School children get a free meal

Others would have been exultant but Lu Fangfang only looked worried as she received the letter from the college she had applied to for admission, telling her she had been accepted. 

After finishing high school last summer, Lu had chosen this vocational preschool education college instead of regular college because its tuition fees were lower. She had done so out of consideration for her family’s straitened circumstances.  

Lu’s impoverished family in Guizhou, a province in southwest China, had seen its finances dwindle when her father became unable to work due to an accident. Her mother was already struggling to pay for the education of her two siblings and Lu couldn’t imagine where the money for her college education would come from. 

So she was excited to learn about a financial assistance program started by the local government for needy students. "I have applied for it. If my application is accepted, the subsidy I would get would greatly relieve the burden on my parents," she said. 

That is just one example of a local government implementing precise methods to alleviate poverty through education. A better education is a means to a better way of life. 

Since 2015, China has introduced a full range of targeted measures to alleviate and eliminate poverty through education. They start right from preschool, making it improved and more accessible, and continue through compulsory education to higher and vocational education. 

There has already been remarkable progress in poverty relief. China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty in the past 30 years, accounting for about 70 percent of those brought out of poverty worldwide. The aim now is to lift 70 million more people out of poverty by 2020, for which more precise measures are being implemented. 

"The measures and the work to alleviate and eliminate poverty must be precise. Policies should be made according to the [needs of] households and individuals," President Xi Jinping said while visiting Jiangxi Province in southeast China in February. 

Improving education in the poorest areas is part of the government’s poverty relief campaign target. Poverty relief is an important task in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).  

Pin-point approach 

As part of the 13th Five-Year Plan, Guizhou is using mapping technology and big data to collect accurate information on the number of impoverished people in the province in order to fight poverty more effectively. 

A provincial-level poverty alleviation database was built in 2014, informed Ye Tao, head of Guizhou’s Poverty Alleviation Office. It pools updated information about residents living below the national poverty line - an income of 2,300 yuan ($360) per year. The information covers their location, the reasons for their low income, the subsidies they receive and whether they are covered by any poverty alleviation project. 

Besides focusing on impoverished groups, it is equally important to deliver targeted financial help individually. Since the fall of 2015, Guizhou has started to offer funding support to financially underprivileged students in high schools, vocational schools and colleges. A supported student receives 1,000 yuan ($154) per year. 

"Impoverished students in Guizhou can get tailor-made financial support from the primary school to university level and the entire process can be done electronically," Ye said. 

"Besides more work-study programs and tuition fee waivers, this is a good way to deliver financial support," said Mao Rui, a teacher at the Guiyang Preschool Education College in Guizhou, which has accepted Lu.  

Breaking a vicious cycle 

According to Xiang Deping, Director of Wuhan University’s China Poverty Alleviation Development Academy, for the sustainable development of education, it is important to adopt different measures for different areas in different situations. 

Northwest China’s Gansu Province, for example, is among the most economically disadvantaged provinces. The lack of kindergartens with modern facilities was a major hurdle in providing quality preschool education.  

If there is a lack of equal access to education, poverty may pass down from generation to generation. Children in impoverished regions need more opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty right from the time of preschool education. Therefore accelerating universal access to preschool education is an important part of poverty reduction in Gansu.  

In September 2015, a new kindergarten was opened in Shidong, a town in Gaolan County. The county invested 5.4 million yuan ($830,000) so that the kindergarten could have the same facilities as those in urban areas. It saw 120 children take admission. 

"Over 85 percent of the kids are left-behind children," said Wei Aixia, the kindergarten headmaster, referring to the social phenomenon of migrant workers leaving their children in the care of grandparents or other relatives and going to cities in search of work. "Their grandparents take care of them at home and being elderly, are not able to teach them." 

Before the kindergarten was started, the children in the area received no education at all at home. 

But now, Xu Haihua, who speaks a dialect at home, is grateful that her child goes to the kindergarten. "My daughter rarely spoke Putonghua before," Xu said. "But since she joined the classes, I’ve seen her change. Now she is able to speak fluent Putonghua, sing folk songs and tell stories." 

Gansu’s focus on bolstering kindergarten education is in line with the national goal to boost the development of preschool education to fight poverty. The province has a five-year precise poverty relief action plan for preschool education, according to Wang Jiayi, Director of the Education Office in Gansu. 

By 2015, 73 percent of the children living in the rural areas of the province had been enrolled in kindergartens. 

Lending a hand 

Civil society plays an important role, complementing the government’s poverty relief efforts. 

Deng Fei, a journalist, founded the Free Lunch program in 2011. The initiative, providing free food to students in remote, poverty-stricken areas, has today grown into an influential and trusted civil charity program. By July 2015, it had raised 149 million yuan ($23 million) and meals had been provided to 454 schools.  

In the age of the mobile Internet, social organizations and programs like Free Lunch are using social media platforms such as WeChat for fundraising and micro blogs for charity actions. 

Deng says Free Lunch benefits from the power of the Internet. "An open, transparent, social media platform works as an innovative fundraiser and encourages more participation in public service," he said. 

"Social organizations have played an important role in easing the financial pressure [on the government], and introducing an advanced management mode. This is what education development urgently needs," said Wang, adding that Gansu has made full use of funds from various social organizations such as the Shanghai Huaxin Public Welfare Foundation and Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation to upgrade rural school facilities and teachers’ training.  

Wang Ming, President of Tsinghua University’s NGO Research Center, called charity campaigns using social media a great innovation. "It has produced results that traditional methods can’t achieve," he said.  

However, social organizations involved in poverty alleviation work need guidance, according to Zheng Fengtian, a professor at the Renmin University of China. "Authorities at all levels should improve existing standards and methods for focusing on impoverished areas and enhance administrative and audit supervision," Zheng said.