Left-behind children, the hidden pain of the countryside

In the underdeveloped countryside, there are often educational difficulties that we cannot see.

The hollowing out of the countryside has led to the continuous withdrawal of many teaching sites, and some primary and secondary schools have shrunk into "pocket schools", with only one teacher and a few new students, and children of different grades can only attend in the same class.

And the schools that are still persisting are also facing many new problems. With the trend of urbanization, left-behind children are an increasingly hidden pain in rural areas, and poverty is no longer the only crux of the problem.

The No. 2 Middle School of Majie Town (hereinafter referred to as "Majie No. 2 Middle School") in Qujing City, Yunnan Province is a typical case. The village school has 1,283 students, but there are more than 400 students with special needs such as left-behind children, migrant children, poor families, orphans or single-parent families, and disabled/seriously ill students.

Because of going out to earn a living, many parents travel thousands of miles, entrusting their children to the school or the elderly at home, and sometimes in order to save the round-trip fare, they would rather stay in the factory that roars day and night than go home for the New Year. After a few years of separation, the child and his parents are becoming increasingly estranged, and the long-term lack of affection also makes the parent-child relationship secretly crisis.

What are the difficulties faced by such a large group of teenagers on the long road to growth? We visited the school and talked to the local teachers and students.

A high incidence of early love, an Internet addiction that can't be quit

In the 18 years since he became the principal, Yin Shoulun has not slept a day. He runs around the campus of Majie No. 2 Middle School every day, walking like a fly, as if the cold winter wind can't keep up with his pace.

He couldn't stop for a moment, because every day there were all kinds of problems that fell on him. In the early years, he could only sleep three hours a day, and he was only busy with one thing day and night - to improve the admission rate of rural students. As a native, Yin Shoulun deeply feels that the best way out for rural children is "knowledge changes destiny", and there is no other way.

Since his appointment here 20 years ago, Yin Shoulun has been guarding this humble but nearly 40-year-old middle school. It sits on a narrow country road in Haijie Village, Majie Town, with endless farmland in the distance and a bustling market just outside the school gate. With a population of nearly 120,000 and a local income based on pig breeding and sericulture, the school caters to children from four nearby villages and countless families who wish to get out of the mountains.

Outside the classroom window is the house of Haijie Village. (Photo/New Weekly)

However, with the development of the times, Yin Shoulun found that although the admission rate has increased significantly, the crux of the rural society has gradually been reflected in the school. In June 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) jointly released China's Child Population in 2020: Facts and Figures, which showed that the number of left-behind children in rural areas reached 41.77 million in 2020, accounting for 37.9% of all rural children, that is, nearly 4 out of every 10 rural children are left-behind children.

These adolescent rural children often have to digest the confused moments of growing up alone, but their parents who leave home will not know, and it is difficult for the elderly who only care about the warmth and warmth to communicate, and the heavy responsibility of education and guidance falls on the school.

Puppy love is one of the most common problems. Once, Yin Shoulun had a heart-to-heart conversation with an introverted junior high school girl and asked her why she was in love and didn't want to study yet?

The girl replied that she suffered from epilepsy, and her parents were not in harmony, her mother went out to work, and her father was either an alcoholic, mahjong player, or gambling. Therefore, when there is a little boy who often comforts her and buys her things, she thinks that this boy is "the best person in the world".

Girls who grow up in the countryside need more care. (Photo/Visual China)

Yin Shoulun has heard many such answers. When children don't feel a little warmth at home, a little care from the outside world will become all their emotional support, like a life-saving straw.

The most extreme example is a sixth-grade girl who was found living with a boy in his teens for two years. This was inadvertently broken by Yin Shoulun. One night during the epidemic, he was about to go out to visit his home, when he suddenly saw a young man waiting for someone at the school gate, so he asked the other party, "What are you doing?".

The boy initially said, "Come and pick up my sister", but when the principal asked, he changed his words to "cousin".

Based on years of experience, the principal immediately sensed that something was wrong, and hurriedly ordered the security guard to "watch him! Don't let him go!", and later found the head teacher to confirm, everyone learned that the two children met on the Internet and had been living together for a long time, the girl's parents worked in Xishuangbanna, and the grandparents worked at home farming, without knowing.

The principal was very distressed and quickly brought the staff of the police station, the judicial office, and the women's federation to intervene, but the girl did not listen to the persuasion and ran away secretly after being taken home. Moreover, because the boy was not old enough, he could not be convicted of rape. "I sat at the police station that night and was very angry and very sad. What disappointed me even more was that I later learned that the little girl's mother had been married at the age of 14, and then she had acquiesced to everything her daughter had done. Yin Shoulun said.

Yin Shoulun, principal of Majie No. 2 Middle School. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

In addition to early love, rural children's dependence on the Internet has also left many teachers helpless. Life in the countryside is monotonous and lonely, and the children's after-school life is only accompanied by TV and mobile phones. The virtual space of the Internet has a bizarre world, and there is also the myth of getting rich overnight, and people who do not have the ability to discern and analyze are very easy to indulge in it, and some students and even parents do not study without buying mobile phones.

Yin Shoulun remembered that once a child was confiscated by the head teacher because of his mobile phone, and he actually climbed to the window of the head teacher's house and threatened: "If you don't return me, I will jump!"

When Yin Shoulun heard about it, he took him to the comprehensive building that the school was building at that time, took his wrist and said, "I'll dance with you, if you don't jump today, you won't be a man." The child pulled Yin Shoulun and said that he would not jump, and he would not want his mobile phone. The principal had already figured out his psychology and knew that he definitely didn't have the guts, so he scared him at once.

Country life is monotonous, and children are easily addicted to the Internet. (Photo/Visual China)

Such emergencies emerge one after another, Yin Shoulun is not only the principal, but also the parent of all children, and teaching seems to have become a side job. In addition, the teaching staff of rural schools is generally uneven, and it is very difficult to recruit young teachers. Yin Shoulun is 53 years old this year, the average age of the school's teachers has reached 467 years old, and 10 of the 90 teachers are in retirement.

"All of our school leaders are on the front line, even overloaded, for example, one deputy secretary is the head teacher of four classes, and another vice principal is the head teacher of three classes. Some teachers leave their children outside the classroom during self-study in the evening. Yin Shoulun said.

Because it is a boarding school, the students are also taken care of by the teacher, and they have to be sent to the hospital when they are sick. For students with physical disabilities or serious illnesses, special care should be arranged, and even toilets should be followed.

Separated family, depressed students

In recent years, the divorce rate in rural areas has skyrocketed, which has also indirectly exacerbated the difficulties of rural education. Some children are unsupervised in the family and face long-term emotional deficits, stress, depression and other psychological problems.

Yin Shoulun often noticed that some children were originally very smart, but suddenly began to give up on themselves or deliberately mischievous, and asked privately, only to find out that their parents were going to divorce, causing the children to be depressed.

There are also some parents who don't want to be responsible, and before the divorce, they said to the principal: "Teacher, I'm leaving, I can't go on, I entrust this child to you." ”

Yin Shoulun would be frightened every time, so he could only visit the students' homes frequently and persuade them to make peace, even if he couldn't keep the family, he urged them not to give up their children's education.

Some children abandoned school and went to other places, and their parents also let them go, and Yin Shoulun was afraid that the children would go astray, so he called them back to school through various means. Some students said that they didn't have a fare to come back, so Yin Shoulun said, "I'll pay for it"; when they said they wanted to take a plane, Yin Shoulun also said, "Okay, I'll pay for the plane ticket"; when they said that no one picked them up, Yin Shoulun ran to pick them up.

Behind the problems of left-behind children are often the problems of parents. (Photo/Visual China)

There are also students who grew up in poor, broken families and are always full of worries. Xiao Tao was in the first year of junior high school in Majie No. 2 Middle School, and her grades were among the best in the class, but few people knew that her parents divorced when she was just three months old, her mother abandoned her, and her father also worked outside all year round. Later, her grandfather died, and only her elderly grandmother was left to take care of her.

"I often think that my grandmother is at home, and I'm afraid that one day I'll ...... Then I didn't have any money, and I couldn't study. Speaking of these encounters with the original family, Xiao Tao's eyes turned red in an instant, and tears fell down her cheeks.

There is also a boy Xiaohui in the third year of junior high school, his parents divorced due to disagreement in the early years, his father worked outside for many years, and fell ill, and died suddenly in a short period of time in March this year, which brought a big blow to Xiaohui. Since then, he has become inferior, and he has always kept his head down when he speaks, and his heart always seems to be weighed down by a boulder.

Adolescent depression can easily be overlooked in rural schools. According to the "2022 National Blue Book on Depression", 30.28% of the total number of depressed patients under the age of 18 in mainland China are depressed, and in the entire group of depressed patients, 50% of depressed patients are school students, and 41% have been suspended due to depression.

Among them, nearly 70% of the students mentioned family factors, saying that they felt "cold, hypocritical, and harsh" in the family, or "a slap in the face and a sweet date", and "loved me but didn't understand me".

Depression is prevalent in the student population. (Photo/"2022 National Blue Book on Depression")

It can be seen that in today's rural schools, the most difficult problem to solve may not be the problem of Xi. A long time ago, Yin Shoulun realized that the number of rural children who were depressed was increasing, and they often showed fear of going to school, were withdrawn, and were reluctant to go out at home, and even threatened to commit suicide.

Therefore, he felt that there was a need for a psychology teacher in the school, because no matter how hard other teachers tried to enlighten, it was very limited, and professional psychological counseling was beyond their reach. "I've appealed many times that if I can get a psychology teacher, I'm going to raise money to build a care room for him. ”

Haijie Primary School, near Majie No. 2 Middle School, also put forward a similar demand for psychology teachers. Over the years, left-behind children have also become one of the biggest difficulties in their teaching, and the most exaggerated thing is that when a class has a parent-teacher conference, only seven or eight parents are present, and the rest are all grandparents.

Children's mental health needs more attention.

Some primary school students have been away from their parents for many years, and their behavioral Xi have not yet been cultivated, and even personal hygiene cannot be solved. According to one elementary school teacher, there was a boy in the second grade who frowned all the time and always smelled of it. After several investigations, the teacher found that the boy's parents had long since divorced, and the elderly grandparents did not take good care of him, so he could not take a shower once a week, and he was not diligent in changing his clothes.

The teacher decided to visit the boy's home, only to find out that the boy's home had no furniture but a television set and was extremely poor. Once, the teacher happened to notice that the lights in their house were broken, and the boy had to sit in front of the television and use the light of the television to do his homework.

How can such a family environment allow children to develop healthily physically and mentally?

the plight of left-behind children,

You can't just rely on the teacher to solve it

For left-behind children in rural areas, not worrying about warmth, having a good Xi learning environment, and continuous attention and love are the foundation of a good childhood. But all this, it is far from enough to rely on rural teachers to generate electricity with love, and adapting to the new form of rural education is an important task that the whole society should shoulder.

He Zuxun, chairman of Yunnan Shennong Group, was deeply aware of the importance of rural education many years ago. He is the first college student to come out of Haijie Village, Majie No. 2 Middle School and Haijie Primary School are his alma mater, and his father has always emphasized when he was a child: you should put reading and learning Xi the first place in your life.

After graduating from university, He Zuxun greeted the golden period of reform and opening up in the 90s of the 20th century and took the initiative to work in the sea. In a foreign enterprise in Shenzhen, he realized for the first time the huge difference between foreign modern agriculture and animal husbandry and traditional Chinese agriculture, and decided to return to his hometown to start a business, from making feed to pig breeding, providing technical and product support for traditional farmers, and finally making Shennong Group the largest pig breeding enterprise in Yunnan at present.

In 2023, He Zuxun will return to Majie No. 2 Middle School to give a speech.

He knows that today's achievements are all due to the initial education. Therefore, from 2016 to 2023, he donated 2.45 million yuan to Ma Jie No. 2 Middle School and 1.25 million yuan to Haijie Primary School respectively for teaching and research, funding, teacher and student awards, and infrastructure construction. His donation helped the two schools improve their operating conditions, facilitate the professional development of teachers, improve the quality of teaching and learning, and overcome the bottleneck.

Yin Shoulun vaguely remembers that 18 years ago, he often worried that the car coming to the school would overturn because of the potholes at the school gate. The student's toilet is also dangerous, because the foundation has sunk more than 20 centimeters, and he is always worried that it will collapse at some point. Now, thanks to this funding, the school environment has finally improved, and students don't have to worry about going to the toilet without fear.

School equipment has also been thoroughly renewed. In the past, it took 15-20 minutes for the school's old computer to start, but now it has finally been replaced with a new computer and a smart blackboard, allowing the school to officially enter the digital era from the projection era.

The plight of left-behind children has also been a key concern for He Zuxun for many years. For the group of extremely poor students represented by Xiao Tao, the school not only exempted all tuition and miscellaneous fees and nutritious meal fees, but also allocated 1,000 yuan from the donation to the head teacher to take - as long as Xiao Tao encounters difficulties in food, clothing, housing and transportation, he will withdraw his living expenses at any time.

This 1,000 yuan is not a one-time payment, and it can be declared again when it is used up, so that children from poor families will not lack food and clothing. Most importantly, it allows students to maintain close communication with their teachers, so that teachers can keep abreast of their children's psychological conditions and be alert to bullying incidents of children with special needs in schools.

"The education of left-behind children can become some social problems, because the absence of parents and the lack of care and education may bring harm to their psyche. So we need social forces to help them, to give them love, to give them a normal life. He Zuxun said.

In addition to students, these funds are also used to support teachers, and part of the targeted donations will be used to reward teachers who stick to the school. In addition, for teachers who are unfortunately seriously ill, the school will also use this fund to help patients tide over the difficulties.

In addition, in 2016, He Zuxun also donated 4.96 million yuan to build the "Haijie Zuxun Kindergarten" in Haijie Primary School, which can accommodate up to 500 children and make up for the shortcomings of local education.

Children do dance exercises in the new school. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

The campus of the primary school is also beginning to expand. With so few classrooms, the children's dance, music and art rooms are now occupied, and the school is using the funds to build a new school building.

He Zuxun hopes to give substantial help to the school, rather than being superficial, just as Shennong Group has always adhered to the business philosophy - "love in the heart, blossoming and fruiting". He believes that education is the most fundamental issue of a country, a century-old plan, "Any enterprise that does not pay attention to education is problematic." I think that if there is no education, no matter how much we talk about high-quality development, it will be meaningless for a country or a company."

Today's education form has become complex, as pointed out in the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Key Work of Rural Revitalization in 2023", the most arduous and onerous task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way is still in the countryside, and it is necessary to promote the sinking of basic public service resources, focus on strengthening weak links, promote the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education in the county, improve the level of rural schools, and implement the living allowance policy for rural teachers.

And all this is inseparable from the whole society's support and support for left-behind children, the disabled, orphans and other children.

Caring for every child is the responsibility of the whole society. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

When we left the school, Ma Cai No. 2 Middle School was preparing to hold a theatrical performance and sports day. The school's playground is small and small, and the midday drills are run in batches, but this does not affect the children's interest, which rehearse happily and cheer loudly in the sun.

Their smiles reassure us that even if the difficulties are like mountains, as long as there are firm steps, we can always overcome the obstacles in front of us.

(Xiao Tao and Xiao Hui in the article are pseudonyms)

Author: Mario

Proofreader: Lai Xiaoni

Typesetting: Lu Zirui