Xiao Zhou replied with an "oh" and continued to drive. In front of a relatively secluded restaurant, he stopped the car and let Liu Lihai come down for lunch. While eating, Liu Lihai chatted with the owner of the restaurant and asked him how to solve the problem of children going to school here.
The owner looked at Liu Lihai and then looked at Xiao Zhou. Without answering the question, he said that Xiao Zhou was from this county and Liu Lihai was definitely not from this county.
Liu Lihai asked the owner, "How can you tell?"
The owner stared at Liu Lihai as he cleaned up the dishes and said, "You have a tender and white face. In Lin County, the winter and summer are the longest, and the wind and rain blow. It's impossible to have such a tender and white face."
Liu Lihai's face was burning from the owner's words. He felt that his appearance was often misunderstood and that he was not a practical person. He asked the owner again, "Is there a problem with the children going to school here?"
This time, the owner did not avoid Liu Lihai's question. Instead, he asked him, "Are you an official? You don't look like one. But let me tell you, the children here have a problem going to school. There is only one primary school in a few villages combined. The better families desperately send their children to the county town, and the worse families leave their children to fend for themselves. "
Liu Lihai asked the owner again, "Which villages have the most serious problem?"
The owner said a name, Zhou Jiawan Village. There were ten natural groups, and it was the largest village in Gangziling Town. However, cars could not enter Zhou Jiawan Village, but motorcycles could. Liu Lihai asked Xiao Zhou to wait for him in the restaurant, and he asked the owner to send him there. He would pay for the delay. He took out 50 yuan and gave it to the owner, who readily agreed.
Along the way, the owner told Liu Lihai that the rate of children dropping out of school was relatively high. The phenomenon of 12 or 13 years old working was very common, and it was normal for a class to have more than a dozen students. Liu Lihai did not speak. This situation was beyond his imagination. He had never thought about the state of education in the countryside and had never been to such a remote village. He lived in Jingjiang City, and the word "countryside" did not exist in his concept of life. Although there were students from the countryside in his class when he was studying in Beijing, most of these students' families were relatively well-off. They had been educated in towns or counties since they were young. In Liu Lihai's social circle, he had never met a child who had been admitted to Beijing step by step from the countryside.
They arrived at Zhou Jiawan Village. The primary school was located at the foot of a hill. There were two rows of houses, one of which was obviously renovated, while the other was in ruins. Liu Lihai walked directly into the campus. To his surprise, there were only three classrooms with children in them. Moreover, one group of children was facing east, while the other group was facing west. One of the classrooms only had six children facing the same direction.
Liu Lihai's appearance was particularly eye-catching. The children all looked out of the window, which alerted the teacher in class. A gray-haired teacher came out of the classroom and asked Liu Lihai, "Who are you looking for?"
Liu Lihai asked him, "I want to see your principal."
The old teacher said, "I am."
The old teacher's trousers were patched, his hands were covered with chalk dust, and the wrinkles on his face were as if they were carved by a knife. The different shades of them interweaved to form a picture of the vicissitudes of life. Liu Lihai's nose turned sour. He really did not expect to see the scene like this. It was completely out of line with his imagination. He said to the old teacher, "Hello, teacher. Can I talk to you again after your class?"
The old teacher smiled, turned around, and walked into the classroom to let the students study by themselves. He took Liu Lihai to his dormitory. The broken windows of the dormitory were covered with newspapers. He had seen this situation on TV, but it was the first time that Liu Lihai had seen it in real life. He finally understood why so many college students were willing to live the extremely difficult life of an ant in Beijing rather than return to their hometown.
Liu Lihai asked the old teacher, "How many teachers are there in your school? Who pays the salary? "
The old teacher sighed and said, "There were originally three. A young teacher was assigned to the town, but he left in less than two months. Now there is only him and a female teacher, who is also in her forties. When they are old, who will take care of these children? The salary is set at 150 a month. There is no money in the village, and usually it is lucky to get half of it. "
Liu Lihai did not expect the old teachers' salary to be so low. Later, the old teacher explained to him that they were all substitute teachers hired by the village. They had been substitute teachers for decades. If the word "substitute" could not be removed, they would not be able to enjoy the various benefits related to teacher subsidies from the state. The old teacher also told Liu Lihai that the primary school used to be very popular. At that time, he was still young. Although he was a substitute teacher, he felt very proud. At that time, there were many children. There were 40 to 50 people in a class. There were educated youths from the city, and there were students who had just graduated from high school. The strength of the teachers was still very strong. Now there were fewer children. Students from better families either went to school in the town or directly went to the county to study. The village primary school was dilapidated. The main reason was that there was a lack of teachers. This caused the parents to desperately send their children to the county. It was said that the private schools in the county were very popular. Most of them were from families who worked outside or made money from doing business. They paid a high price to train their children.
Liu Lihai believed what the old teacher said. He had seen related news reports more than once. "It is difficult for a poor family to produce a noble child." "Children from ordinary families lose at the starting line." A good kindergarten, a good primary school, a good middle school, and a good high school was equivalent to being able to go to a good university. It was equivalent to being able to find a good job and enter a good environment. These could be seen everywhere on the Internet. Moreover, the education that rural children received was innately different from that of the city. They had fewer resources. This was the biggest problem that rural children faced.
When Liu Lihai saw these reports in the past, he only glanced at them. They did not attract his attention. He thought that this kind of life was far away from him. He thought that he would not experience such a life. He thought that he was born in the city and grew up in the city. It had nothing to do with him. He did not expect that the first stop he stepped into the officialdom would be the problem of education. It was these living facts that were placed in front of him. While making him sad, he could not find the words to comfort the old teacher. Until he left Zhou Ziwan Primary School, Liu Lihai did not find the words to comfort the old teacher. However, the old teacher kept seeing Liu Lihai out of the school gate. Before leaving, the old teacher said to Liu Lihai, "If you are a reporter in the city, please help to appeal. If you care about rural education, you must solve the problem of the village substitute teachers' treatment. We are old and want to retire. But if the treatment can't keep up, how many young people are willing to stay in a village primary school? "
Liu Lihai very honestly held the old teacher's hand. He did not answer the old teacher's question because he did not know what kind of resistance he would encounter when he lifted the veil of education. He wanted to carry out an education reform in Lin County. But would it work? He did not have the answer.
The officialdom was a big Jianghu. There was no iron chair that would always belong to someone. It was impossible to have a person who always kept his word. Wasn't Gu Desheng playing the game of delaying cleverly? In fact, which leader in office would be willing to solve the troublesome problems left by the previous leader? This was the characteristic of China's officialdom. A new emperor brings a new courtier.
Liu Lihai returned to Lin County with a very heavy heart. The research in the village would give him first-hand information, but how to solve the problems found in the research to a state of zero was probably his biggest challenge at present.
A stone stirred up a thousand ripples. Liu Lihai did not expect that after his proposal on education reform was submitted, it would cause such a strong response from all sides.
It was at a county-level leaders' meeting led by Liu Shouwang that Liu Shouwang mentioned Liu Lihai's plan on education reform. Liu Shouwang asked Liu Lihai at the meeting, "I heard that you visited incognito for a month?"
Liu Lihai did not understand the meaning of Liu Shouwang's question, so he said straightforwardly, "Leaders, after a month of research, there are two things that shocked me. One is that the number of teachers who violated the rules in the organized ranks is shocking to me. The other is that the treatment of the unorganized teachers in the village is shocking to me. I think this is a matter of the collective interests of Lin County. I hope to get the support of all the leaders to carry out a real education reform in Lin County. "
As soon as Liu Lihai's voice fell, there was a whisper in the meeting room. Liu Lihai could not hear what they were saying, but Liu Shouwang asked him coldly, "It seems that you have gained a lot this month. But who told you that the reform in Lin County has not been carried out? Is the voice of the people in Lin County calling for reform fake except for you? "
Liu Lihai did not expect his words to make Liu Shouwang so disgusted. When he looked at Liu Shouwang, he realized that he had made a mistake of expressing his position in a high-profile at the meeting without consulting the leaders in advance. He did not look for anyone in private, including Gong Daojin, and he did not mention such a reform. And he did not ask Leng Hongyan whether the reform could be carried out, how to carry it out, and so on. He did not want to listen to Leng Hongyan in everything, but at such a meeting, after he was rebuked by Liu Shouwang, he realized that it was extremely unwise to rashly emphasize the importance of the education he was in charge of, which was tantamount to denying the work and performance of other leaders.
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