"A Screen Changes Students' Lives" -- this headline recently attracted nationwide attention.
The story goes on to describe how, over three years, more than 70,000 impoverished students have been able to benefit from an innovative, Internet-based program that allows wider access to education.
The students, from some 200 schools in seven underdeveloped Chinese provinces, received Live Streaming Education from Chengdu No. 7 High School, the leading school in Chengdu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Eighty-eight of these students won places at the top two universities in the country – Tsinghua University and Peking University. Among the others, many were also qualified for higher education. None of this would have been possible, without the daily live-streamed courses. The service was provided via several cameras installed in a classroom at the Chengdu school, live-streaming classes throughout the day.
"Crossover" invited a student Cui Zhenyu from Pingguo High School as a guest. The school is located at Pingguo County in Baise City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The GDP of this impoverished county in 2018 was 20 billion yuan (three billion U.S. dollars) – a tiny figure compared to Chengdu's one trillion yuan.
The lack of resources means that Pingguo's schools struggle to maintain teaching standards. Yet, thanks to the live-streaming program, 30 students from Pingguo high school won places at leading universities. The Guangxi region's top scorer in the national college entrance exam actually came from the school, and won a place at Tsinghua University.
And the students' lives were now changed. Cui Zhenyu, now in Beijing Normal University, told "Crossover" his story and how the three-year live-streaming class changed his life.
