Children in mountain village eager for school bus

Quanzhou (CNS) – "I saw school buses on TV. If our school owns one, we wouldn't need to walk so far every day," says Zhan Lixiang.

Lixiang, 14, lives in a mountain village in Anxi County of south China's Fujian Province. Her parents work outside all year round, and Lixiang must take care of the family, including her younger sister and brother.

At 7 a.m., the three kids leave home for the Yiling Primary School located in a neighboring village, a journey that takes 20 minutes on foot. "Be careful! Let me hold your hand," says Lixiang to her siblings. It rains constantly in spring and the country road is muddy and treacherous.

The government has canceled a great number of primary and junior middle schools since 2001 as part of education reforms, leaving the kids no other option.

Help may be on the way, however, according to a recent announcement by the provincial government.

All urban accommodation schools will get school buses if road conditions meet safety standards, says Chen Hua, deputy governor of Fujian Province.