November 2013 Update

Guiyang County Fangyuan Yu-Lang Hope Middle School

Date of Visit: November 9, 2013

Purpose of Visit: Project Completion

Grades: 7-9 (13 classes total)

With funding from TDF as well as others, a four-story mixed-use building was constructed to hold science classrooms and equipment storage rooms. Although storage cabinets have already been neatly assembled in the science classrooms, the classrooms themselves are not in use yet as the plumbing in the interstitial space underneath the floor and the subfloor are not finished being installed. The mixed-use building was completed in June 2013, and even though it has only been two months since school started in September, the building exterior already looks like an old building. Door and window frames are dusty, the protective film covering the new metal doors have not been completely removed, the lower half of walls were painted sloppily with drops of paint dotting the floors, there are shoe prints on the wall, and we even found cigarette butts on the ground. It looks like campus management is lacking. We’ve already spoken with the local education authorities and the school staff about keeping the campus clean. Regularly cleaning and maintaining the campus can teach the students the value of preserving their surroundings, and with the teamwork from staff and students it can be done.

Students

No. of Students: 815 (496 boarding)

The atmosphere for learning is above average. Students do well in athletics, with their basketball team placing 3rd in the province. Around 90% of students graduate, of which 50% continue on to county-level high schools, while the remaining enter vocational school.

Teachers

No. of Teachers: 52

Teaching performance is good, ranking 3rd in Guiyang County.

Buildings/Facilities

Problems/Issues

The student population is very big, but the campus is really small and lacks an athletic field. Students and teachers don’t have space to eat. Computers are old (with CRT screens).