Reborn in the red age

After working out a preliminary donation plan with local leaders at the dinner table, Li Qingfeng began an educational investigation the next day to ensure that it could be implemented.

The plan is to start from the county, then conduct a detailed investigation of the rural schools below and formulate a suitable subsidy plan.

Hu Jiabao used to be a teacher in the countryside, and now he is a university teacher. He is also very concerned about students' basic education.

When she learned that Li Qingfeng had established an education fund to subsidize education in her hometown, she canceled her plan to take her children back to Beijing the next day that evening and sent a telegram to the school, applying for a delayed return.

Early the next morning, she handed the two children to her mother-in-law, got on the vehicle provided by the county, and started the educational investigation with Li Qingfeng.

"No, the education in the county is not good at all. The quality of the teachers is not up to standard. It is normal for secondary normal school graduates to teach primary school and junior high school graduates. How can there be high school graduates? This is simply misleading students. If the teachers have such academic qualifications, how can students be admitted to university?"

(Secondary Normal School is the abbreviation of Secondary Normal School, with a 3-4 year system. After graduation, students are assigned to teach in primary and secondary schools in various places. In the s and early s, they were the main force of teachers in various primary and secondary schools)

After touring the schools in the county and listening to several teachers' classes, Hu Jiabao pointed out the problems in the county's education in front of a group of accompanying county personnel without mercy.

Hu Jiabao's words made the accompanying county education bureau staff all look embarrassed.

Because Hu Jiabao was the boss's wife who donated the money, these people could not say anything and could only say nice things with a smile: "Teacher Hu is worthy of being an educator. She saw the problems of our county's education at a glance."

"Education work cannot be done this way. Among high school teachers, there are only a dozen or so who graduated from junior colleges, and no one has a bachelor's degree. The teaching staff is too poor. The level of teachers affects the upper limit of students. Without good teachers, no matter how much resources are invested, it will be useless."

"Yes, yes, what Teacher Hu said was that this was indeed a dereliction of duty by the staff of our county's education department."

Just when Hu Jiabao wanted to say something else, Li Qingfeng pulled Hu Jiabao's clothes and said what the county education department was not convenient to say: "Dongming is a small county deep inland. Its culture and education have never been developed since ancient times. It can't compare to your Gusu where culture and education have been prosperous since ancient times. There are no good teachers. This is a common situation in county schools."

"What's more, now that we have reform and opening up, big cities and southern cities are very attractive to talents. Small counties have no money and no development prospects. Where can they find so many outstanding university graduates to be teachers? Even if teachers are assigned here, they will not be able to resist the temptation and resign within two years."

"Hongmei and her husband, who graduated from junior college, used to teach at the county high school. After working for a few years, they resigned and moved to the city to develop their careers."

After pulling Hu Jiabao to explain the reason, Li Qingfeng apologized to the accompanying personnel and said, "I'm sorry, my wife is from Gusu, which is close to the economically developed Magic City. She doesn't have a specific understanding of the situation here. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

Li Qingfeng's words made the accompanying personnel from the county feel much better. In response to Li Qingfeng's apology, they waved their hands repeatedly to show their understanding.

With Li Qingfeng's explanation, Hu Jiabao had a concrete understanding of the county's education. In the following inspections, the situation like today did not occur again. Instead, he wrote down the problems he found in a notebook and discussed them with Li Qingfeng when he returned home in the evening.

The Lantern Festival had just passed and school had only been open for two days, but I still couldn’t figure out the students’ learning progress.

Students in the county can make ends meet more or less, and no matter how poor their families are, they can still get their tuition fees.

After communicating with the Education Bureau and the principals of various schools in the county, Li Qingfeng formulated a 50% tuition subsidy for county students.

The original lunch plan was changed to a nutritional subsidy of one egg and a cup of milk per person per day, as the county schools did not provide lunch at noon. The funds were funded by the education fund and purchased by the schools themselves.

The schools in the county are all in the city, so it would take one or two days to inspect all the schools. However, since the schools in rural areas are too scattered and the roads are not good at that time, it is not an easy task to visit all of them one by one.

Li Qingfeng and his wife did not have enough time to visit every school, so they decided to only select one township for investigation.

The couple got up early in the morning, got on a jeep, and drove out of the county town on a bumpy ride toward the countryside.

Xiawei Township attached great importance to the arrival of Li Qingfeng and his wife. They hung up a banner and led a group of teachers and principals from the school to greet them at the door.

The jeep stopped at Xiawei Township Junior High School. The couple and the clerk sent by the county got off the car and shook hands with the enthusiastic Xiawei Township Mayor Wang Delu.

Looking at the big red banner held up by the students, Li Qingfeng was disgusted with this kind of formalism, but it was not easy for him to say anything. Li Qingfeng was just a sponsor, not a county leader, and he had no control over others.

After Wang Delu finished his words of thanks, Li Qingfeng said directly: "Village Chief Wang, it is time for students to attend classes now. Let the two students holding the banners put them down and go back to class."

"Um, Teacher Li, you don't know, these two students are in physical education class. I just borrowed them here. After their physical education class is over, they will naturally go back to class." Wang Delu reacted quickly. He noticed Li Qingfeng's displeasure. After thinking hard, he immediately thought of a reasonable excuse.

Li Qingfeng looked at the time and couldn't help but complain in his heart, it's only ten o'clock, which school has physical education classes at ten o'clock?
"I see, it seems I misunderstood."

"No way, no way! Teacher Li really cares about education and the cultivation of students. He is a true master."

"Haha, you're too kind."

After a brief exchange with Wang Delu at the school gate, without wasting too much time, Li Qingfeng, under the guidance of the local principal Wang Wei, went into the rural junior high school to conduct an in-depth investigation and research on the students' learning situation.

The situation in rural schools is more difficult than that in urban schools. Urban schools lack excellent teachers, but here not only lack teachers, but also lack a barely passable learning environment.

The conditions at the school were very poor. There was no money to repair the broken glass, and the windows were covered with plastic sheets nailed shut. The light transmittance was very poor, and as soon as it got a little dark, the light in the classroom would become even dimmer.

For subjects like physics and chemistry that require experiments, the school doesn’t even have a laboratory, let alone experimental equipment.

As for teachers, not to mention, there are not many teachers in secondary normal schools who have received several years of professional education, and there are also a large number of high school graduates filling the numbers.

This is already a school with relatively good teaching staff.

After walking around the school, Li Qingfeng kept frowning while Hu Jiabao kept sighing.

After visiting the junior high school, Hu Jiabao went to the primary school next door. Looking at the female classmates who came to school with their younger brothers and sisters, he sighed deeply: "It was like this when I went to the countryside to be a private teacher. After so many years, rural primary schools have not changed at all."

“Well, there are some changes. At least the students’ clothes are much better than before. Many students don’t have patches on their clothes anymore.” Li Qingfeng saw that Hu Jiabao was feeling a little depressed, so he smiled and consoled him.

"Haha, can a change with fewer patches still be called a change? Children in the city no longer have patches on their bodies."

“Small progress is still progress.”

"Too lazy to care about you"

After visiting the elementary school, the couple went back to the junior high school, borrowed an office, selected some representative students, and called them into the office one by one to understand the situation.

Hu Jiabao looked at the first name on the list provided by the school and said to Li Qingfeng in surprise: "Hey, look, the first in the third grade is a girl."

"What's the big deal? It's either male or female. Is there a third gender?" Li Qingfeng shrugged and made a joke.

"Let's talk business, stop talking nonsense." Hu Jiabao rolled his eyes at Li Qingfeng and continued, "I'm just happy for this little girl. In the rural environment where boys are valued more than girls, she can go to the third grade of junior high school and maintain the best grades in the grade. If she continues to maintain this state of study after entering high school, maybe she can get into university with her own efforts."

"You are too naive. We are just getting started. You are already talking about going to college? Let's see if they are willing to go to high school first."

"What do you mean?"

Li Qingfeng did not answer, but pointed at the door, indicating that someone was coming.

Following Li Qingfeng's finger, Hu Jiabao saw a timid little black girl with a patch on her clothes standing at the door. Hu Jiabao glared at Li Qingfeng, stood up from the stool, and enthusiastically went forward to welcome the little black girl in.

"Classmate, you are Wang Xiaomi, right?"

Wang Xiaomi, who had just been pulled by Hu Jiabao to sit on the stool, heard Hu Jiabao's question and quickly stood up from the stool and said nervously: "Yes, teacher, my name is Wang Xiaomi"

"Um, Xiaomi, don't be nervous, sit down, sit down, we are just chatting today, nothing else."

Seeing that Wang Xiaomi was a little nervous, Hu Jiabao did not directly ask Wang Xiaomi what difficulties she had or what kind of help she hoped to receive. Instead, he talked to her about studying and told Wang Xiaomi about his own learning methods.

After waiting for a while, Hu Jiabao finally got down to business: "Xiaomi, your parents are farmers at home. Can the crops they harvest from the fields afford your tuition?"

"It was possible before, but not now. The grain station doesn't pay us after collecting the grain from our family, and after paying taxes on the remaining grain, we don't even have enough to eat. I need my dad to go out to work so that I can have money to go to school," Wang Xiaomi said honestly.

"Pay taxes? Isn't it enough to pay the public grain tax when farming at home? What other taxes are there?"

Hu Jiabao had only farmed when he was an educated youth. As a family of doctors, how could Hu Jiabao understand all these intricacies of farming?

Hu Jiabao had heard from Li Qingfeng that the grain station did not give money and issued IOUs, but he really didn't know about paying taxes for farming.

How could a junior high school student know so much when asked this question? Li Qingfeng took over the question and explained, "There are too many taxes. The national finances collect agricultural taxes, which is the public grain tax we experienced when we went to the countryside."

"In addition to paying public grain, there is also the purchase of surplus grain. This is the state purchasing grain from farmers, and you have to pay for it. Although the purchase price given by the grain station is relatively low, it is still income after all. The IOU is for this money."

"In addition to these two national taxes, there are also local taxes that are paid to the localities. Speaking of local taxes, there are many, many different types of taxes. How much is collected depends entirely on the local financial situation and the conscience of the leaders."

"There are three types of levies and five types of overall planning. That's eight types of fees. The rest are special product taxes, education fund-raising, joint production fees, and some temporary miscellaneous fees. There are probably more than a dozen types in total."

"After going through all these procedures, there really isn't much left from the harvest in the fields. If I don't do odd jobs to earn some money, who will have money to pay for my children's tuition?"

After listening to Li Qingfeng's introduction, Hu Jiabao, who heard for the first time that so much tax would be collected, was a little bit unbelievable. He quickly looked at Wang Xiaomi, waiting for her answer.

"That's about it. Our family had a poor harvest last year, and there wasn't much grain left after paying taxes. We've been eating sweet potatoes for a year." Under Hu Jiabao's incredulous gaze, Wang Xiaomi nodded, agreeing with Li Qingfeng's statement.

Hu Jiabao was a little silent when he came into contact with the real situation in the countryside for the first time.

There was no need to continue asking the questions I had prepared in my mind. I was so poor that I could barely afford the tuition. What else was there to ask? I could just transfer the money directly.

After calming down, Hu Jiabao didn't mind Wang Xiaomi's greasy, lice-ridden hair. He reached out and touched her head, saying gently, "Xiaomi, when you go to high school, you must study hard and strive to get into college. Change your destiny with your own efforts."

After hearing Hu Jiabao's encouragement, Wang Xiaomi lowered his head slightly and did not answer.

Seeing this, Hu Jiabao looked at Li Qingfeng in confusion.

Li Qingfeng spread his hands and did not answer Hu Jiabao's question.

Wang Xiaomi was silent for a long time before slowly raising his head: "Teacher, I don't want to take the high school entrance exam, I want to take the technical secondary school entrance exam."

Hu Jiabao, who had some understanding of the real situation in the countryside, fell silent after hearing Wang Xiaomi's words.

She could understand Wang Xiaomi's choice. Nowadays, technical secondary school students were guaranteed a job. Unlike high school students who had to take the college entrance examination, technical secondary school graduates would have a stable job after graduation.

Compared with the uncertain future and high tuition fees of high school, technical secondary schools not only guarantee job placement upon graduation, but also waive tuition fees and provide the same living allowance as college students. This is undoubtedly the best choice for rural families.

"What if you fail to get into technical secondary school? You should know that the competition for technical secondary school is very fierce, and it is much harder to get into than high school." Li Qingfeng on the side asked this realistic question.

Wang Xiaomi forced a smile and pretended to be carefree and said: "Then I won't go to school. The tuition for high school is too high and our family can't afford it. I have two younger brothers. If I go to high school, my brothers won't be able to study."

This situation was very common in rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s. For families with many children, if they failed to get into a technical secondary school, it meant that their path to education was cut short.

Of course, due to ideological reasons, the proportion of women who fail to get into technical secondary schools and drop out is much higher than that of men.

The reason for this situation is very simple: poverty. A poor family cannot afford to support so many students.

"You are still so young. If you don't study, what can you do?"

Wang Xiaomi did not answer Hu Jiabao's question. She lowered her head and looked at the ground in silence.

Wang Xiaomi did not answer, but Li Qingfeng knew very well what she would do after she stopped studying. There were many ready-made examples in the countryside for people to refer to.

After graduation, I had to become a family laborer early, doing farm work like the adults, or going to work in the south, using the money I earned to support my two younger brothers' studies.

Maybe when she is eighteen, or nineteen, or no older than twenty, her family will find a man for Wang Xiaomi, receive a hefty dowry, and marry her off early.

Wang Xiaomi, who may have just passed the legal marriage age and has not yet obtained a marriage certificate, has already become a mother of one or two children and lives a life revolving around a man and children.

In the 1980s and 1990s, this was the experience of most rural girls.

Even two thousand years later, this situation still occurs in remote rural areas.

After seeing Wang Xiaomi off, Hu Jiabao's eyes were red and he looked like he was about to cry.

Looking at Hu Jiabao's state, Li Qingfeng didn't dare to breathe, for fear that if she didn't handle it properly, she would burst into tears.

Women in a state of empathy are the most irrational. Once they start crying, they can't stop. It will take at least an hour or two for the matter to be over.

The room was quiet for ten minutes. After making sure that Hu Jiabao had recovered a little, Li Qingfeng tiptoed out and informed the principal not to let any more people in. Wang Xiaomi was enough, as she had a comprehensive understanding.

When Hu Jiabao recovered, the first thing he said to Li Qingfeng was: "Qingfeng, these rural students are so pitiful, you must help them."

"Help, help, help. We must help them so that they can all go to school."

At this time, what could Li Qingfeng say? He could only go along with what Hu Jiabao said, not daring to let Hu Jiabao feel unhappy in the slightest.

Under Hu Jiabao's emotional control, it was easy to determine the level of support for rural children, which was to give a large sum of money.
In addition to tuition, miscellaneous fees, and free three meals, there is an additional supplementary fee to purchase consumables such as stationery and exercise books.

In addition, in order to allow rural students like Wang Xiaomi to take the high school entrance examination without any burden, additional living allowance is provided to rural students who are admitted to high school.

The money is not much, not as much as the subsidy from a technical secondary school, but it is enough for monthly living expenses and three meals a day. If you save, you may even have some surplus.

This is also the greatest help that Li Qingfeng can provide to rural students. (End of this chapter)