Xinhua Insight: Ghost schools in rural China

Wang Ruqiang walks around classrooms that were once alive with chattering students, but today only two people turn up for class, Wang -- who is the school principal, teacher, chef and cleaner -- and his student Gao Long.

At Liugou Primary School, which is 60 kilometers away from Guyuan City in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a bustling new school year is nothing but a distant memory. And this is not an isolated case, over 15 percent of Guyuan City's rural schools have less than 10 students.

Although Liugou village has a registered population of over 800, only 100 people actually live there. Most kids attend school in towns or cities with their migrant worker parents.

China's migrant population reached 245 million by the end of 2013, more than one sixth of the total population. Over 62 percent of children aged between six and 15 live with their migrant worker parents.

In 2013, there were 266,300 primary and junior high schools, 15,500 less than the previous year. In the same year, there were 21.26 million children attending rural primary and junior high schools, down more than 1.44 million.

GHOST SCHOOLS

In the five years that Wang has worked at his school, he has watched pupil numbers dwindling from 18 to one. Understandably, he is worried about the fate of his school.

Wu Liying, a teacher in Pingshan County in north China's Hebei Province, witnessed his school close as student numbers dropped from over 20 in 1996 to one in 2013. The last pupil left the village with his parents this year.

"I was transferred to another village school. I don't know when I will move again," said Wu.

Liu Guoying, head of the county's education bureau, told Xinhua that the county once had more than 700 schools, but now there are only 260 and 60 only have one teacher.

Even rural schools with good facilities and highly qualified teachers encounter the same problem.

"Everything is ready except we are short of students," said Chen Wenmou, principal of Xiyuan Primary & Middle School in Xianyou County in Fujian Province. The school has 100 students, less than ten per class.

NO ONE CAN BE LEFT BEHIND

In the early 2000s, some rural schools were urged to close or merge in order to better use resources and to improve study conditions. Most rural students were sent to overcrowded schools in towns or cities, or simply dropped out as the journey to school became longer and more expensive.

An average of 63 rural primary schools and three junior high schools disappeared each day between 2000 and 2010, according to a report issued by 21st Century Education Research Institute.

In 2011, the dropout rate of rural pupils was 8.8 in 1,000, almost the same level as in 1997.

Although fewer students attend schools in villages or townships, these schools are still important, so the biggest concern is who will succeed teachers like Wang Ruqiang.

For rural schools that have poor facilities, a special fund is needed to attract teachers, Han Qinglin, director of rural education branch with the Chinese Society of Education, said.

Wang Ruqiang worries he may be among the last group of guardians for those remotely located and small schools.

"Although there is only one student left, I will help him integrate into society like my other students. No one can be left behind," Wang wrote in his diary. Enditem

(Xinhua correspondents Zhao Qian, Bai Lin, Chen Liang, Liu Shujun, Wang Feifei and Wang Hengzhi contributed to the sto