picture with me", she beckons to her teacher, inviting her to stay the night in the small but tidy home.
"I'm completely astonished at the change in her," said Ms. Zhang Xiaolei, a project manager with the Qinghai Provincial Association for Science and Technology. "When she first attended she barely spoke. I was even thinking that maybe she didn't speak Mandarin Chinese at all."
On her first day at the Learning Center at her village Langjia, Lamao remembers that she sat at the back of the classroom completely indifferent to what the project workers were saying.
"I was very nervous back then, and very doubtful if it could bring me anything," she recalled. "I still want to go to school. But now the center makes me feel like it."
Thanks to the non formal education project, Knowledge Information Resources Centers (KIRCs) are established, having benefited more than 3,000 out-of-school children in 20 counties in 10 provinces in last one year.
Life skills-based education is being adopted as a means to empower young people in challenging situations. At the KIRCs the children learn life skills, computer skills, and through arts and sports activities, their skills in leadership, team-building, self-expression and confidence developed. They also learn about a wide range of topics in health and hygiene, science and law knowledge in developing their skills for self-protection.
Nyi'ma Cering is an 18-year-old of Tu nationality. He is a devout Buddhist from Qinghai's Nianduhu village who spends his time making Thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist scroll painting. He is also a member of the regional art association and has started to teach his skill to other children.
When not painting, he likes going to the KIRC and organizing activities for peers. After 2 year's participation, at the end of 2007, he is already taking the role of mentor of the KIRC and responsible for daily running of the KIRC in their village. In this year, he not only went to Xining, capital city of Qinghai, to participate in the provincial sports meets, but also went to Beijing joining a summer camp for out-of-school children
He said before joining the project he usually spent his free time farming for his family. "We didn't even have time to gather together. What's more, I didn't often have the chance to talk with other children."
Nyi'ma's father Legba said, "At first, we were very doubtful about the project and just allowed the kid to try it. Then we realized he was becoming more vigorous and even learnt to tend the sheep better."
It is evident that the project is paying dividends. At Tongren, an impoverished state-level county in Qinghai, four children who have participated in the project have left to work in other provinces at jobs with better salaries and working conditions.
With the knowledge they have gained at the center, they now know more about protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and they're brave enough to meet the outside world, said Mr. Doje Cering, deputy head of Tongren County, where seven pilot villages are located.
Despite the positive results, children in some villages may no longer have the chance to attend the project as some local officials have asked to replace some of the pilot villages due to language and travel inconveniences.
"We hope more people will focus on this special group of children and help them receive further education and realize their own dreams," said Ms. Jiang Jingyi, CAST project manager.
To help these kids attend school, a four-year nationwide plan on education promotion launched in 2004 has focused on abolishing tuition fees. In addition, the country is recruiting more college graduates as teachers and building boarding schools for those students whose homes are far away.
"In the impoverished western counties, the tough natural circumstances greatly limit the local education resources, and the cost of promoting compulsory education is much higher than in other areas," said Mr. Tian Zuyin, a senior official with the Ministry of Education.
According to the Ministry of Education, the nine-year compulsory education, including six-year elementary school and three-year junior high school, is expected to cover 98 percent of the children in the poorest areas by the end of 2007.
The project is expected to develop a sustainable and replicated model of community based on non formal education for rural children and improve the equality and quality of education, said Mr. Zahirul Karim, section chief of education and child development program, UNICEF China. |
