230 students now excited to learn!

Break-time at school for the 230 students at Eastern Lakes Primary School in the Qinghai Province of China used to involve playing with stones, dust, mud and water. The teachers at the school worked hard to try and keep the students motivated to learn but they had little access to information and materials. These students found school to be boring with only a few students having second-hand books from others or their relatives that they would share around. This school needed a library where they could read books and expand their knowledge, engage in learning and become excited about wanting to learn more.

In early March, thanks to funding from the 2015 Midnight Charity Race, together with partial support from the school itself, a beautiful and extensive library including quality shelving and a number of tables, was established at Eastern Lakes Primary School. Both the teachers and the students are very excited about this new learning centre and are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to  borrow books to read. Students are now interested in learning new things and are excited to read and advance their studies.

When asked about the impact this library has had on the school, one of the teachers said, “I am a Tibetan language teacher at the school and my students usually get very bored when I teach them grammar or sentence structures. Reading is very important as it widens your view as well as improves your reading and writing. I am letting the students read one book every week now so we can have a discussion for two hours every week. My students find it interesting and they are so active and energetic during weekly reading discussions.”

We are pleased to see that it has had the IMMEDIATE result of widening students’ common knowledge through reading and value more time on improving themselves. It also encourages the students to share their thoughts and come up with their own ideas during conversation and class discussion. The teachers are also happy because the students now find learning to be fun. Thank you again to the 2015 Midnight Charity Race for making all this possible.