Liangshan: Mist shrouded Jiebanada, a village at the foot of a mountain in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province in southwest China, on the early morning of August 21. Six-year-old Jineng Xiaofei got up early as usual, washed up and had breakfast. By then the sun was out and the mist had been blown away, revealing a bright blue sky. Holding his mother’s hand, Jineng walked to the newly built and only kindergarten located at the center of his village.
“Clap your hands and wash them frequently for good hygiene,” sang Jineng and his classmates from the Washing Hands song, to start their day at the kindergarten.
Jineng’s village is in Zhaojue, a county in Liangshan that is still in poverty. Due to poor transportation, a location that is cut off from the outside world and a lack of educational resources, local people have lagged behind their peers in other parts of the country.
However, with the implementation of poverty alleviation plans, the prefecture, realizing the importance of improving education for poverty alleviation, has carried out a project to popularize Mandarin, the standard Chinese language, among preschool students so that they can master the necessary language skills.
Improving education
The Yi people in Liangshan use the Yi language in their daily lives. Many children had not learned Mandarin before entering primary school. And even after, many are unable to speak Mandarin well, can’t follow their teachers and lose interest in studying. Some even drop out of school, affecting their future.
Jineng’s older brother Jineng Wuha, who is in second grade, has performed poorly because he can’t understand what his teachers say in class. “Before going to kindergarten, Jineng Wuha could hardly speak Mandarin. But now he has improved a lot and even teaches me to speak it at home sometimes,” his mother Azhi Wuji said.
Azhi said when she and her husband went to work in Guangdong Province in south China and Gansu Province in northwest China, they couldn’t understand what other people said since they couldn’t speak Mandarin. “It was very hard,” she said. So she wanted her children to speak Mandarin well. Jineng Xiaofei’s younger brother was enrolled in kindergarten in September. Azhi said she wants him to speak Mandarin as well as Jineng Xiaofei does. Lack of skill in the standard Chinese language hampered local people’s efforts to make a decent living. To alleviate poverty, the prefecture has spared no effort to develop education, an important way for ending the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
In May 2018, Liangshan started a pilot project to popularize Mandarin among preschool students. Under the project, 2,724 village kindergartens were established and 112,800 children started to learn Mandarin. They also offer courses in the Yi language and traditional culture to keep the ethnic culture alive. The kindergartens are within primary schools, in rented houses or transformed village committee offices. To attract more children, the prefecture provides free lunch.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
