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Education in Tongzhuang village gets top marks

(chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-08-31

For a long time, education in rural areas has been an important issue across China, with the government attempting numerous incentives to attract good quality teachers to remote communities.

However, a small village in Henan province has bucked this trend.

Tongzhuang village in Nanyang's Fangcheng county, Henan province has had a long and rigorous teaching tradition which is ingrained in the culture of the people living there, and has produced a wide range and talented students for decades.

The village only has a population of 2,200 people, 700 of which are students; however a staggering 180 of them are teachers, 12 percent of the village as a whole. As a result, since 2007, Tongzhuang has been dubbed "the village of teachers" by local authorities, and is ranked as a model school in Fangcheng county.

"Tongzhuang has been home to a private school from as early as the Daoguang period in the Qing Dynasty (1821-1851)," said Zhang Siying, a local historian.

"With the help of the whole village, Tongzhuang established a primary school in early 1930s, which became a public school in 1949," Zhang said.

According to locals, besides the tradition of respecting teachers and valuing learning, a historical example inspired Tongzhuang to focus on education.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the country was in urgent need of talent in all areas of society. Tongzhuang responded to the call and produced more than its fair share of highly educated and talented people, creating a culture of education in the village along the way.

Since 1949, a wealth of talent has emerged from the small village, with as many as 1,100 entrepreneurs, more than 600 highly educated people and over 300 teachers.

Today, the local government still attaches great importance to education and its continuous improvement. In 2002, the school was renovated to a 26-room two-story-high building thanks to donations by locals amounting to 60,000 yuan ($8,990.17), as well as 200,000 yuan in investment from Hong Kong and the local government.

In 2008 the government invested 400,000 yuan for a middle school. In 2012, a further 300,000 yuan was invested to establish a kindergarten, and in 2014, 670,000 yuan was paid for a canteen and dormitory for the teachers.

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