looked at the little girl in front of her, who was wearing shabby clothes that were already very dirty, and her hair was even tangled together, eating watermelon.

The red juice of the watermelon kept dripping down the corners of her mouth, and the little girl who was eating it sweetly didn't bother to wipe it.

Soon, almost before Wang Yong and Principal Zhang could react, a piece of watermelon was cleaned up. And the little girl was still reluctant to throw the melon skin, and gnawed on the white part close to the melon skin little by little.

"The white ones don't taste good, come on, eat this piece!"

Yuanyuan handed another piece of watermelon to the little girl, and it was only then that Principal Zhang reacted.

"Zhang Min, why are you here? Are you here to pay? Why didn't your dad come? ”

"Second uncle, my dad went to borrow money but didn't get it, so he said wait." The little girl held a piece of watermelon and lowered her head and did not dare to look at Principal Zhang, for fear that he would not agree to drive herself out and prevent herself from going to school again.

"Hey! Alright, you can go back to class first! ”

The little girl didn't even say hello when she heard it, but turned around and ran, as if she was afraid that the headmaster would regret it. In the blink of an eye, Yuanyuan, who chased out, saw the little girl running to the door of a classroom and ran straight in.

"Principal Zhang, what is this?"

"Hey! This is from the same village as me, and this child in our village wants to call me the second uncle. His father injured his leg when he went out, and after he came back, he recuperated for more than half a year, not to mention that the little money given by the people was spent, and he owed a lot of foreign debts. Now relying on the child to farm a few acres of land at home, barely survive! ”

"You just said to pay the money? What is the money? ”

"The book fee, this kid hasn't paid it for a year, and it will cost more than a hundred together."

Hearing Principal Zhang say this, Yuanyuan and Wang Yong were stunned. One hundred bucks! Can't even borrow a hundred dollars?

Is it because the family gets along too badly with the rest of the world, or is it because the place is really too poor to even scrape together a hundred dollars?

Yuanyuan was stunned for a moment, and then without hesitation, she took out two hundred yuan from her bag and told Principal Zhang that she was helping the little girl just now hand it over to the school.

Principal Zhang was stunned by Yuanyuan's actions. But it didn't take long to wake up. sighed, took the two hundred yuan, and found a blank piece of paper to write a receipt for Yuanyuan.

It clearly states that he received a donation of 200 yuan from caring people to Zhang Min for books, so as to prove that he will not be greedy for this money, and it is also the basis for Yuanyuan's verification in the future.

Soon, Principal Zhang went out with the money, and it didn't take long for him to come back with Zhang Min. The little girl bowed to Yuanyuan and Wang Yong very solemnly.

The little girl has never seen the world, and her own living environment makes her not know how to express her gratitude. In the end, I could only bow with tears in my eyes to express my gratitude.

Yuanyuan stepped forward to pull her up distressedly, and then pulled Zhang Min to the office to sit on the sofa and chatted with questions.

"Is your name Zhang Min?"

"Hmm."

"How old is this year? What grade are you in? ”

"Thirteen. Fifth grade. ”

"Who's in the house?"

"My dad, my mom, my brother."

Yuanyuan deliberately lowered her voice when she spoke, for fear of scaring this sensitive child. But I didn't expect that this obviously very recognizable child's voice was lower than Yuanyuan's, if Yuanyuan hadn't been closer, she really couldn't hear what she said.

"Is watermelon delicious?"

"Delicious!"

Zhang Min said this word very happily, without any hesitation, and his voice was very loud.

"Have you eaten it before?"

Zhang Min heard this question. didn't say anything, just shook his head, and didn't even dare to look at Yuanyuan. This is a sensitive but strong little girl! Wang Yong commented in his heart.

"And what's the best thing you've ever eaten?"

Zhang Min's eyes lit up obviously, and then his Adam's apple moved a little. Regardless of what seems to come to mind immediately afterward. He lowered his head again, and it took a long time before he gave an answer in a low voice.

"Oranges."

"Oranges?" Yuanyuan felt a pain in her heart, and it is conceivable that Zhang Min said that the best thing to eat is oranges. That's because she didn't have a chance to see any other fruits.

Maybe the oranges were brought to her by his father when he was out working, and even then she probably didn't have a chance to eat them a few times.

Bananas, pineapples. Dragon fruit, mangosteen, mango, lotus mist...... Needless to say, if she couldn't go out by going to school, she wouldn't have had the chance to see them in her life.

The poverty of the people here really shocked Yuanyuan! This is something she never thought of before, and there is still such a place in Huaxia now? Can't even afford nine years of compulsory education?

At this moment, Yuanyuan's heart was full of puzzlement, why? Q: Why are people here so poor? Is it the laziness of the people here? Is the environment here unsuitable for survival? Or is it because the local government is doing something wrong and making the people's livelihood miserable?

Yuanyuan's doubts didn't last long, because her husband Wang Yong directly raised this issue.

"Principal Zhang, why are we so poor here? Hasn't anyone thought of anything to change the situation here over the years? ”

Zhang Shiping was silent, took out a cigarette and handed it to Wang Yong. As a result, he was shocked by the soft China that Wang Yong took out, lit it carefully, inhaled gently, and spit out a puff of smoke, with a satisfied face.

After that, I opened the conversation box and explained the reasons why life is so difficult for people here.

It turns out that the main reason is really the problem of the natural environment.

The climate here is arid and rainless, and almost all crops are grown by the weather. If God misses a few rains, it is not for nothing that the harvest will be lost. As for the reduction in production, it is a normal situation almost every year.

The appearance of a little girl is definitely universal here, because of the lack of water, many old people have not taken a bath several times in their lives. It's hard to even drink water, let alone wash your hair and laundry all day?

For this reason, people here try to grow some drought-tolerant crops with a short maturity period, such as buckwheat, which has a maturity period of only more than 50 days.

In order to make the life of the family happier, most of the people here go out to work. But because he has no education, he can only do some low-level work, earning a meager but much better salary than farming at home.

And because of poverty, very few children here make it to high school, let alone college. Even in the nine years of compulsory education, there are many children who cannot finish it normally. It's impossible to go to college anyway, so it's better to go home early and work, that's the consensus of most people in the area.

I followed the villagers to work in Tiannan and Haibei early to make money to support my family. After that, it seems to fall into a strange circle, the more the children of the less rich the family are, the more they cannot go to school, and the poorer they will become.

Principal Zhang said that an old friend of his is the principal of a junior high school in the township, and there are about 200 people in their school, and if you put the annual per capita income of a family at 400 yuan (you read that right, it is really 400 yuan. The low ones are outrageous! Then there is one in 10 poor students in the whole school.

Every year, more than 100 students can be recruited in junior high school, but only 50 students can take the high school entrance examination after three years. And there may not be even ten people who can go on to high school after that.

Here, the number of poor students who cannot afford to pay miscellaneous fees in primary and secondary schools can account for more than one-tenth of the total number of students, and in high schools it is more than 30 percent!

The dropout rate for junior high school children here is 5 percent (this is still the official version), while the state rule is no more than 3 percent. With this dropout rate, it is said that it is still relatively good in several nearby counties!

Wang Yong was very touched when he heard this, and Yu Qiuyu, a master of a generation, once said that the cause of poverty should be found in culture. In today's world, which is slowly becoming more and more technological. Without cultural knowledge, it is becoming more and more difficult for positive change to survive.

Like in the early days of reform and opening up, as long as you are willing to work and dare to do it, you can always achieve a career. Modern society. The understanding and upgrading of knowledge is getting faster and faster, and if you can't catch up with it in one step, you may be backward for a lifetime, and you can't catch up again.

Principal Zhang also introduced the situation of the school. This is especially true of the massive loss of school teachers. Originally, there were eighteen teachers in their school, but because the salaries were too low, now there are only eight left.

Three of them found opportunities to go to schools in other provinces and cities. Two others simply changed careers and took up other jobs. As for the remaining five, because of the same large number of teachers in junior high school and high school, they were forcibly promoted to teach junior high school or even high school.

It is conceivable that the original elementary school teachers teach junior high school and high school students, so it would be strange if the quality of education was guaranteed!

But what's the solution? You can't live without a teacher, right? And once they find the opportunity, nine out of ten of these teachers will definitely choose to leave without hesitation and choose a better place to live.

Principal Zhang said an example, in this school, the year before last, there was a teacher who originally graduated from a regular normal college, which can be said to be the best teacher in this school.

As a result, the people couldn't stand it after working here for half a year, so they went to a school in a mountainous county in the capital.

All his income here adds up to a thousand yuan, and there, the first month of the trial period is 3,000 yuan! Three thousand!

This is still a poor salary, and there is a math teacher in the township high school, who is one of the few provincial-level special teachers we have here. That's good for teaching! Even people in the city know about him. No, it was poached by a private school in the city.

When I first arrived in the city, I was directly provided with housing, increased wages, and solved work problems for my family. This kind of treatment is simply a fantasy in the local area, and you can only rely on feelings to keep people here.

The county in the capital, where the elementary school teacher is located, has a population of only 220,000, but the annual education budget is as high as 120 million or 30 million. Here, the county's population of 360,000 is less than 40 million for education, and it is often misappropriated.

That's the gap! The gap between poor and rich areas! Especially since this gap is still widening! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the book friend Blue Obsession, Nine Days Soaring Eagle, sunny54's monthly pass reward, thank you!