Students in Renliang Village, Dahua Town, Dahua Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have to go through a tunnel before getting to school (HUANG XIAOBANG)

Safety implications

However, due to poor planning, the other side of the coin is the long travel time children face getting to class. Often some of the mountain journeys are fraught with danger, meaning safety concerns are a constant worry for parents.

For most of learners in Li's school, the arterial country road is the only option. Passing through many villages with a lot of zebra crossings but no traffic lights, the road is a prime route for traffic accidents, especially in harvest season. "Aged eight to 12, the learners are too young and sometimes are not aware of traffic dangers. Their safety worries us teachers a lot," said Wang.

Another concern for Li's grandmother is the boarding facility at the Central Primary School. There is no dormitory but only a private canteen selling fast food like steamed stuffed buns. "They are neither clean nor nutritious. We grandparents and parents don't want children to eat lunch at school for the sake of their health," said Zhang Xiulan, Li's grandmother. She would rather endure the inconvenience of accompanying her granddaughter to and from school twice a day. "With almost four hours wasted on the road every day, I can do little housework or farm work," said Zhang.

Child-trafficking is a further worry for parents of learners who walk to school on their own. "Nowadays traffickers are so slippery that adults sometimes may be cheated, let alone children," said Zhang, adding that it was not a problem when the school was near her home as people all knew each other.

Besides, the improvement of teaching facilities didn't result in absolute improvement of the children's academic performances as expected. "Away from the supervision and care of parents, some learners became averse to study, even getting addicted to online games," said Wang.

Possible solutions

The Ministry of Education has acknowledged these problems and is planning to modify the policy regarding closing and merger of rural schools. According to the modified policy soliciting public's opinions since July 23, the closing and merger of rural schools had to be stopped if they encountered overwhelming opposition from students' parents, and some closed schools should be reopened when they are deemed necessary.

"It is a positive sign and shows the government's determination to solve the emerging problems," said Yuan Guilin, a professor on rural education from Beijing Normal University in an interview with CCTV.

He pointed out that the reopening of closed schools is not the exclusive responsibility of education departments. "They should work together with culture and agriculture departments to combine the restoration with the program of building a new socialist countryside," said Yuan. "The new schools should have comprehensive functions, combining a teaching center, rural activity center and agricultural technology training center in the same building," he added.

Yuan said that as the process is complicated, the management of restoring and reopening the schools should be supervised by upper levels of government. "It should be coordinated by the State Council, with local governments at the county level and below in charge of detailed works," said Yuan.

Li Bingbing may be too young to understand the significance of the possible changes to the rural schooling system, but what she does hope for is to have a shorter walk to school, caring teachers and interesting lessons when she gets there.