Frequently Asked Questions about the Community Education Initiative
Q. Why did
you pick Wayao Village for this project?
A: There are two reasons we selected Wayao. First, there is an extremely low
school enrollment rate in the village. Of the 50 children of age to be in
primary school only four are currently enrolled. The government statistics for
enrollment in Ganzi Prefecture average around 95 percent among primary
school-aged children. In Wayao, however, it is below 10 percent. Second, Kham
Aid is in the process of moving towards a more integrated model of development
programs. This means trying to do many different types of programs in the same
geographical location. We already have a substantial historical preservation
program in this village that is becoming quite successful. Through it we have
won the respect of the people there, and are now seeking to help the community
in other ways.
Q. Why don’t the families do more to get the kids in school and improve the
education situation there?
A:
Overall, the adults of Wayao are remarkably active in trying to get the school
re-opened and have been putting lots of pressure on the local government to do
so. However, there can a number of factors that lead many rural parents in
China to become disillusioned with the education system and not send their
children to school. Parents fear the effects of lost labor from the household,
they don’t see the value of education because they themselves have not been to
school, they think it is a waste of time because some graduates have a hard time
finding jobs, they worry about the safety of their children, and they believe
that the quality of the education is so poor that it is not worth it to attend
school. Kham Aid will work with Wayao to change these things so parents have
faith in sending their kids to school.
Q. What kinds of work can the Wayao people do with a primary school education?
A: Now more than ever, basic arithmetic and writing are crucial to having any
sort of social mobility in China. All though it is our goal to prepare these
children well for higher levels of education that will lead to better jobs, even
completing primary school without advancing can have a major effect on these
children’s future lives. Without such basic skills they will be passed over in
the growing economic development of the region driven by government investment
and tourism, but a primary school education is still enough in China to allow
them to earn money as a driver, construction worker, retailer, or restaurant
worker.
Q What are the ages of the children in Wayao who will be in the program? How
many children are there?
A: The children range in age from 6 years old to 11 years old, with most
between 6 and 8. There are 30 students who have yet to start primary school.
We will get all of them into school.
Q. Why did the government close down the Wayao Village School? What has
changed since then to allow the school to reopen?
A: Two years ago the only teacher at the school left because he was
dissatisfied with his job there – reportedly he was also not a very good
teacher. Every year after he left, the government has said they will assign a
new teacher “next year.” Now, finally, it looks like that will happen. The
change came after a leadership rotation that occurs every three years. The new
leaders are more interested in getting the school running again.
Q. What subjects will the children study?
A: In their first year, students will begin to study Tibetan, Chinese, math, physical education, music and art. As they get older basic science classes, history, politics, and literature are added.
Q. What does it mean to "coach the parents to mentor their children"?
A: Often
in rural China parents play a very small role in the education of their
children. Other development initiatives in China have had success in
encouraging parental involvement in the schooling of their kids. This can
involve a modified version of parent-teacher conferences and training sessions
for parents about how to help their children succeed in school
Q. What does it mean to "empower the community"? How will you do this?
A. Empowerment in this context and simply put means helping people find ways to
solve problems on their own that they couldn’t solve before. Kham Aid seeks to
build the capacity of the community in a broad range of areas so that the work
we do there is sustainable – that is to say it will keep going even long after
Kham Aid is gone.
Q How much of my donation will be used for administration and how much
will go to the beneficiaries?
Kham Aid's general overhead (office rent, phone bills, insurance, banking and
transaction fees, etc) will take up 10% of your donation. The rest goes
directly to the program.
Q. Who is the program director? What qualifications does your program director
have to run this project?
A. Zangkar Jamyang, Kham Aid’s Director
of Education Programs heads up the project. He is a native of eastern
Tibet and an experienced development worker with specialization in the area of
education.
Q. Why do kids in Kham have high drop out rates and poor academic achievement?
A: Many factors play a role here among them are families’ concerns about lost labor; absence of parents in the home due to sickness, disability, death, and migration; a belief that education is not valuable in Kham, concerns about safety at the school, poor school quality, poor health, the high costs of schooling, the presence of younger siblings in the family in need of support (this is especially the case for older sisters), and a general disengagement from the learning process that happens in much the same way for Western children who drop out. The most significant difference between here and other places in rural China is the incredibly sparse population, a portion of which is nomadic. This means that - unlike most of rural China which is so densely populated a primary school is nearly always within walking distance - many families in Kham are forced to have their children board at school, even at the primary school level.
Q. What is the program budget?
A. As a flexible, adaptive program, CEI's needs are hard to predict
exactly. The following is a rough estimate:
Needs Assessment: $1,000
School Improvements: $4,000
Education Materials: $3,000
Teacher Training: $3,000
Parent Workshops: $2,000
School Food Program: $4,000
Monitoring and Evaluation: $1,000
Q. How will the school grants work? How will you decide how to spend this money?
A: We will evaluate the requests from the school and community and if they are approved we will purchase and donate whatever goods or services are required.
Q I’ve heard about changes in education policy in western China, how will that affect your work?
A: There are a number of policy changes coming into effect in western China right now regarding education here. The biggest one is a policy called “liangmian yibu,” a direct translation of which would mean “two cancellations, one subsidy.” The name of the policy refers to a government effort to make compulsory education (grades one through nine) free in theory, and cheaper in reality. The policy is supposed to bring an end to “tuition fees” and “miscellaneous fees,” two categories of fees students at every level of education have had to pay in the past. It also provides schools with a small subsidy of about $5 per month per student to be used for school lunches. While the policy is supposed to make school free, in actuality we have found children pay between $25 per year all the way up to $250 dollars per year depending on the school. We will work with school to ensure that policies are implemented as they are supposed to be, however, overall, the new policy has had little effect in Kham. While education is now moderately more affordable for some children, the most serious problems preventing good education still abound: wide spread corruption and incompetence in the government bureaus and schools, teachers with little training, poor facilities, a lack of parental involvement, curriculum problems, and inadequate textbooks. Kham Aid will work to solve these problems.
For more information, write to education(at)khamaid.org.