He Yigang is instructing students to do experiments.

File photo

Chongqing Chengkou County is located deep in Daba Mountain. It is one of the most remote counties in Chongqing and the only county in Chongqing without expressways. He Yigang was the party branch secretary and principal of Gaowang Junior Middle School in Gaoguan Town, Chengkou County.

“It is my educational dream to let the children in our mountainous areas enjoy high-quality education without leaving the mountains.” This simple principal once wrote this sentence in his diary. After 23 years of teaching, his life finally ended at the age of 41. He died of a heart attack due to overwork. "He brings hope to education in impoverished mountainous areas." The locals said of him.

Currently, my country’s rural compulsory education covers 110 million students, but the rural teacher team is still weak. Taking the primary school level in Chongqing as an example, the number of rural teachers is far from enough, and some village primary schools do not even have one class per teacher. These teachers are mainly older teachers over 50 years old and new teachers in recent years, and they are highly mobile. Chongqing has big cities and even large rural areas. The terrain in rural areas is complex and steep, and some students have to cross mountains and ridges for more than an hour to get from home to school. Currently, there are 939,000 left-behind children in Chongqing, including 589,000 primary school students and 349,000 junior high school students. Most of them lack the care and supervision of their parents.

As a native of Chengkou, He Yigang has a deep understanding of the backward education in mountainous areas. More than 10 years ago, he explored the "layered asynchronous teaching method" and produced three sets of lesson plans for three types of students to teach students in accordance with their aptitude.

“There were no multimedia equipment at that time, so Teacher He used potatoes as teaching aids and cut them into geometric shapes.” Lin Li, a Chinese teacher at Gaowang Junior High School, still remembers Teacher He’s “interesting jigsaw puzzle” and “interest-based teaching methods” and other teaching innovations.

In terms of management, He Yigang also made bold innovations. In 2003, he served as the political education director of Xiuqi Junior High School, implementing reforms based on the actual situation of schools in mountainous areas.

Township middle schools are not a pure land. Young people from society often come to bully students near the school. Some parents are afraid that their children will be bullied and support their children in bringing controlled knives into school. In this vicious cycle, many students are unmotivated to study. He Yigang took the right medicine and targeted the bad habits outside the school by cooperating with the local police station to carry out the "Police and Citizens Jointly Build the Campus". The area around the campus gradually became cleaner; inside the school, he launched the "Zero Point Operation". Class teachers, dormitory managers, security guards, etc. conduct random inspections of dormitories from time to time and at irregular locations. "In order to implement it, we got up at 6 a.m. and went to bed at one or two o'clock in the evening." Li Qing, head of the security section of Xiuqi Middle School, said.

In addition, He Yigang also promoted the "democratic formulation of class rules and self-management of disciplines" activities throughout the school, allowing students to do things themselves, manage themselves, and serve themselves. Slowly, the school finally looked like a school, and its results ranked among the top three in the county. Many of these measures launched more than 10 years ago are still being promoted and used in primary and secondary schools in Chengkou County.

As a national-level poverty-stricken county, the poverty level in urban areas is deep and wide-ranging. In Gaowang Junior High School, the proportion of left-behind children is as high as 60%, and many of them come from poor families. In 2001, He Yigang began to explore the establishment of a care and assistance system for poor students and left-behind children.

He first tried to introduce a new management model for the boarding system for rural children, making clear regulations on everything from the folding of bedding to the placement of toothpaste and toothbrushes. In those years, He Yigang lived near the school. Sometimes the school loses power and water or the boiler breaks down, leaving students living on campus without food. In order to prevent the children from going hungry, he took these children to his home for dinner. "Every time we come, there are twenty or thirty dolls," said his wife Li Yunqing.

In addition to providing education and love as much as possible, He Yigang has also helped many poor students. Wang Jingping, who was admitted to Chengkou County Vocational High School this year, lives in Xingtian Village, Dong'an Town, Chengkou County. His parents are sick and his family is very poor. In addition to providing financial support, He Yigang also often encouraged Wang Jingping. "We not only need to teach them knowledge, but also let these mountain children see hope. Only when they are well can their next generation truly escape poverty." This is what He Yigang said to the school teachers.

Just the day before his death, He Yigang told Wang Jingping’s junior high school teacher Wang Kejiang that Wang Jingping’s annual tuition fee while working was 6,000 yuan, and his family would definitely not be able to afford the money. "He said that although Wang Jingping was no longer in our school, he asked me to take the time to go to the middle school and ask the school to reduce her tuition. He said that if it didn't work, he would figure out a way to pay for it." Wang Kejiang didn't expect that this would become his last wish.

In fact, He Yigang's body had already developed lesions, but he hid his illness from everyone. He always said: School has just started and there are too many things to do at school. Let’s wait until these days are over. Unexpectedly, he did not stop during this busy period until the teacher found him lying on the bed in his dormitory, dead of breath.

After He Yigang passed away, colleagues cleaned up his belongings. On the desk, the five documents signed by He Yigang the afternoon before his death had not yet been distributed. The handwritten materials clearly remembered the personnel changes in each class, and the campus inspection log kept detailed records...

"Before, he also said that he would take time to take his parents out during the summer vacation. The old man had never traveled far in his life. As a result, he was busy during the summer vacation. Later, he said that he would try to spare a few days for the National Day." Recalling this, Li Yunqing waved his hands and couldn't talk anymore.

"People's Daily" (November 28, 2016, page 15)