Online learning may solve rural teacher shortage

Remote tuition overcomes distance and gives isolated children a taste of the outside world. Zou Shuo reports.

When Yang Xiaoli was younger, she would ask her mother what lay on the other side of the mountain that stood opposite their house. Her mother would always reply, "More mountains."

Recently, when asked about her dream life when she grows up, the 12-year-old from Ninglang county in the southwestern province of Yunnan replied without hesitation, "To travel the world."

However, the farthest the fifth-grader has ever been is the center of Ninglang, about 20 kilometers from her home. The journey took about three hours, and confirmed her mother's statement - Yang had to cross three mountains to reach her destination.

Since 2016, like the other students at Xinxing Primary School in Ninglang's Yongning township, Yang has had two English teachers: one is a class-based teacher, while the other is a foreign, native speaker who provides online tuition from thousands of kilometers away.

Most of the lessons are provided free by education companies as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

"For the first time in my life, I can see a foreign person talking to me in English. I am so excited," Yang said.

The online teacher showed Yang and her classmates photos of iconic buildings and places, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the London Eye.

Since then, the once-weekly classes have become more than just learning a language. "They are a window to the outside world and make me think that someday I can cross more mountains and see what the world has to offer," Yang said.

Investment

Since 2012, schools in China's rural areas have seen great developments in infrastructure and facilities as a result of government investment in education amounting to more than 4 percent of GDP. Last year, the figure was 3.4 trillion yuan ($494 billion).

However, the biggest obstacle to providing education for rural children is the lack of teachers willing to take jobs in impoverished, remote areas.