In August, 2022, Lucia Jiang, Nemo Zhang, and Abeni Zhang made a comprehensive survey for teachers, students, and students’ families and a set of interview questions for teachers to better understand the situation of Dabie Mountain. Because of the limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot go there in person. Members from China Council of Lion Clubs brought our printed-out versions of survey questions to the Dabie Mountains and brought back the results for us. Over 62 surveys from students, 44 surveys from school teachers, and 35 surveys from families are considered valid, and 12 teachers participated in the interview. In September, Lucia Jiang, Nemo Zhang, Abeni Zhang, Phoebe Zhang, Emily Yang, and Laura Shang collected and analyzed the data.
Family
The survey for families shows:
1. Most of the families are fully equipped with necessary electrical appliances (refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, etc.)
2. More than half of the families have smartphones
3. About 80% of the children are left-behind children, children who do not live with their parents. Among the remaining 20%, most of the parents are recuperating at home due to injuries or illnesses.
Teachers
The survey for teachers shows that since most local teachers come from other places, the teacher turnover rate is high in most schools in Dabie Mountain.
Difficulties
We collected 44 valid responses for the survey. The following list shows difficulties teachers encounter in daily life.
29 teachers say that the workplace is far from their home (they have to drive for 2.5 hours to get to the nearest train station), so they seldom go home in a year.
14 teachers say that they have very little time to spend with their sons and daughters each year.
10 teachers say that the dormitory condition is bad, but they don’t have extra money to buy a house there.
7 teachers say that they have a limited amount of time to spend with their families each year.
3 teachers say that they have economic difficulties.
3 teachers say that there are too many other tasks for them other than teaching.
2 teachers say that there’s no access to the internet.
1 teacher says that the salary is too low.
1 teacher says that teachers lack motivation.
1 teacher says that there are few entertainment places.
1 teacher says that teachers’ health conditions are not very good.
1 teacher says that there are problems with food.
1 teacher says that shopping is inconvenient.
1 teacher says that there are no difficulties.
Limitations of education in rural areas
The following list shows local teachers’ opinions on why education in rural areas is unsuccessful compared to urban areas.
10 teachers think that there are too many left-behind children, children who do not live with their parents, and the grandparents are not well educated so they cannot help their children with their studies.
9 teachers think that it’s due to their lack of teaching skills.
6 teachers think that schools in rural China lack information technology equipment.
6 teachers think that they lack an educational training program.
3 teachers think that there’s a huge ability gap between students of the same grade.
2 teachers think that many teachers in rural areas are too old.
2 teachers think that the schools in rural China lack communication with better schools.
1 teacher thinks that it’s due to the lack of rewards for teachers given by the local education department.
1 teacher thinks that it’s due to the lack of teachers in “teaching points”. Because there’s a lack of teachers, each teacher needs to teach several subjects.
1 teacher thinks that it’s due to the high turn over rate of teachers.
1 teacher thinks that many teachers in rural areas cannot effectively use multimedia devices.
1 teacher thinks that some students in rural areas are ill-mannered.
Activities
The following list shows what teachers hope to do:
35 teachers hope to travel.
27 teachers hope to see their family members.
23 teachers hope to go to the gym.
13 teachers hope to participate in educational training programs.
3 teachers hope to read books.
3 teachers hope to develop other hobbies such as learning a music instrument or drawing.
2 teachers hope to go swimming.
Bonus Salaries
Among 44 teachers, 33 teachers hope to receive bonus salaries for teaching achievements. Seven teachers disagree with the bonus salaries mechanism, saying that they only hope the students can learn more. Four teachers hold no opinion.
Reasons for high turnover rate
According to the survey and the interviews, here are the main reasons why teachers don’t stay in mountain areas:
1. Due to the special geographical location, transportation is inconvenient. Therefore, teachers rarely go home in a year and rarely meet their family members. Many teachers say that they are worry about their sons and daughters, and some teachers say that they hope they can live with their spouses.
2. In mountain areas, There are many left-behind children, children who do not live with their parents. The children's grandparents are not well educated so they cannot help their children with their studies. Teachers find that it’s very hard to teach kids in these areas. Gradually, due to a lack of sense of achievements, teachers lose motivation.
3. Low salary. The monthly salary for a primary school teacher in Shanghai is 6000~15000 RMB, while the monthly salary for a primary school teacher in Dabie Mountains is 2000~3000 RMB.
4. Due to a lack of teachers, teachers have too many extracurricular tasks. According to one teacher, there is only one P.E. teacher in the whole school, so other teachers need to give P.E. classes.
5. It’s inconvenient to buy daily necessities.
6. There are no entertainment places.
7. The lack of Internet access sometimes leads to information blockade.
According to those results, we proposed the Teacher Retention Initiative, hoping to reduce the turnover rate of school teachers in Dabie Mountains.
Students
Weekly Online Courses
When asked about whether students like the weekly online teaching courses, out of 62 responses, 59 (95.1%) chose "like ", and only 3 (4.9%) chose "do not like". This reflects that online teaching support is relatively welcomed by local students. We will continue this program.
The survey also shows what content students want to learn in the future weekly online teaching courses:
| Option | Number of People |
|---|---|
| Chinese history | 21 |
| World history | 15 |
| Natural science | 20 |
| Physical Education | 2 |
| Music | 3 |
| Chinese humanities and geography (e.g., clothing characteristics, understanding Chinese cities, food) | 7 |
| Art | 1 |
| Medical knowledge | 1 |
Books read
Number of books read during summer vacation:
Total respondents: 61
Median: 2 books
Average: 3.79 books
Mode: 2 books (Note: The results are inaccurate due to vague data sources.)
Number of books read annually:
Total respondents: 59
Median: 4-10 books
Average: 9.15 books
Mode: 4-10 books (Note: The results are inaccurate due to vague data sources.)
Comparison with Shanghai primary and secondary school students:
According to a 2021 report by The Paper, based on a survey of 150,000 primary and secondary school students across 16 districts in Shanghai, the average number of books read annually is 15.6. This is approximately 6 books higher than the annual reading volume of students we assist. This reflects that local students still need to improve their reading volume. However, the Shanghai survey report also has its limitations and cannot be directly compared with our report due to many different variables. Nonetheless, it indicates that the local reading volume can be higher. Therefore, we arranged a book donation event in 2023.