Volunteer Teacher Insists on Teaching Online Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Xie Binrong, a 47-year-old woman from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, picked up her mobile phone and began to check the homework of her students after she performed her voluntary duty in the local COVID-19 prevention and control work on March 6.

Xie was a veteran and she had served in the air force in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for 20 years. She returned to her hometown Chongqing in 2013. Xie made up her mind to give up ease and comfort in her hometown and applied to be a volunteer teacher. She began teaching at a primary school in Xichang, capital of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, in 2014. 

Xie has taught at a primary school in Zhaganluo, a remote village in the prefecture, since August 2015. She teaches 26 children, the only class in the village.

Being stranded at home because of the COVID-19 epidemic, Xie has been concerned about her 26 students thousands of miles away.

"I originally planned to go back to school in February, but now I can't," Xie said.

On February 12, her students began to attend online classes according to local arrangements. To help students better understand the points taught on class, Xie wrote down the points, recorded them and sent the audio to the students. 

"Everyone should listen to the recording five times a day and send a video of your reading the text via the WeChat group," Xie says to her students in the WeChat group at 7:30 every morning. 

"The online lessons help students become familiar with the articles, and I will explain them in detail after we return to school," she said.

"This year marks the decisive battle against poverty in China. The prefecture has to rely on education to escape poverty. Now, the local children are polite and pay attention to hygiene. More importantly, they study hard to obtain knowledge," Xie added.

Xie was awarded the honorary title of the National March 8th Red-banner Holder of the year 2018 because of her dedication to rural education. She believed when the children in the prefecture grow up and become parents in the future, Liangshan will take on a different look.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)