These are pictures from a village in Hu County, Xian and it is part of the rural education research program.  The pictures were taken in June, 2009.

For many years, most administrative villages in China had an elementary school. However, a recent program in rural China is to consolidate or combine several village schools into a single school building.  As a result, four or five village may share a single elementary school. The reason for combining schools include the success of family planning (fewer children) and the tax-for-fee reforms that reduced local funding for schools.  Consequently, many rural students have to start living in elementary school dorms at ages six and seven.  The NSDRC and REAP program examines the academic, nutritional, health and administrative issues and problems associated with the recent move to combine schools.   

Children, who live in the village, can retuen home for meals and to sleep.

The students waiting for dinner. For these students, this is the second meal of the day. One of the NSDRC and REAP programs examines how the traditional custom of eating two meals a day (i.e. no breakfast) influences health and academic preformance.

Students rarely have meat in their meals. It usually consists of steamed buns and local vegatables.

A number of public rural elementary boarding schools do not have eating facilities with long tables and benches, so many of the children eat in the court yard or steps. Also notice the separate girl/boy eating circles.

Girls Dorm: about twelve girls live in this room and the older girls live with the young ones and help out with adjusting to dorm life as well as helping with thier studies.

The main cooking and heating fuel is coal.

This is a student reading a letter from home. The school principle meets with parents from local and distance villages a few times a year to discuss ways to help the kids and parents cope with the boarding school life. These meeting are through the Parent Teachers Association (PTA).    

The rural elementary school teachers. They also live at the school.

No all the rural elementary teachers are women.

Me and the school principle. He is a great guy, and he has done a remarkable job working with the teachers, parents and students.

This is one of the first active (and effective) Parent Teacher Association in rural China. However, this is completely independent from the American PTA and it is not at all affiliated with the American association.