There is no mobile phone and internet, climbing the mountain to go to online classes … How do senior three students in this school prepare for the college entrance examination？
In Hongchunqing Village, 52 kilometers away from Huaping County, Yunnan Province, at 7: 00 in the morning, Wang Chengyan, a senior three girl, began a day of review. After folding the quilt and simply grooming, she sat down at her desk and read for an hour in the morning according to the arrangement of the school.
At 8 o’clock, Wang Chengyan packed her schoolbag and went out to the village Committee located halfway up the mountain, because the cell phone signal there was relatively stable and she could watch the live course of the school smoothly.
Wang Chengyan’s tiny figure shuttles through the open mountains. This steep and rugged mountain road takes her more than 20 minutes to walk.
Wang Chengyan attended Huaping Girls’ High School in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. This is a high school where tuition, accommodation and living expenses are all free. All the students enrolled in the school are girls from poor rural families in Huaping. Principal Zhang Guimei firmly believes that only reading can change the fate of these girls in the mountains.
"The pressure is very great. I hope the children can go out. Teacher Zhang often tells us that if we save one, we will save their whole family for three generations. " Du Chaoxian, a biology teacher at the school, said. Du Chaoxian also comes from the countryside. She knows in her heart that it is almost impossible for children to get out of the mountains by other means except the college entrance examination.
However, this year’s review progress has been greatly affected by the epidemic. In order to reduce the crowd gathering, the third grade of senior high school failed to start school as scheduled on February 4. According to the arrangement of the local education department, the school began to carry out online teaching on February 10, which not only takes into account epidemic prevention, but also catches up with the review progress. This was a good idea, but when it was implemented in poor mountainous areas, it encountered another difficulty.
More than 90% of the students in Huaping girls’ middle school don’t have mobile phones, and the unstable network signal in Dashan has brought a lot of inconvenience to the development of online classes.
Wang Chengyan encountered such a problem. Her home is located in a small mountain, and there is no broadband connection, and the cell phone signal is also very poor. Usually, the phone calls are intermittent. Because of the poor economic conditions, her parents still use an old-age phone that can only answer calls, and it is impossible to install live broadcast software.
Worried that students’ review would be affected, Zhang Guimei rushed from the county seat to various villages for home visits every day. After discovering Wang Chengyan’s difficulties, the school allocated funds to buy a smart phone for her to take online classes. The village Committee also tried its best to help solve Wang Chengyan’s difficulties, specially set aside a room for Wang Chengyan to study, and also printed learning materials and cooked for her.
At present, there are 157 students in the third grade of Huaping Girls’ Middle School. Students with similar difficulties have been able to attend online classes on time after Zhang Guimei’s home visits. Through consultation with the local government, the communication company also launched a special traffic discount package for students.
Among the students, anxiety is still spreading, and some small things will arouse their sensitive nerves: the signal that is interrupted occasionally in the live broadcast, the blackboard writing that can’t be seen clearly because the screen is too small, and the inability to communicate with the teacher in time … Every time Zhang Guimei visits her home, she will hear students ask her when she can resume school. In Huaping, where confirmed cases and suspected cases are all zero, will it take a long time to wait for this day?
What the students don’t know is that Zhang Guimei’s health is not as good as before. She is suffering from tumor, pulmonary fibrosis, systemic osteoporosis and other diseases. She was critically ill three times last year and was rescued in the hospital. She lost more than 30 kilograms a month, making it more and more difficult to walk. At the node where the college entrance examination suffered an epidemic, she still stuck to her post and continued to escort the children.
"Hold on a little longer," said Zhang Guimei. "I’ll try to find some painkillers myself. I’ll stop the pain first and talk about it later. I don’t want to check my body now. The more I check, the more problems I have. " Despite all kinds of diseases, Zhang Guimei tried her best to look refreshed and insisted on home visits to every student to bring confidence to the students.
Worried that the teacher would feel lonely when he was alone in the classroom, Zhang Guimei sat at the door of the classroom with them. After her health deteriorated, sitting for a long time would also make her feel unbearable pain, so Zhang Guimei set up a bed outside the door. The lights of the teaching building are turned off at night, and only the lecture floor is powered on, so Zhang Guimei will lie in bed and quietly accompany the teacher who is lecturing.
At the end of the day’s class, at 11 pm, Wang Chengyan’s father came to the village Committee to pick her up. When she got home, she still had questions to ask the teacher. "In any case, stick to it, as long as you work hard."
Wang Chengyan’s ideal is to be a doctor. "When I was very young, I saw that my relatives around me were very painful because of the disease. I hope that through my own strength, I can alleviate their pain."
There are only less than three months left before the college entrance examination, and Wang Chengyan is looking forward to the day when she gets the ticket to realize her ideal. (Text/Chen Siyuan)