Will On-Screen Studying With City Peers Really Help Change Rural Students’Fate?

The No.7 Middle School in Chengdu， southwest China， is a star in its own right. In 2017， more than 30 students who passed out of the school got enrolled in prestigious universities like the University of California， the United States， and over 70 entered Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Recently， another feat by the school has gone viral. It was reported that 248 middle schools in remote and impoverished areas in Yunnan， another province in southwest China， which lack resources and are not doing well have an innovative tie-up with the star school.

When the No.7 Middle School holds classes， the lessons are shared with 72，000 students from the Yunnan schools through live broadcasts， thanks to a program launched by the school with Eastedu， a sci-tech company. Since the initiative was started in 2002， many students from the remote schools have been able to enroll in undergraduate universities while 88 made it to Chinas top two universities. The success made William Ding， CEO of one of Chinas leading Internet companies NetEase， offer to contribute 100 million yuan （$14.5 million） to the program.

However， public opinion is divided on the role such distance learning can play in changing rural students fate. Some think such programs will help to narrow the ruralurban education gap， while others think its far from enough.

More needs to be done

Yang Jie （cbgc.scol.com.cn）： Some people may say that the number of students from rural areas who got admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University is too low. However， students in impoverished areas dont need to go to the top two universities to change their lives. One merit of the initiative is that many students get access to study materials that they wouldnt have gotten otherwise. These materials open up a new world for them and they can study harder， which can lead them to college. These colleges may not be prestigious ones， but will still lift them out of poverty and backwardness for good.

Fate of course is not easily changed. But this live screening has somewhat filled the gap in education quality between rural and urban areas. It offers a possibility and hope for these students to catch up. Otherwise， no matter how hard they study， they cant compete with students who have easy access to all kinds of quality education resources. As a result， they get edged out on the playing fi eld of gaokao （the national college entrance examination， known as Chinas iron gate because of the high percentage of failures）. In this sense， to develop the Internet Plus education is a crucial supplement to education in remote areas.

But the live screening alone will not fill the huge gap between rural and urban education. Those who have access to the Internet classes are mostly good students. Generally， ordinary students， even if they can attend such classes， will not be able to catch up. This makes us realize that Internet Plus education is not suffi cient. More should be done to promote education in backward areas. The live screening is just a start and a trend. In order to change the fate of more children， a lot remains to be done.

Zhang Ming （Southern Weekend）： Chinas educational resources are not evenly distributed， so some schools are much better than others， and these prestigious schools send a large number of graduates to prestigious universities. The No.7 Middle School in Chengdu is one of them.

Through distance education， the middle school is now sharing its valuable educational resources with schools in backward areas. In the past， few students from these schools could enroll in prestigious universities， but now thanks to this program， these schools have their students admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Some say that this sharing of resources is in essence a companys live broadcast sharing and is part of its operations to generate profits. The key reason some students from these remote areas were enrolled in the top universities is that these universities have lowered the threshold for students from disadvantaged regions.

The gap between rural and urban areas， in terms of education， defies our imagination. I dont believe that students in Yunnan can entirely follow what the teachers are imparting in the classrooms in Chengdu.

Of course， miracles do happen sometimes with a small number of individuals. As long as schools in Yunnan pay suffi cient heed to local education and input as much as they can， some students with good aptitude who study hard will improve their academic performance.

Education plays the biggest role in changing the fate of rural children. A lot of factors are responsible for the big education gap， so relying on live broadcast alone is not enough. Most left-behind children， for example， dont even have a normal family environment or their parents nearby to take care of them. How can you expect a screen to change their fate？

Merits of live broadcast

Cao Lin （tech.sina.com.cn）： Thanks to the live broadcast， more students from remote areas were admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University， and many others got into other good universities. In many impoverished counties， first-class undergraduate education is rarely available； so comparatively， the result is appealing and persuasive.

A gap does exist between rural and urban areas and it prevents a lot of rural students from reaching the level they could had they been offered a good education. While many people simply go on complaining about this gap and feel cynical， some people have been acting to change or improve the situation. Their efforts may not right the imbalance and eradicate the inequality behind the education gap， but at least it can help to narrow the gap.

Critics of the live broadcast initiative say that although this teaching model has achieved some results and some studentsfate will change， it cant solve the fundamental problem of education imbalance between rural and urban areas. This is a baseless argument. No one expects this model to eradicate the imbalance. But though the initiative cant address the root cause， it can at least help to ease the situation. The fact that it is helping to address the problem itself is an achievement.

Is it really ok to abandon it just because it cant fundamentally fi ll the gap？ Since there is no perfect method to eradicate the root cause in one stroke， does it mean they should go on waiting until the perfect solution arrives？ The gap will not be filled overnight， but it is being narrowed day by day.

Some people think to fi ll the gap the crucial thing is to provide quality teachers. The live broadcast can only influence students， not improve teachers. But that is not true. Teachers in impoverished counties also benefit from the live broadcasts. They pick up skills together with their students， so this is also a kind of teacher training. It is reported that thanks to the broadcast， a number of young teachers have had their teaching skills sharpened though this is only a supplementary way of training.

Some people even blame this initiative， calling it a means for the sci-tech company to make profits and allege it will increase the economic burden on students. That is a baseless allegation. If a market-based practice can bring profi ts to a company while also benefi ting students and improving the education inequality， why not adopt the model？ Who can say that William Dings 100-millionyuan investment will not help some or even many rural students change their lot？

Yi Dan （www.gelonghui.com）： There are many factors behind rural education lagging behind， the key one being outdated concepts and a poor capacity for innovation and accepting fresh things.

In remote and disadvantaged areas， local governments input into education is limited. Farmers， who are the majority in rural areas， cant usually spend a lot of money on their childrens education. Rural schools are usually short of basic infrastructure and the good teachers leave for the cities. A lot of students in rural areas work very hard， but still fail to get into good universities.

The big cities have gobbled up Chinas quality education resources， while the rural areas are struggling to educate their students. Good teachers and school infrastructure are among the most important resources that students in poor areas lack.

In this situation， the live broadcasts bring those who long to escape from the hemmed-in mountainous areas knowledge about the outside world. They come to realize the gap between rural and urban areas and can develop new ideas toward education. Broadening their minds and fi lling them with the impulse to work hard and move up is an important force that will continue to infl uence them all their life.

Education is a complex business. So no one expects a single screen to resolve all the problems. Though live broadcasts have helped a lot， their function should not be exaggerated. What the screen tries to do is to narrow the gap and offer some young struggling students the resources to go forward.