Project gives rural schools virtual reach

Ethnic Yi students gather for a meeting at Central Primary School in Haluo town in Sichuan province's Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture.

Hailai Mama, a fifth-grade primary school student dressed in traditional Yi attire, was excited to see a computer for the first time. The 11-year-old and the other nine students in the classroom quickly learned how to turn the high-tech device on and off, and use them to read e-books and watch films.

"I like to play flash games and watch TV series. It's a lot of fun. I also want to learn how to surf the Internet," she says, eagerly. She is one of the 425 Yi ethnic group students at Central Primary School of Dianbu town in Meigu county, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province.

"Teaching methods are changing rapidly. It's best to combine the traditional and high-tech ones," says Ma Haizhen, academic dean of the school.

Seagate Technology, one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives, and the China Youth Development Foundation, teamed up to build the Seagate Hope Digital Library in the school — the first of its kind in rural China. The company is building two such libraries and teaching buildings in the county.

According to Ma, there are three primary schools in Dianbu town. About one-third of the students are left-behind children, who live with their grandparents while their parents labor in cities as migrant workers.

Most students in the school are from poor families with more than three children, and have to walk for more than one hour to go to school on zigzagging mountain road. The class starts at 9:30 am, but some students are late every day, especially in rainy or snowy weather.

Ban Seng Teh, senior vice-president and managing director of Segate's Asia-Pacific and Japan operations, is impressed by how eager the children are to learn and how much they enjoy being in school.

"It's a big contrast to urban children, many of whom don't have the good attitude to study and don't perceive education as joyful and happy," he says, adding that he plans to bring his own two children next year to experience this kind of life.

"I was afraid at first they would not know how to use a mouse, but it turned out they all learned very fast," says Feng Minhui, deputy director of the partner-cooperation department of CYDF.

According to Feng, the foundation plans to promote digital libraries next year, and some are already under construction. Several companies are in negotiation with the foundation to build more all across China.