Located in Huaping County in Lijiang, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the Huaping High School for Girls is well-known not only because it is the first girls' public high school in the nation that does not charge tuition fees, but also for its high percentage of graduates who enter universities — last year, the school's university admission rate ranked first among all high schools in Lijiang.

None of this would have happened without Zhang Guimei. The 63-year-old has been fighting the inequality and prejudice girls face in the mountains for a long time.

In 2001, Zhang, then a teacher of local middle school, was appointed the part-time president of a center for homeless children in the county, she found many of the girls who lived at the center were abandoned by their parents.

She also noticed many girls in the region, especially from poor families, had little chance of getting education.

In a conversation with one of her students' mother, Zhang learned the woman sent her son in junior middle school to an extracurricular training institution, but not her daughter who was soon going to take gaokao, because she thought it was more important for boys to study.

These experiences inspired Zhang to establish a school for girls living in the mountainous areas, mainly those who are unable to continue their studies after completing the nine-year compulsory education. She was determined to make sure the school did not charge tuition fees.

To raise money for the school, between 2002 and 2007, Zhang spent the summer and winter vacations on the streets, asking people to donate for her school. Many people refused to donate and humiliated her, and Zhang only managed to collect about 10,000 yuan ($1,415), which was nowhere near enough to start a school.

The turning point came in 2007. That year, Zhang was selected as a representative of the 17th CPC National Congress, and the local government issued a special grant for her to purchase some new clothes before she went to attend the meetings in Beijing. Instead she used the money to buy computers for her students.

At the meeting, a reporter noticed Zhang was wearing jeans with holes in them, and reported her story. Since then, Zhang and her dream to start a school for girls have drawn attention from the public.

Consequently, governments of Lijiang city and Huaping County allocated one million yuan, respectively, to construct a school, and the Huaping High School for Girls was officially opened in September 2008. Funds for school operations and salaries of teaching staff are also covered by the local government.

Zhang set a high academic standard for the school from the beginning. She asked teachers to ensure all graduates be admitted into colleges, regardless of their initial academic performances.

Difficulties soon followed. Many teachers considered Zhang's goal a mission impossible — the school did not set a minimum admission score when it enrolled the first batch of 100 students, and many students had a poor academic performance.

Coupled with the school's humble conditions, six months after it opened, nine out of its 17 teachers offered to resign, which nearly paralyzed all school operations.

Disheartened by the reality, Zhang also prepared for the handover. As she was organizing the documents, she found six out of the eight remaining staff workers at the school were members of the Communist Party of China. Zhang gathered them and they reviewed the oath of joining the Party together in front of a Party flag they drew. Everyone burst into tears before they could finish the oath.

The school did not shut down. Zhang and her colleagues spared no time and efforts to improve teaching at the school.

"I want my students to go to good universities. I want children in the mountainous regions to enter prestigious colleges such as Tsinghua University and Peking University," Zhang said.

During the 12 years since the school was founded, over 1,600 girl students have graduated and received higher education at universities including prestigious ones such as Wuhan University and Xiamen University.

These achievements came at the cost of Zhang's health.

"My colleagues and I almost gave up our lives in order to do it," she said.

She's battling more than 10 diseases, such as emphysema and cerebellar atrophy, and six years ago, she stopped teaching due to poor health.

Asked why she made so many efforts to help girls in the mountains receive better education, Zhang said she believes it is essential for girls to receive education as it will break the vicious circle between uneducated mothers and uneducated children.

"Education for women can influence three generations of individuals," she said.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)