{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Changing Face of China, AP focus on China\u0026#39;s growing illiteracy problem' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c299d8eafeecae15aea9' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c299d8eafeecae15aea9' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nChanging Face of China, AP focus on China\u0026#39;s growing illiteracy problem\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eJidao Village, Guizhou Province - 17 December, 20071. Wide pan from school building to a group of middle-aged Miao tribe women in ethnic costumes walking towards camera with children2. Mid of the middle-aged Miao women walking3. Pan from...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eJidao Village, Guizhou Province - 17 December, 2007\u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide pan from school building to a group of middle-aged Miao tribe women in ethnic costumes walking towards camera with children\u003cbr/\u003e2. Mid of the middle-aged Miao women walking\u003cbr/\u003e3. Pan from volunteer teacher Pan Fang pointing at and teaching Chinese characters, to middle-aged Miao women reciting word 'moon' after teacher\u003cbr/\u003e4. Close of Miao woman's face\u003cbr/\u003e5. Mid of Miao women sitting in the classroom and reciting words\u003cbr/\u003e6. Close of Qin Daxiu, confused Miao woman trying to write Chinese character for number \"four\" on the blackboard\u003cbr/\u003eUp sound of the Miao woman:\u003cbr/\u003e\"Four? Oh, fourďż˝I forget (how to write)ďż˝ (laughing)\"\u003cbr/\u003e7. Mid of Miao women in classroom\u003cbr/\u003e8. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin): Qin Daxiu, Illiterate villager:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I never went to school before; my parents didn't send me to school. Now she's teaching us and we use the knowledge in everyday life - getting on and off a bus, how much money, receiving change and more.\"\u003cbr/\u003e9. Close of the teacher sweeping the classroom\u003cbr/\u003e10. Close of the broom sweeping floor\u003cbr/\u003e11. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Pan Fang, Volunteer Teacher:\u003cbr/\u003e\"First I want to teach them to read, and then after they can read more characters, I plan to teach them knowledge of law. Also, if they can read they can go on to learn agricultural skills to develop (themselves).\"\u003cbr/\u003eVarious, Guizhou province - September, 2006\u003cbr/\u003e12. Wide Pan shot from terraced fields to farmers threshing rice\u003cbr/\u003e13. Close of a farmer threshing rice\u003cbr/\u003e14. Mid of two men ploughing land with a cow\u003cbr/\u003e15. Close of plow\u003cbr/\u003eJidao Village, Guizhou Province -  17 December, 2007\u003cbr/\u003e16. Pan of Jidao village (Miao ethnic minority village) on a mountain slope\u003cbr/\u003e17. Mid tracking of two children (Pan Shengkang and Pan Li) walking home on village road\u003cbr/\u003e18. Wide of  village house tilt down to two children opening the door and entering house\u003cbr/\u003e19. Mid of children getting pigs out of sty, Tilt down of the pigs slurping their food\u003cbr/\u003e20. Wide of the two children having meal with their grandma\u003cbr/\u003e21. Pan, from close of grandma eating to medium of the granddaughter eating\u003cbr/\u003e22. Close of pork with chilli dish\u003cbr/\u003e23. SOUNDBITE: (Local Miao dialect) Pan Shi, grandmother:\u003cbr/\u003e\"During busy season we really need their help because if we don't tend to our land, it will go to waste.\"\u003cbr/\u003e24. Wide of students reciting in classroom\u003cbr/\u003e25. Mid of blackboard and teacher's desk with no teacher in sight\u003cbr/\u003e26. Close of little girl quietly lying on her side on the desk and looking bored\u003cbr/\u003e27. Mid of students running around in classroom behind bars on window\u003cbr/\u003e28. Mid of a teacher writing on the blackboard\u003cbr/\u003e29. Close of the teacher's hand writing on the blackboard and erasing the Chinese character with his finger\u003cbr/\u003e30. Close of Pan Shengkang and classmate in class\u003cbr/\u003e31. Close of a girl writing\u003cbr/\u003e32. Mid of students running out of the classroom, focus changing from a pen in rusty pen holder to the children\u003cbr/\u003e33. Wide of students playing in the yard in front of the school building\u003cbr/\u003eBeijing, China - 26 December, 2007\u003cbr/\u003e34. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Xie Lihua, Chairman, Cultural Development Centre for Rural Women\u003cbr/\u003e\"Local village teachers earn between 20 to 90 yuan (3 to 13 US dollars) per month. Because of this, a graduate from junior high school can teach elementary schools. It's very difficult even to find a high school graduate. The quality of their teaching is poor so it cannot attract the children. In reality the illiterate and semi-illiterate population is growing.\"\u003cbr/\u003eJidao Village, Guizhou Province - 17 December 2007\u003cbr/\u003e35. Close feet walking of Pan Fang volunteer teacher and Qin Daxiu\u003cbr/\u003e36. Close of Qin Daxiu, middle-aged Miao woman and Pan Fang teacher walking arm in arm\u003cbr/\u003e37. Close of 2 illiterate Miao women smiling and taking class photo\u003cbr/\u003e38. Mid of a woman preparing to take photo for illiterate class\u003cbr/\u003e39. Wide of the middle-aged Miao women and their teacher taking a photo together\u003cbr/\u003eAn increasing number of people in China cannot read or write, and the numbers are growing, but local initiatives in southern China in Guizhou Province are trying to tackle the problem of illiteracy amongst middle-aged women. \u003cbr/\u003eExperts said low wages means there is a shortage of teachers in village schools to teach young children, and many farming communities keep their youngsters at home to help during the harvest. \u003cbr/\u003eThe women from Ji Dao village in China's Southern Guizhou province have left their chores behind to bring their children to this village school. But the little ones are not the ones attending class, rather it's their parents. The women from the Miao ethnic minority group have come to learn basic reading and writing skills.\u003cbr/\u003eIn Ji Dao village, more than half of the villagers have not completed primary school, so this type of adult education is not unusual. \u003cbr/\u003eAccording to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, they are over 80 (m) million illiterate people in China that are older than 15 years old, and 73 percent of this group are women. \u003cbr/\u003eNow village classes have been set up to encourage literacy, but attendance is thin and women have to make time for the classes in between their farm work and household chores.\u003cbr/\u003eFor 33-year-old Qin Da Xiu, her domestic and farm work comes first, and after attending five classes, she is still struggling to write simple characters.\u003cbr/\u003e\"I never went to school before; my parents didn't send me to school. Now she's teaching us and we use the knowledge in everyday life - getting on and off a bus, how much money, receiving change and more,\" Qin said.\u003cbr/\u003eWith their husbands working in cities thousands of miles away in eastern China, the availability of the classes sometimes isn't enough of a draw for these women.\u003cbr/\u003eMost need convincing that learning is also relevant to their livelihoods, said 21-year-old volunteer teacher, Pan Fang. \u003cbr/\u003e\"First I want to teach them to read, and then after they can read more characters, I plan to teach them knowledge on law. Also, if they can read they can go on to learn agricultural skills to develop (themselves),\" Pan Fang said.\u003cbr/\u003eIn many of the poorer rural provinces like Guizhou, the government continues to fight a losing war against illiteracy. The reasons are complex, but the cost of rural education, and the lure of migrant work in the big cities draws many Chinese away from the classroom to migrant labour in the east of China. \u003cbr/\u003eMany isolated farming villages are situated deep in the mountains, making it hard for provincial education reforms and literacy campaigns hard to penetrate. \u003cbr/\u003eReaching full literacy - which is defined by the Chinese government as being able to read and write one thousand, five hundred Chinese characters - would be a sustantial achievement in many of the rural communities in Guizhou. \u003cbr/\u003eIn fact, illiteracy in China is on the rise despite the government's 50-year campaign to eradicate it.\u003cbr/\u003eAccording to state media, the number of illiterate Chinese adults rose by over 30 percent, from 87 (m) million to 116 (m) million between 2000 to 2005.\u003cbr/\u003eThe problem of adult illiteracy in Jidao village is just one example of the issues facing China's education system. \u003cbr/\u003eChina's children in rural communities are also missing out value classroom time because of lack of teachers, poverty, and parental commitments. \u003cbr/\u003eFor the young Pan siblings, the cycle of illiteracy begins early in life. Despite their tender age, school sometimes takes second place to demands on the farm. \u003cbr/\u003eLike many rural children, their parents are migrant workers in the big city. Cared for by their 70-year-old grandmother, the Pan siblings need to help her with the agricultural work even if it means skipping school during harvest season.\u003cbr/\u003e\"During busy season we really need their help because if we don't tend to our land, it will go to waste,\" said Pan Shi.\u003cbr/\u003eThe poorly funded school in the village also compounds this problem. \u003cbr/\u003eExperts said village teachers unlike their counterparts in government schools are poorly paid and in short supply. Very often teaching staff are unavailable, so students are sometimes left to their own devices. \u003cbr/\u003eThis can mean that some young Chinese in villages fail to complete their basic education despite the law stating that every child has the right to nine years of education.\u003cbr/\u003eXie Li Hua from the Board Chairman of Cultural Development Center for Rural Women said that illiteracy is growing because many village schools cannot find a high school graduate prepared to work as a school teacher because they want to earn more money in the cities. \u003cbr/\u003e\"Local village teachers earn between 20 to 90 yuan (3 to 13 US dollars) per month. Because of this, a graduate from junior high school can teach elementary schools. It's very difficult even to find a high school graduate. The quality of their teaching is poor so it cannot attract the children. In reality the illiterate and semi-illiterate population is growing,\" said Xie Li Hua, the Board Chairman of Cultural Development Center for Rural Women. \u003cbr/\u003eDespite the difficulties facing the women in Jidao village, Pan Fang hopes to help the villagers on a path towards literacy.\u003cbr/\u003eHer best students can already write their home addresses and even read some public signs but as the next harvest comes round, many are already planning to abandon classwork for fieldwork. It is far from an ideal solution, but in China's isolated villages, at least the women of Jidao are receiving an education.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eCurator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan class=\"star-rating\" aria-label=\"3.5 out of 5 stars\" role=\"img\"\u003e\u003ci 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