In 38 years, he transformed a rural school of 12 poor classrooms into a provincial-level model in East China's Jiangsu province; he set up an education base, where several hundred thousand domestic and foreign students have learned technology in the countryside and experienced rural life. He is Yang Ruiqing, a Party member and the principal of Xingzhi Educational Group in Pukou district of Nanjing, and he lives to bring high quality education to rural students.

Back in 1981, Yang graduated from Nanjing Xiaozhuang Normal School, a teacher's school established by educator Tao Xingzhi, who actively advocated rural education in China in the early 20th century. Influenced by Tao's thoughts, Yang chose to teach in the country rather than cities, hoping to contribute to the improvement of rural education.

When he came to Wulicun primary school in Nanjing's Pukou district, there were seven teachers and about 150 students. The classrooms were unable to withstand wind and rain. Many villagers transferred their children to other schools for a better education.

Yang made up his mind to teach the students with patience and love and not allow anyone to drop out.

A girl called Xu Ling didn't show up when a new semester began. Yang went to her home, but the father said it's unnecessary for a girl to go to school and the family needed a person to herd geese. Finding the father hard to persuade, Yang tried another way. He went herding geese with the girl after school every day and taught the day's lesson to her. After a month, her parents felt ashamed and sent her back to school.

There were 20 students who failed to reach the next grade in Yang's first-grade class of 38. Yang gave them additional help and care. When the school year ended, all students in his class advanced to second grade.

Yang's action moved the villagers, and news spread there was a good teacher at the school. The villagers raised more than 70,000 yuan to build a new school building. Some students who transferred to other schools came back.

When Yang prepared to do more at the school, a transfer order came in May 1983. He was assigned as deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League of Jiangpu county. He accepted the assignment but couldn't forget the students. He told his superior the "Communist Youth League's work won't be affected without me, but rural education will". His resolution moved his superior and he went back to school several months later.

In 1985, Wulicun primary school changed its name to Xingzhi primary school, named after Tao Xingzhi. Yang became the principal. Under his influence, more teachers came. Villagers raised another 100,000 to improve facilities in the school.

Appreciation brings out students' potential

Repeating school years is a big problem in rural education, and detention is a serious blow to student confidence. Yang took a survey of 357 students in the village and found 72 percent had detention experience and 98 students had been held back twice.

He decided to put an end to detention and carried out the first no-detention experiment in the province. He consulted experts, read literature and earned acclaim for this education method.

In Yang's eyes, every rural student has great potential. Rural education is not only for students to learn, but also brings them confidence and happiness.

A student called Xiaozhou was careless, and failed many courses. His parents asked the school to hold him back for the the school year. Yang observed Xiaozhou carefully and found him interested in arts. He assigned him a post as art leader and held exhibitions for him at school. Under his guidance, Xiaozhou became more and more confident and his academic performance improved. He progressed to the next grade, went to middle school and enrolled in the industrial design department of a northwestern university.

No student has repeated a grade since the no-detention experiment began. From the experiment, Yang saw the importance of appreciation in education.

He required teachers to look for students' merits and write them down on a card. The card states the time, place and the detail of a good deed and the teacher's comment. Yang read the merit cards during the flag-raising ceremony on Monday and the names of students who received merit cards were written on the school's blackboard.

In Xingzhi primary school, everyone takes turns to be group leaders and class cadres, so they get the chance to show their abilities and improve their confidence. They also learn to care for and serve others.

The graduates of the school are confident and active. Many parents said Yang's education model not only changed their kids, but also changed their preconceptions about rural students.

Yang's practice and research on appreciation in education drew attention from Southeast Asia. He has been invited to give speeches in Singapore and Malaysia and was profiled by Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao of Singapore.

Cooperation is key

As a principal, the biggest headache is seeing top-quality teachers moving away. After reflecting on the way out of difficulty for rural schools, Yang found answers from Tao Xingzhi's education thoughts: cooperate and open up.

From 1991, they cooperated with Nanjing Xiaozhuang Normal School, made Xingzhi primary school an affiliated school and set up a teacher's training base. They cooperated with adult education authorities and set up a night school for villagers to teach them knowledge and farming techniques.

They opened an experimental farm with support from related departments and the village. In 1994, the school cooperated with Nanjing Science and Tech Activities Foundation for primary and middle school students, and turned the farm into the first education base in Nanjing for urban students to learn about the technology and development in the countryside and experience country life. At the education base, students can grow plants, pick cotton, prepare tea and make paper.

The education base later became the designated base for more than 20 primary and middle schools in Nanjing. In 2005, the Nanjing municipal government allocated 200 mu (about 133,333 square meters) of land and invested 130 million yuan to develop the education base into a key base in Jiangsu province.

As of 2018, the education base has received nearly 360,000 domestic students and teachers to experience country life and more than 10,000 foreign students and teachers to experience Chinese culture.

This cooperation rocketed the school into a fast and sustainable development path. During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) period, the school got an investment of 12 million yuan and built a modern school building. The area of the school was expanded to 80 mu from the original 8 mu, and a garden and an orchard measuring 800 mu was created beside the school. The surrounding five elementary schools were merged into Xingzhi primary school.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, the school got 120 million yuan in investment from the government and expanded the education base, establishing Xingzhi middle school and kindergarten. A village school has turned into a modern school for rural students, a lifelong learning place for villagers and a country garden for urban students.

Under Yang's leadership, a number of teachers went to the village school with their passion for education and villages. Xingzhi primary school was given the title of a model school.

Yang has won many awards, from a model worker in the education field to national advanced worker, and has toured many places to report on his education explorations. He has been extensively profiled by newspapers and TV stations. But he still considers himself a rural teacher, striving to provide quality education to students.