One group of students at Beijing's Hepingli High School is happy to stay after class. When all the other students are heading home, one class with 30 girls from the high school are still hard at it in the classroom.

For these students, the opportunity to receive an education is especially precious, because poverty and traditional concepts had once prevented them from learning.

These girls hail from 14 provinces in West and Central China, and 11 minority ethnic groups. Their families' annual income is usually less than 500 yuan (US$60).

If it wasn't for the Spring Bud Project, these students might be home cooking for their families or doing farming tasks.

But they are lucky. Due to their excellent academic records in Spring Bud classes in elementary school, they were selected from a group of 150,000 to take part in the high school version of the Spring Bud programme.

When Yao Yuanyuan, a 15-year-old student of the class, returned to her family in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province after studying for a year in Beijing, her family urged her to take advantage of the experience, and her younger sister told her: "You must study hard."

With an annual income of less than 200 yuan (US$24), Yuanyuan's family lives in a gloomy home located in a cave. Their sole property is two shabby quilts and simple furniture. She and her family get their clothing from the women's federation.

With the family's situation, her father often quarreled with her mother over sending their daughters to school. Her mother received some primary education and knows the importance of children's education.

Yuanyuan was forced to quit school after the fourth grade due to financial problems. But before she could be happy about the news that the Spring Bud Project would pay half of her 35 yuan (US$4.20) tuition, she and her mother worried about coming up with the other half.

She was able to finish elementary school by mowing, digging and selling medicinal materials to earn her way. Her younger sister is also able to study now thanks to the assistance of several college students.

Initiated and launched in 1989 by the China Children and Teenagers' Fund, the Spring Bud Project has helped 900,000 girls from poverty-stricken regions to return to school.

Through the programme, the participants learn how to read and write as well as learn practical skills such as growing crops, breeding animals, photography, knitting and embroidering.