Rural kindergartens help to prevent poverty trap

An initiative in one of China's most mountainous areas may provide a template for future development. Hou Liqiang and Yang Jun report from Tongren, Guizhou province.

As China marks its third Poverty Alleviation Day on Oct 17, the success of Tongren, a city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, in promoting preschool education in rural areas is being hailed as a possible blueprint for the eradication of poverty and a means of preventing its reemergence.

Initiated in 2012 by the China Development Research Foundation and Songtao Miao autonomous county in Tongren, the Mountain Village Kindergarten project has established 100 new facilities in isolated areas, and has been extended to cover the entire city.