Teachers in town offer lifeline to rural schools

With many children traveling long distances to attend school, this contributed to a rising dropout rate among rural pupils, according to a report by the 21st Century Education Research Institute in 2012.

That year, the central government called a halt to the closure of rural schools. It said families in the countryside were having to spend more than ever to pay for their children's travel and accommodations, Wang Liwei said. "Not all rural families could afford this," she added.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, said governments should not try to reduce costs by closing rural schools. Instead, priority should be given to guaranteeing that every child has the right to an education.

Liu Xiuying, director of the Family Research Center at the China Youth and Children Research Center, said it is better for children to attend schools near their homes if good-quality education is provided.

"Two lifestyles－family life at home and group life at school－are equally important for kids, and are irreplaceable," she said.

In Longcheng, Wang Fengfeng, the music teacher, and his colleagues sometimes risk encountering landslides as they travel to their schools by bus, but he said all the effort involved has been worthwhile.

"Without the traveling teachers, many village schools may have vanished years ago," he added.

As most well-off parents in country areas send their children to towns or cities for better education, poor people with sick and disabled family members at home can barely afford to leave villages, according to the rural teachers.

With China set to eliminate extreme poverty by the end of this year, schools in impoverished rural areas are lending a helping hand in this respect, experts said.

Wang Yaping, the mother of two, said the fact that her children can attend a nearby school has saved her the expense of sending them to one in town.

Li Shuangjiang, the town's deputy education chief, said: "It is necessary to have at least one school in a village. If only old people are living in a village, it makes no sense for us to talk about rural revitalization.