Coming to Yellow Sheep River(4)

Member School

In Mr. Sayling Wen's plan, Town and Talent expects the member schools to promote local economy and establish internet villages. And the member schools should be the base of fostering IT workers and distant employment. Now there are 144 member schools compared with 50 when Mr. Wen passed away in 15 provinces, 101 counties and 104 villages. These schools keep touching with Town and Talent that has provided computers as well as soft wares for managing email, designing website and teaching aid like One-Step Program. As for the member schools I visited, Yangguo Town Middle School, Yellow Sheep River Vocational Secondary School and Xidatan Middle School, the teachers and students become more active in learning operating computer and using internet and more skillful than non-member schools. Especially for Yellow Sheep River Vocational Secondary School, it is a regulation that students before graduating must know how to send and receive email, design website, use office soft wares and the typing speed is 40 every minute. The school can also provide local farmers business information, which dose help to local economy.

The member schools have got the following benefits: having the hardware and software of computer teaching and trainers, the trainings provided by Town and Talent helps them to improve the teaching quality and broaden their mind, the One-Step Program redound to students' better grades.

However it is rather difficult to achieve the goal of making middle school students skillful in using computer, because curriculum in respect to computer is not compulsory according to the State Educational Guidelines. In the impoverished areas students have no access to compute except in school. Additionally, it needs special training to foster IT workers.

Even if as for the teachers, few of them have access to internet. In Yellow Sheep River Vocational Secondary School, there are 6 teachers having PC, in Yangguo Town Middle School there is one, in Xidatan Middle School, there is no one.

Another difficulty is money. In Yangguo Town Middle School, tuition is 54 yuan each term, in Yellow Sheep River Vocational Secondary School it is 125 yuan, which are mainly for textbooks. Part of the tuition collected in Yanguo will be taken by the local government to compensate the teachers' salary. It costs money on electricity and exploring internet. It needs nearly 1,000 yuan to make the students fully use the computer. There is no doubt that it is a heavy burden. And it is dilemma for the schools to invest large amount of money in the project not appraised by the educational departments. In addition, the schools can not afford the maintenance of the computers.

It seems not compatible with the western educational condition and system that Town and Talent promotes computer and internet education. But I don't think the mode is unsuccessful, on the contrary it does great help to the member schools. It provides a platform for the member schools to communicate with outside. It is a platform expressing the western children's desire for learning about outside, getting help and changing their lives. Compared with these significances, gaining knowledge of computer and internet seems less important. However the number of visitors to no matter yellowsheepriver.com or 17888.com is rather small. And there is much room for the member schools to make improvement on fully using the internet to express their needs and getting more help.

In Yellow Sheep River, I happened to meet Zhao Feiyan and Li Jianlin who had been sponsored to visit Beijing and Tianjin by Inventech Group. One is studying at Gulang No.1 High School and the other is in Lanzhou Musical School. They didn't show any shyness at all when was with strangers, but they were in good taste and full of confidence. I felt they had become children who had a better knowledge of outside world and dreams for which they were striving. This is the result of the member schools and so many volunteers' work in Yellow Sheep River. I dare to say whether they would enter college or not, they would find their places in the fast developing era. They were no longer the people manipulated by fate.

When we collected data of borrowing in Yellow Sheep River Library, Zhao Feiyan and Gao Zhiwei and some other unknown students helped us a lot. When I got alone with these children, we seemed to have been friends a long time ago. Brother of Zhao Feiyan, just entering middle school, seldom speaking to strangers, but keeping watching us, as if looking for chance to participate, rode tricycle to bought 5 watermelons for us. Although I was there not a long time, I didn't have the feeling of an alien at all. They opened their mind to you, telling me about their families and their pursuits. Even though Town and Talent has not achieved the goal of fostering IT workers, the students of the member schools become more open, and more and more care and help are needed there.

It also has great effect to member schools that Town and Talent has organized short training from international, Taiwan and famous universities. The trained teachers are very excited especially for they can have direct communication with teachers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas. Teachers of the poor areas seldom have the opportunity. After the training, they keep in touch with email. They have enhanced professional ability, and more important they have broadened their minds. The teachers have more access to internet, if their minds are broadened, they will foster more excellent students.

The member schools need further development and meanwhile they need more support from all circles of the society.

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