Teachers face number of hurdles in rural areas

Strained eyesight

Since the start of the outbreak, Cheng Kaixiu, 55, head teacher at Juwan Central Primary School in Xiangyang, has learned to teach by using video apps. However, she finds it hard to spend several hours a day staring at a small screen when she teaches and corrects students' homework, which is submitted online.

She wears reading glasses, but the light from her cellphone is hard on her eyes, making them water. To cope with this problem, she projects images from her phone onto the wall with a light-emitting diode lamp.

Shu, who has found it easier to adapt to online education, has downloaded teaching videos to make his lessons more lifelike and help students better understand the outbreak. But one or two students are always missing in his class during online sessions.

In recent years, the central government and local authorities have placed increased emphasis on the quality of basic education in rural areas. They have invested a significant amount to enhance infrastructure construction and the quality of teachers.

At Shu's school, a new three-story dormitory accommodates students who live far from the campus. Computer and PowerPoint presentations are commonly used in classes, and more than half the teachers are relatively young.

However, with the nation turning to online education during the viral outbreak, the plight of rural pupils has been highlighted.

Despite the fact that 854 million Chinese were using the internet by June last year, as of 2018, only 38.4 percent of rural areas had access to cyberspace, far lower than the national average, according to the 43rd China Statistical Report on Internet Development released last year.

Education in remote areas saw smartphones suddenly become daily necessities. Some rural pupils have missed virtual classes, as they do not have a phone or access to the internet.