Cheng Feng gives a class at Siwanghu Primary School.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Dedicated educator is on a mission to rejuvenate rural education in a remote mountainous community and provide the best education to its children, one school at a time, Yang Feiyue reports.

With her ponytail and big, square glasses, Cheng Feng looks every bit the schoolteacher.

Yet, to many of her students, the 33-year-old is more than that. Cheng's care for her rural students has extended beyond the classroom and makes her a mother figure to them all.

During the just past summer vacation, Cheng didn't take time off but paid home visits to rural students of the Liling Primary School, which is nestled in the mountains more than 120 kilometers from the central area of Poyang county, East China's Jiangxi province.

Most students have been left behind by their parents, who have to go to work far away from home and are looked after by their grandparents.

"Seeing these special families and special children is what made me realize the importance of rural education, and it is one of the major reasons why I have stuck around all these years," says Cheng, who also grew up in Poyang.

Since learning that one of her students, Tan Yeting, and her brother, were just scraping by on the meager income of their grandparents' handmade broom business, Cheng would pay regular visits to Tan's home.

Cheng tutors a pupil at Beitang Primary School.[Photo provided to China Daily]

She would walk the two children through their homework assignment, play games with them and trim their hair.

These interactions have helped both children grow in confidence and shake off their timid nature at school.

"Cheng is just like our mother," Tan says.

"I feel like I can talk to her about anything," she adds.

Cheng voluntarily chose to move to the school last year after she learned it was in need of faculty members.

She has since helped to improve the teaching facilities and infrastructure, and went out of her way to reach children scattered around the surrounding rural area and persuade them to come to school.

Thanks to her efforts, approximately 200 children in the neighborhood have been able to enjoy better education.

Over the past decade, Cheng has gone into the depths of the mountains and jumped to the rescue of several poorly equipped rural schools in Poyang to help village children get access to quality education.

She also has a spirit of steel and never rests on her laurels.

Whenever she helps transform a rural school, she moves on to answer the call of another one.

Right after graduation in 2011, Cheng became a teacher at Tutang Primary School in Youcheng township of Poyang.

It was a 15-minute bike ride from her home, but she immediately applied to live on campus.

She takes a student's temperature at Liling Primary School.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I wanted to have more time with my students during the day and be able to better concentrate my mind, prepare for class and study at night," Cheng says.

She moved into a classroom that had been converted into a dorm and, over the following four years, excelled at her job.

Yet, in 2015, Cheng decided to give up life at the relatively well-equipped school when she found out that Beitang Primary School, located far away from her home, was on the verge of closing due to a shortage of teaching staff.

Although she prepared herself, she was still taken aback by the reality.

"There was really nothing in place, just a building in front of me. The playground was overgrown with weeds, and there was no kitchen, janitor's room or dormitory," she recalls.

Another challenge arose when she took the registration form and waited for a whole day in the classroom, but not a single parent or child showed up.

She wasted no time. She gathered up her things and, under the guidance of local village authorities, spent the following day visiting the homes of all the school-age children in the area. After several inquiries, she learned that because of the poor educational conditions, local parents had sent their children to schools further away.

Cheng made a solid effort to persuade 17 students to return, while promoting the school on her social media account. She called upon her college classmates to offer a helping hand, and hired people to drill wells for clean water and install wiring for electricity.

It didn't take long before three teaching volunteers arrived in the mountain township to join Cheng's cause.

"Between them and my family, I got the courage and support to deal with the problems I was facing," Cheng says, adding that, during the rough start to her tenure at the school, it was her parents who helped with the cleaning that facilitated its reopening, while her husband helped with equipment installation and the teaching staff didn't take any salary. "They supported me unconditionally, so even though it was difficult, I had to persist and make it as good as possible," Cheng says.

The teacher and her colleagues at a meeting at Liling Primary School.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Cheng also dug into her own pocket to buy audiovisual equipment, printers and computers and have campus radio installed in every classroom, in order to give students a better learning experience.

"I can't remember how much money she spent before and after, but she spent her salary buying whatever the school lacked," says Tan Zhifeng, Cheng's husband.

He had been supportive of Cheng's choice, and has also served as a rural teacher in Poyang over the years.

"We met each other in college and I was moved by her courage and determination," Tan Zhifeng says.

To broaden the range of education available to the students, Cheng and the other teachers took the initiative to learn music, sports and art courses online and then impart that knowledge to the students.

She also set up an open campus day and invited parents to sit in on classes every Tuesday in a bid to rebuild their confidence in the school.

Those efforts paid off, as about 120 students are now sitting in the once-deserted classrooms.

"The school wouldn't have survived without her," says Zhang Jianmin, a local parent.

"We are grateful for what she has done for us," Zhang adds.

As things got back on the right track at Beitang Primary School, Cheng's mission to help more rural children secure a good education took her to Siwanghu Primary School. She took up the position of headmistress at the school, which sits on a small island in the middle of Poyang Lake.

More than 90 percent of the 500 students are from the families of local fishermen, and had a haphazard and sluggish approach to learning.

To whip up enthusiasm for study among the kids, Chang tapped into local fishing culture and taught students related songs, dances and drums.

"It's also a good way for them to show their talent," she says.

Moreover, she proposed the establishment of a school canteen that offers scientifically balanced diet, so the children don't have to trek back home and rush through simple meals.

All of her contributions to education in Poyang saw her named as a March 8 Red Banner Pacesetter by the All-China Women's Federation in 2020. The title is a national honor for outstanding Chinese women.

Her different teaching experiences in multiple rural schools have also shown Cheng that rural children need help from more people like her.

"We should let the light in ourselves shine on more people, and help them to see further and dream bigger," she says.