Jiao Shengding accompanies students after school on their way home in Aidian Township of Ningming County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 23, 2020. Jiao Shengding, 52, is the only teacher at the teaching site of Zhangji Village, which is located on the border between China and Vietnam. After graduating from the county's secondary vocational school in 1990, Jiao chose to be a teacher at his hometown Zhangji Village and since then he has been teaching there for 30 years. During the past three decades, he taught more than 400 pupils, most of whom came from the three adjacent Yao ethnic group villages. Currently, there are only two first graders and six second graders in his teaching site. Different from what is expected of a rural school such as dilapidated buildings, broken tables and chairs, the teaching site is actually pretty modern and is equipped with teaching hardware like sliding blackboards and LED touch screens. Over the years, although Jiao got offers from several better schools in the county, he turned them down. "Who's going to teach my students if I leave?" said Jiao, who fully knows that few young people would settle down in the village because it is far away from prosperous cities. To Jiao's joy, many of his students have moved out of the mountains to start their own businesses and some even entered universities, including his daughter Jiao Lingxia. The daughter followed in his father's footsteps and became a teacher at Aidian Primary School in Aidian Town, where the village locates, after graduating from a college in 2016. "Education can change the fate of these students. The better foundation I lay for them, the brighter future they may have by further study," said Jiao. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)
