Arriving at a primary school in the village of Yaohe, in the Chinese municipality of Chongqing (southwest), Ranaivoarinsoa Hery Santara was overcome by a feeling of familiarity.
“The low-rise educational buildings are surrounded by farmland, which reminded me of my hometown of Madagascar,” said the 24-year-old.
But he quickly spotted the differences.
“We had very few teachers in our village. One teacher was often responsible for three classes, each with more than 50 students,” he recalls. “But here, the students in each class have their own teacher, the facilities are also much better.”
According to this young student, there was no electricity or blackboard in the classroom when he was studying in primary school in Madagascar. “There were even leaks in the room on rainy days.”
In high school and college, he had to get up at 3 a.m. and it took two hours by bus to get to school. If he missed the bus, he had to walk for hours.
He is the village’s first university student and the only person to have studied abroad. “Getting a high school diploma is already a big event in my hometown,” says the young man.
About four years ago, he came to Southwestern University in Chongqing to earn a master’s degree in Chinese international education.
This year, he enrolled in a program that invites ten foreigners to make documentaries about Chongqing from their perspectives. He decided to focus his camera on education in rural areas of China.
“The atmosphere at school is very good. The children know very well that it is important to study and the teachers are responsible,” he notes, adding that education is often overlooked in rural areas of Madagascar and many people choose to get married and work after finishing high school.
Compulsory nine-year free education, six years of primary school and three years of middle school, is available to all Chinese children. In recent decades, this policy has dramatically increased the enrollment rate while the completion rate in 2019 was 94.8%.
“It’s a good policy. If the same policy can be implemented in Madagascar, I think the dropout rate would be lower and more people could go to university,” he said. , adding that although there are free schools in Madagascar, their teaching quality is not that high. “Free education also means equal opportunity.”
After graduating, the student plans to take what he learned in China back to his hometown, in order to help more children move out of remote rural areas.
“I have nothing special, but I worked a little harder. If I can study abroad, they can too,” he says. “Now studying in China has become a dream for all the children in my village.”
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