Ghost schools in rural China

At Liugou Primary School, which is 60 kilometers away from Guyuan City in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a bustling new school year is nothing but a distant memory. And this is not an isolated case, over 15 percent of Guyuan City's rural schools have less than 10 students.

Although Liugou village has a registered population of over 800, only 100 people actually live there. Most kids attend school in towns or cities with their migrant worker parents.

China's migrant population reached 245 million by the end of 2013, more than one sixth of the total population. Over 62 percent of children aged between six and 15 live with their migrant worker parents.

In 2013, there were 266,300 primary and junior high schools, 15,500 less than the previous year. In the same year, there were 21.26 million children attending rural primary and junior high schools, down more than 1.44 million.

GHOST SCHOOLS

In the five years that Wang has worked at his school, he has watched pupil numbers dwindling from 18 to one. Understandably, he is worried about the fate of his school.

Wu Liying, a teacher in Pingshan County in north China's Hebei Province, witnessed his school close as student numbers dropped from over 20 in 1996 to one in 2013. The last pupil left the village with his parents this year.

"I was transferred to another village school. I don't know when I will move again," said Wu.

Liu Guoying, head of the county's education bureau, told Xinhua that the county once had more than 700 schools, but now there are only 260 and 60 only have one teacher.

A rural school to vanish

Shizigou Primary School lies in isolation, 7.5 kilometers away from the mountainous Yuchuan Township. The school has only one teacher and four students. Ma Junqiang, 55, has been working as a teacher in rural primary schools for 37 years.