Ancient public education pioneer's legacy still resonates today

HEFEI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Confucius is said to have started the tradition of private education in China, while Wen Weng, another ancient educator, is known to have founded the country's first local public school during the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-25 A.D.).

Wen once worked as governor of the ancient Shu region, in today's Sichuan Province, southwest China. In an effort to put an end to the backwardness of the remote mountainous area, he established an official school, selected talented teachers, and recruited young people from ordinary families to be students, laying a foundation for the flourishing of the local culture.

Nowadays, in Wen's hometown, Shucheng County, east China's Anhui Province, authorities have been endeavoring to improve educational equity, with an aim to offer quality education for all, carrying forward the legacy of the ancient pioneer of public education.

At a middle school, named after Wen Weng, located in the mountainous Chunqiu Township in Shucheng County, facilities including the athletics track, and basketball and football fields, are no different from that of schools in big cities.

Wen Yi, 55, is a 74th generation descendant of Wen Weng. He has been teaching at the school in Chunqiu since 1990, and has been a witness to its transformation from being a poorly-developed campus to a well-equipped one.

In recent years, the township has invested nearly 15 million yuan (about 2 million U. S. dollars) in local schools to help build dormitory buildings and campus parking lots, and renovate infrastructure such as classrooms, sports fields, lecture halls and campus sewage facilities, narrowing the gap between urban and rural schools to ensure every child has access to quality education, said Hu Zhuqing, Party secretary of Chunqiu.

Wen Yi, also secretary of the Wen Weng research association, said the ancient educator did not only plant the seed of education in his heart, but also cultivated the concept of putting education first in Shucheng.

In the seal cutting class of a primary school in Shucheng County, 12-year-old Tong Xianran, wearing gloves and holding a carving knife, carefully removed excess parts along the outlines of the ancient characters on the stone seal, and then gently removed the dust with a small brush.

"I enjoy carving Chinese characters on seal-stones. It taught me to be patient." said Tong, whose parents are migrant workers in Shanghai.

Schools in Shucheng have developed various extracurricular activities, including choir, seal cutting class, and a roller skating club, to enrich the school lives of children, said Li Jiaying, an official with the county's education authorities.

"We have also increased investment in education, renovating all rural schools' playgrounds to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and building new schools in urban areas to meet the increasing needs of students," said Li.

The county has also been encouraging teachers in the urban area to engage in voluntary teaching or give demonstration classes in rural schools.

Since 1986, China has been stipulating nine-year compulsory education for children, which covers primary school and junior middle school. The country has also used equity and quality as policy guides in promoting the balanced development of compulsory education.

China will continue to follow a people-centered approach to developing education, move faster to build a high-quality educational system, advance students' well-rounded development, and promote fairness in education, said the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

In Wenchong Village of Chunqiu Township, the place where Wen Weng was born, authorities are working to build this mountainous village into a tourist destination highlighting the history and legacy of the ancient educator, in an effort both to energize local development and carry forward the cultural legacy left by Wen Weng.

"I have been teaching in this village for 33 years and will continue with this job until my retirement. I'd like to follow the footsteps of my ancestor and make quality education accessible to more rural children," said Wen Yi.