Editor's note: She is small and in her early sixties. In 2008, she founded the first senior high school in China for girls from disadvantaged families. Eleven years on, the school has sent more than 1,600 girls from mountainous areas to college. People think that her story is a miracle, and her students consider her as their own mother. She is Zhang Guimei, principal of the Girls' Senior High School in Huaping, Yunnan.

At 5:30 A.M. every morning, Zhang Guimei stands on the third floor of the school. With a loudspeaker in her hand, she shouts, "Hurry up, girls! The morning reading is about to start!" Fifteen minutes later, the girls are reading aloud in the classroom.

This has been happening every day, since Zhang Guimei founded the school in 2008. At that time, the school had only 17 teachers and less than 100 students.

In Huaping, a mountainous county of Lijiang, in the northwest of Yunnan province, some people are still living in poverty. Local education lags behind compared to other places, and some girls have limited access to schooling. In 1996, Zhang Guimei was transferred from Dali to Huaping. She first taught at the Central High School and later at the Minzu High School. She discovered that far more girls than boys dropped out of high school.

In 2002, she began to raise funds to build a free senior high school for girls from poor families in mountainous areas. She solicited help from the government and companies. "At first, many people thought she was a fraud. The boss of one company even set a dog upon her to drive her away," recalled a colleague of Zhang. For more than five years she experienced setbacks ordinary people wouldn’t be able to tolerate.

In September 2008, the Girls' High School opened. All of the first students were from poor families in mountainous areas. The school did not have a campus. It didn’t even have a dormitory building or a canteen. Within six months, nine of the 17 teachers had applied for a transfer. However, Zhang and other teachers were determined that they were going to change the destiny of the girls that had enrolled. Three years later, the first 96 students of the school sat the national college entrance exams. When news came that all of them had earned high enough marks to be eligible for entry into higher learning institutions, everyone was excited beyond words.

Almost all the students come from remote places, so the school has never held a parent meeting in the past eleven years. Instead, Zhang has often paid home visits, to learn more about the students’ families and to keep their parents updated on their performance at school.

Zhang has paid several visits to the home of Lu Na, who is from He'ai Village, Rongjiang Township, Huaping County. Lu Na's father died of cancer when she was in her second senior high school year. Lu Na’s grief affected her academic performance. Zhang talked to Lu Na several times, to encourage her. She even tutored Lu Na at her own home during the Spring Festival holiday. In 2018, Lu Na was admitted to Qingdao University.

Once, Zhang was caught in heavy rain, on her way to a student’s home. She fell, but she still went on, to visit the student’s parents. Three days later, her chest still hurt. She went to hospital for an examination, only to discover her seventh and eighth ribs on the right side were broken.

The Girls' High School has become an example for local education, inspired by Zhang’s devotion and perseverance. After graduating from the school, almost all of the students have gone on to receive further education. In 2019, 118 students graduated from the school. 109 of them went to undergraduate college and the remaining nine went to junior college.

Further reading

China's poverty alleviation practices have proven that women often play an important role in eradicating poverty. They are not only major family members but are also the key to preventing poverty spreading from generation to generation. Therefore, girls in poor families must have equal access to education.

 Zhang’s words

Sometimes I really wish I could have a good night’s sleep, but I simply can’t afford it. I am afraid that if I relax in my efforts, the girls will do the same.

I do not want our graduates to keep thinking about what the school and I have done for them. I do not want them to carry such a mental burden. I just hope that they focus on their studies, and they will go further and fly higher in the future.

By Yunnan Daily reporters