Zhang Guimei's sacrifices have many a lesson for educators

Zhang Guimei waves to children upon her arrival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. Zhang is the principal of a senior high school in Lijiang, Yunnan province, that offers free education to girls from impoverished families. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, conferred the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, on 29 outstanding Party members on Tuesday.

One of the recipients was Zhang Guimei, who founded a high school offering free education to girls in a less-developed area of Yunnan province. Zhang's efforts helped nearly 2,000 girls enroll in college.

The education department and education workers can learn a lot from Zhang, who visited poor families and persuaded them not to let their children drop out of school. This shows how educators should work with a greater sense of responsibility.

Education is not just about funds and infrastructure, but also about devotion and relentless efforts by educators such as Zhang.

Rural education plays an important role in the economic and cultural revitalization of rural areas.

Over the past eight years, China has put in place a poverty alleviation program with Chinese characteristics, accumulating valuable experience and making institutional achievements.

In order to consolidate these achievements, more efforts should be made to make education more equitable and promote quality education in rural areas.

Rural education faces multiple challenges, such as insufficient funding, an adverse environment, and other difficulties in attracting teachers.

The key to overcoming these challenges is in improving rural education and promoting sustainable economic development in rural areas by boosting rural industries, in order to attract and retain talents.

The improvement in the quality of rural education will also gradually change the rural culture and governance environment, laying a solid foundation for rural development.

An important lesson from Zhang's story is that we should take a long-term view of rural education. Zhang has been working to improve education in rural areas because of her higher degree of consciousness and commitment, and made the cultivation of talents her goal.

It is because of her lofty goal that Zhang could overcome difficulties, help poor families shed the wrong perception that "education is useless".

It also reminds us that to develop education in rural areas, we should not focus on short-term goals and interests, but have a long-term perspective of cultivating talents to build a knowledge-based society.