[Photo provided to China Daily]

Think big

Song Yingquan, a researcher from the China Institute for Educational Finance Research, was invited by Growing Home to assess the effects of the project by conducting a scientific randomized-control trial in 132 schools across five counties in two provinces over two years.

The results showed that the bedtime stories improved students' sleep quality, reduced bullying, eliminated depression and fostered enthusiasm for books and reading.

The process of urbanization has transplanted numerous migrant workers from rural areas to cities, greatly reducing the number of students in the countryside. So, it has become a growing trend to see several neighborhood schools amalgamated into a single boarding school, turning large groups of daytime students into boarders.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Education, there were over 10.6 million left-behind primary school students and nearly 4.9 million left-behind middle school students across the country last year, and the general uptrend in these numbers looks likely to continue.