The College of Engineering (COE) recently organized a 20-day training program to teachers and students from poverty-stricken regions of China. By inviting excellent teachers from renowned Beijing high schools and universities to give lectures and seminars, organizing tours to renowned historic sites in Beijing and arranging visits to a variety of museums, the project aimed to help alleviate educational poverty in poor regions of China.

A total number of 285 trainees, including 38 high school teachers and 247 high school students, were selected from schools in six poor prefectures located in Hunan, Shaanxi and Hebei Province. They attended a great many classes given by faculty members from Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University, and many elite high schools of Beijing. The lectures covered a wide range of subjects, such as Chinese language, mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Painting, Music, Movie and PE. COE also recruited 12 student volunteers from Peking University to share their experiences, to communicate with the trainees, and to provide guidance in the next three years.

Besides having classes, the trainees toured many historic sites in Beijing, including the Tian’an’men Square, the Summer Palace, the Bird’s Nest, the Great Wall, and the Yuanminyuan Imperial Garden. They also visited the National Museum, Beijing Natural Museum, Beijing Science Museum, Beijing Aerospace Museum, and Beijing Planetarium.

In today’s China, the problem of unbalanced allocation of educational resources is very common. Good-quality educational resources often flow to developed cities. Excellent teachers, for instance, generally choose to work in cities instead of poor countryside in the west region. As the gap between city and countryside is increasing, those kids in poor areas often cannot get good education.

One of the trainees, Liuqing Wu from Shenzhou High School of Hebei Province, said, ‘for a rural kid like me, the only way to change my life is to go to university, but I gradually realized that the dream is too far to reach, although I studied very hard. The program gave me an opportunity to meet with the college teachers and students and learn a lot from them. The student volunteers will spend the next three years giving support and guidance to me. It’s a great encouragement for me to try to realize my dream.’

COE raised 3 million yuan from companies and banks to fund the program, so that the trainees don’t need to pay for the training.

The program is an answer to the State Council’s call for educational poverty alleviation, as well as a platform to achieve Peking University’s role in serving the society.

Succeeding the program, a second class is scheduled to train more young students from poor areas, which will start from July 16.