Making all the difference

According to headmaster Wang Aiquan, some parents are not so well-educated and can't tutor their children, but they have been aware of the importance of science class due to the school's publicity in recent years. They purchase science popularization books and materials for the children to conduct experiments.

The local primary schools also call for students to join the recent initiative of "learning science with my mother", organized by Science Popularization Department and Rural Special Technology Service Center under China Association for Science and Technology.

It encourages children from poverty-stricken regions in China to read aloud short science articles to their mothers, to popularize knowledge of the sciences.

Feng Lucui, 32, a mother of two girls, is glad to learn such things with her youngest, 9-year-old, daughter Li Xinhe.

"I spare no effort to support my two daughters in receiving a better education, both financially and emotionally. I hope they can be useful to society when they grow up and will be independent," says the single mother, who had to drop out of primary school at grade five due to poverty.