Provinces team up on education, healthcare

Assistance from Guangdong province is helping less-developed Guizhou province tackle weaknesses in education and medical services and contributing to the vitalization of rural areas.

In August, just before the start of the new school semester, a team comprising 10 of the best teachers in Huizhou, Guangdong, headed to less-developed regions in Guizhou to start a one-year teaching program to boost education in those areas.

It is part of a national campaign to vitalize villages to consolidate China's eradication of absolute poverty.

Guangdong, on the south coast, is providing aid to Guizhou, in southwestern China, during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. Guizhou's rural vitalization commission said the two provinces had worked together to come up with an effective paired assistance mechanism and had decided to target shortcomings in medical services and education.

In July, a five-year healthcare collaboration framework was signed. In August, education departments from the two provinces also signed a collaboration framework to pair schools and provide aid to 100 schools in Guizhou from 2021 to 2025.

Hospitals and schools in Guangdong will take advantage of their high-quality resources to help Guizhou build model hospitals and schools, with paired schools and hospitals to be established.

Medical experts from Dongguan, Guangdong, held a free clinic activity in Tongren, Guizhou, in September. Doctors and medical professionals conducted preliminary screening and diagnosis for common and chronic diseases and offered people suggestions on further treatment.

Medical professionals also promoted health knowledge in areas such as epidemic control and medication safety.

Apart from on-site assistance, long-distance aid has also been provided in hospitals.

In October, medical professionals from Anshun Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital in Guizhou and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University discussed a rare placental disease via livestreaming as part of a multidisciplinary program to help women and children with rare diseases receive high-quality medical counseling from the Guangzhou team.

Also in October, the Huangpu district in Guangzhou, Guangdong's provincial capital, and Sandu Sui autonomous county in Guizhou renewed an education collaboration program that sends junior high school graduates from ethnic groups in Sandu to spend high school at Guangzhou No 86 Middle School. The Huangpu district government covers all expenses for students in the program. According to the renewed plan, the program will last to 2023.

The program, launched in 2018, has trained about 200 students. All 46 students in the first class qualified to enter four-year university degree programs in the national college entrance exam in June.

Guizhou's rural vitalization commission said aid projects have helped 1,432 students from rural areas in Guizhou study in Guangdong.

Paired school relationships have been formed between 722 schools in Guangdong and 779 schools in Guizhou.