School drive in Ningxia is a lesson in how dreams come true

"My parents also give me pocket money," says Li Dongmei, an eighth grader.

Her family used to be on the registered impoverished household list. But thanks to the country's poverty-alleviation campaign, life has got much better.

Dongmei is a boarding student and visits her home on weekends. She has a cozy bed in a dorm shared by four girls and 24-hour access to warm water. She likes writing diaries. The notebook she uses was bought online, and the entries are mostly about interesting things such as teachers showing them movies.

Ma Yan wrote in her diary that not a single student was able to put on a simple performance when the teacher asked them to. On the contrary, Dongmei had never encountered such a moment in her life.

"The school holds extracurricular activities like reading competitions, speech contests and sports," Dongmei says.

Ma Chengqi, Ma Yan's classmate from middle school, says: "Every village has young men and women studying in universities now."

Through education, Ma Chengqi has become a government employee, instead of working the land like his father and grandfather.

Recalling a moment from his childhood, he says he once saw his cousin weeping at the doorstep because the family had no money to pay for his tuition. "Villagers at the time were more concerned about filling their bellies and only a few understood the importance of education," he says.

Now even kindergartens, a concept Ma Chengqi never heard of when he was a child, are popular in rural areas. Statistics show that the enrollment rate of preschool education in Ningxia exceeded 88 percent in 2020.

"Today no girl drops out of school to get married," Ma Ruyun says. "Their parents are ready to send them to a vocational school to acquire skills even if they fail to gain admission to a senior middle school."

Xinhua