导读:教育是消除贫困的重要手段，而孩子主要的学习习惯和行为养成，都集中在4岁以前。这几年，铜仁市举全市之力兴建乡村幼儿园，为广大孩子带来福音。
An initiative in one of China’s most mountainous areas may provide a template for future development. Hou Liqiang and Yang Jun report from Tongren, Guizhou province.
（侯丽强，杨军来自贵州省铜仁市报道）在这个中国多山地区的一项倡议，可能为未来发展提供模板。
As China marks its third Poverty Alleviation Day on Oct 17, the success of Tongren, a city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, in promoting preschool education in rural areas is being hailed as a possible blueprint for the eradication of poverty and a means of preventing its reemergence.
10月17日是中国的第三个扶贫日，贵州省西南部铜仁市在促进农村学前教育上的成功，被视为消除贫困的可行性蓝图和阻止贫困反复的有效措施。
Initiated in 2012 by the China Development Research Foundation and Songtao Miao autonomous county in Tongren, the Mountain Village Kindergarten project has established 100 new facilities in isolated areas, and has been extended to cover the entire city.
2012年，由中国发展研究基金会和松仁苗族自治县启动的山区幼儿园项目，在偏远地区建立起100个新设施，并扩展到整个城市。
Under the project, the proportion of villages with kindergartens has risen to 100 percent from just 10 percent three years ago. More than 2,000 facilities have been built for preschoolers in Tongren’s rural areas, where seven of the 12 county-level regions have been designated by the government as national-level poverty-stricken counties.
据该项计划，农村幼儿园覆盖率由三年前的10%，上升到100%。铜仁市农村地区修建起2000多个学前设施，这里的12个县级地区中，有7个地区被政府指定为国家级贫困县。
According to the China Development Research Foundation, preschool education is key to a student’s learning and skill-adaptation abilities, because about 50 percent of intelligence development is completed before the age of 4. The foundation said international calculations suggest that every investment of $1 in preschool education results in a social return of $17.
据中国发展研究基金会称，学前教育对学生学习和技能适应能力养成至关重要，因为50%的智力发育在4岁以前完成。基金会说，国际计算表明，每1美元学前教育投入的回报为17美元。
Building for the future
构筑未来
More than 70 percent of Tongren’s 4.27 million people are members of 29 ethnic groups, including the Tujia, the Miao and the Dong peoples. In 2013, the average per capita income for farmers in the city was 5,397 yuan ($803), 40 percent lower than the national level that year.
铜仁市427万人口中，超过70%的人属于29个少数民族，包括土家族、苗族和侗族。2013年，全市农民人均收入为5397元（803美元），低于当年国家收入平均水平40%。
Now, the authorities are hoping that Tongren’s successful completion of a huge project, despite a limited budget, will provide a template for other poverty-stricken areas.
如今，尽管预算紧张，但是政府希望铜仁市成功完成的这个大型项目将为其他贫困地区提供模板。
Instead of building new kindergartens, most of the facilities are located in disused primary school classrooms, village committee offices or houses, according to Long Lihong, director of the Tongren City Education Commission.
据同仁市教育委员会主任龙丽红说，大多数新建设施位于废弃的小学教室，村委会办公室或房子里，没有修建新幼儿园。
Under the program, kindergartens were built in every area where it could be guaranteed that more than 10 children would enroll, and the average cost of transforming and operating them is about 18, 000 yuan, she said.
她说，根据该计划，每个地区都修建了幼儿园，可以保证十个以上儿童入学，改造和运营这些设施的平均成本是18000元。
In Houzhai village, the kindergarten is based in three disused primary school classrooms. Two of them are used for educational purposes, while the other serves as a sleeping room where the kindergarten’s 27 preschoolers - stly "left-behind" children from a nearby 1,400-strong Miao ethnic community, whose parents are migrant workers - ke a midday nap.
在虎寨村，幼儿园位于三个废弃的小学教室里。其中两个用于教学，另外一个作为27个幼儿园孩子的睡眠室。来自附近1400名苗族少数民族社区的留守儿童在这里午休，他们的父母是外出务工人员。
Gao Xiulong, the headmaster, said two broken basketball stands have been made into a swing and several table tennis tables now serve as drawing boards. Some of the children’s toys are made from discarded tires.
校长高秀龙说，两个破碎的篮球架已经被改造为秋千，几个乒乓球桌现在作为绘图板。 一些儿童玩具由废轮胎制成。
The kindergarten in Muzi-ping village, in the Wanshan district, was also once primary school classrooms, and almost all the toys are made from locally grown bamboo.
文山区木子坪村的幼儿园曾经也是小学教室，在这里，几乎所有的玩具都是用当地种植的竹子制成的。
Tongren’s total revenue was 37.88 billion yuan from 2011 to last year, and since 2012, the city government has allocated 5 percent of its annual administrative budget to the kindergarten project. District governments are given 10,000 yuan for every facility they establish in the mountains, and the city government allocates 300 yuan a year to every child for teaching materials.
自2011年到去年，铜仁市总收入为378.8亿元，自2012年起，市政府将年度行政预算5％拨给幼儿园项目。地方政府为山区建立的每个设施给予1万元，市政府每年为每个孩子分配300元教材费。
Long said every department of the city government donates thousands of yuan annually, and they also actively seek sponsorship from businesses.
龙说，政府每个部门每年都捐献几千元，他们还积极地寻求企业赞助。
Many kids in the rural areas are left-behind children. They are cared for by their grandparents, who are usually poorly educated and unable to do much for them. We have seen great improvements in the children’s linguistic skills, cognitive competence and memory capacity since they entered the kindergartens, she added.
她补充道：“农村地区的很多孩子都是留守儿童。他们由教育程度比较低的爷爷奶奶照料，这些人没能力为他们做些什么。自从入园以来，在孩子的语言技能，认知能力和记忆能力方面，我们已经看到很大进步。”
According to tests conducted by East China Normal University in Tongren, after spending a year to 18 months at a kindergarten, language competence in children ages 4 to 5 improves by 23 percent, while cognitive competence is 27 percent better and memory capacity rises by 34 percent.
据华东师范大学对铜仁市实施的测试，入院一到一年半以后，4到5岁孩子的语言竞争力提升23%，认知能力提升27%，记忆能力上升34%。
Behavioral changes
习惯改变
The children’s behavior and hygiene have also improved. Long Jiawei, 4, and her sister Long Jiali, 6, have lived with their grandmother, Shi Qingjiao, since last year, when their parents moved east to Zhejiang province for work. Shi has rheumatism, and the 75-year-old said all she can do for the girls is cook food and wash their clothes
儿童的行为和卫生习惯也有所改善。4岁的龙佳伟和他6岁的姐姐龙嘉丽，和奶奶石庆娇从去年开始生活在一起，他们的父母去东部浙江省工作了。75的石庆娇有风湿病，她能为孩子做的，只有做饭和洗衣服。
My granddaughters’ awareness of hygiene has changed a lot since they started at the kindergarten. Now, they ask to change their clothes and have showers every day. They say they can’t fall asleep if they don’t take a shower, she said.
她说：“自从开始上幼儿园以后，我的孙女的卫生意识改变了很多。现在，他们要求换衣服，每天都洗澡，他们说不洗就睡不着。”
Rising enrollment
入园率上升
Last year, the enrollment rate in Tongren’s rural kindergarten’s jumped to more than 84 percent, from 45 percent in 2013. Although that’s 9 percent higher than the national rate, the city government plans to raise the number further by upgrading all of the mountain village kindergartens.
相比2013年的45%，去年，铜仁市农村幼儿园的入园率上涨到84%。尽管比全国水平高9%，但是市政府继续通过升级所有的山区幼儿园，进一步提升入园人数。
Long, from the city’s education commission, said that in the coming three years the facilities will be upgraded and more fully qualified teachers will be employed. She is also drafting a plan to provide every child with a free simple lunch.
市教育局的龙说，在未来三年，我们将升级设施，雇佣更多全职教师。她还起草了一份计划，为每个孩子提供一顿简单的免费午餐。
It will take about 20 years for the full impact of the project to be seen, but education is an important way of eradicating poverty, according to Long.
龙说，大约需要20年时间才能看到项目的全面影响，但教育是消除贫困的重要方式。
