Schools in Yushu - September 2010

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After doing 15 years of photography, I still don’t like displaying the pictures I’ve taken. From Sichuan to Yushu, tens of thousands of pictures were taken, excluding those that were lost by accident. The photos I’ve taken were rarely shared to the public for various reasons, with few exceptions – i.e. as a gift to the cute people in the photos.

However, after these two days of visiting schools in four different remote rural villages, I have the urge to post the photos here as soon as possible. Reason? You’ll know when you see them. The irony, though, is that when I’m about to post them, the modem failed, no matter how I tried.

Since 7 September, we distributed sweaters to the children in the rural villages, which were donations from Teacher Zhou from Guangzhou and others, because the weather turned cold. The first place that we went was GuoQing Village Primary School (now named ShaoYun Tent School), situated 10 miles from Yushu county. Just when we thought that things would be better since our last visit (almost half a month ago), we were greeted by the sight of broken tents due to heavy rain and wind. The winter is coming and yet the tents were gradually broken. From what we heard, tents for winter use were requested, however no one is sure when they’ll arrive.

 Though the tents look like this, loud reading sounds can still be heard from them.

The classroom which originally houses standard six students were temporarily vacant as six of the students have entered Form 1 in TianJin. The teacher proudly told us that in the recent exams, “Our students finished top, especially in Tibetan language and languages.” “Their drawings were also good,” I added.

The school principal personally took on three levels of Tibetan language classes. The way he accepted the poor conditions, his content and pleasure in his job left us deeply moved.

 The principle and the teachers took a photo in front of the simple and crude school. The teacher at the right come back to teacher immediately after she just done her intravenous drip.

It was raining yesterday since dawn and we were supposed to go to GanDa Village Primary School 20 miles from Gyêgu town. Yet this morning Mr. Wong said “Even though the weather is bad, we still have to go.” After loading the stuff onto the truck, we headed for GanDa. The rain accompanied us throughout the journey, however the mountains on either side of us were covered in snow. And what filled our minds were thoughts of the children in the rain.

Ganda Village Primary School, now named Yushu First Hope Primary School.

Among these tents, only four classes were being used for conducting classes. According to a teacher, the authorities stipulated that no classes be conducted for standard 1 and 2 students because there wasn’t a minimum of 20 students.
“Won’t those children lose the opportunity of going to school?!”
“What to do…” even the teacher sounded helpless.

 These are the dorms of children who were only able to go home once a week.

The best way to stay warm here is still these green military coats only.

We left GanDa and spontaneously decided to go visit villages situated nearby. On the way there, the rain turned into snow and we GenDuoLaMao and his grandmother. After a while, we reached LongBaoCuoDuo Village Primary School, now known as ShaoYun Tent School.

In this school, there are 230 students with only 6 teachers, 4 of which are permanent and the other 2 temporary. 

 Because a lot of students were staying at the school, they had to sleep next to each other in a dorm like this.

The children welcomed us happily even in the windy and snowy weather, even when their floor were filled with water.

Because the children can go home only once a week, they have to bring a week’s worth of food from home to school and keep them in the food storage tent.

Whenever it turned windy, rainy or snowy, the children have their meals in this tent which serves as the canteen. However, the tent is broken and couldn’t shelter them from bad weather.

This is the kitchen and the “chefs”. The mother who’s sitting was sick.

 

The principal and the children waving us goodbye in the windy and snowy weather.

Today (9 September), we heard from the principal of ChanGu Village Primary School that the authorities decided to merge a few schools to boarding schools in the town center. All of us were concerned about the outflow of children from schools. This is because if these students from village primary schools wish to continue schooling, they have to stay at the boarding school dorms. However, it is quite impossible for young children to leave their homes and stay at schools. Also, older children might not be able to stay at boarding schools for other various reasons. In fact, more than a month ago, the principal of GanDa said that he sought out the authorities numerous times and proposed that certain village primary schools be retained so that other children from remote villages could continue schooling. Yet, now we hear of merging schools. If that’s the case, children who are of age to start standard 1 and 2 would most probably lose the opportunity to go to school. As for the other children, they would stop going to school due to accommodation, transport and meal issues. For these nomads, lack of civilization means losing the opportunity for their children to education. Returning from our visit today, our hearts were heavy. Let’s hope that all necessities will be delivered to the children as soon as possible.

※ This entry is permitted as use for reference for disaster relief purposes only. Reasons other than disaster relief purposes are strictly prohibited for use. Contents of this entry are not to be distributed without permission. 

Excerpt from:
Teacher Meng’s blog entry dated 9 September 2010

Special thanks to our translator: Lai Thin